Harnessing Carbon Removal Opportunities in Biomass Residue Building Products

This report by RMI evaluates the potential for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and storage by integrating biomass residue building products into the construction industry. It estimates that using these materials could remove 3.6 Gt CO2 by 2050 and avert an additional 16.5 Gt CO2 in emissions. The document also discusses the role of mass timber and active forest management in stabilizing forest carbon, while outlining the policy and technical barriers to scaling these solutions.

• The use of building products made from biomass residues has a projected global carbon removal capacity of 3.6 Gt CO2 by 2050, with annual removal rates reaching 0.26 GtCO2 per year by that date. This is based on an average potential storage intensity of 60.4 kg CO2/m2 across five building types.
• Beyond direct carbon removal, substituting carbon-intensive conventional products with bio-based options could result in 16.5 Gt CO2 of averted emissions by 2050, which is nearly 2.5 times the net carbon removal impact. Average averted emissions are estimated at 103.46 kg CO2e/m2.
• The report suggests that the current estimates are conservative because they only include products with available Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). Including products made from abundant feedstocks like rice hulls, corn stover, and sugar cane bagasse, or emerging materials like algae and mycelium, could potentially double the calculated carbon removal potential.
• Replacing steel and concrete in 90% of new large buildings with mass timber and other engineered wood products could lead to a cumulative storage of up to 20 Gt of carbon by 2050. This represents a fivefold increase over the carbon storage estimated for non-timber biomass residues in the report.
• Active forest management, including selective harvests and the removal of "liability biomass," is presented as a way to stabilize the 860 Gt of forest carbon facing climate threats. Processing this wood into long-lived building products can improve forest health and preserve ecosystem services.
• Several implementation challenges exist, including the need for standardized carbon tracking and accounting, concerns over material durability and building code compliance, and the high cost of testing and EPDs for smaller manufacturers.
• Current policy efforts to incentivize bio-based materials include France's RE2020 and Denmark's BR18, as well as municipal programs in Vancouver and Toronto. The EU is also developing a Union certification framework for permanent carbon removals and carbon storage in products.

APA

RMI (2025). Harnessing Carbon Removal Opportunities in Biomass Residue Building Products. https://rmi.org/resources/harnessing-carbon-removal-opportunities-in-biomass-residue-building-products/

Chicago

RMI. Harnessing Carbon Removal Opportunities in Biomass Residue Building Products. 2025. https://rmi.org/resources/harnessing-carbon-removal-opportunities-in-biomass-residue-building-products/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Harnessing Carbon Removal Opportunities in Biomass Residue Building Products |date=5 May 2025 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/harnessing-carbon-removal-opportunities-in-biomass-residue-building-products/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2025harnessing, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Harnessing Carbon Removal Opportunities in Biomass Residue Building Products}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2025}, month = may, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/harnessing-carbon-removal-opportunities-in-biomass-residue-building-products/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }