The foundational materials of the past century are energy-intensive and polluting. The production of steel is responsible for 7 to 9 percent of global carbon emissions. The cement industry produces about 8 percent. Efforts are underway to make “green” steel and concrete, but a full transformation is still years away.

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“This is what we have: concrete, steel, masonry and wood. That’s it. And the only path forward to get us to carbon-neutral buildings is timber,” said Green, who designed the seven-story T3 building in Minneapolis, completed in 2016, using timber salvaged from trees killed by beetles.