The use of wood is being increasingly used in the built environment for its positive impacts on health, well-being and productivity.
Research has found that wood can produce similar effects to those created by spending time outside in nature.
Released by Planet Ark, the report said the presence of wood can have positive physiological effects, lowering blood pressure and heart rate, providing improved thermal comfort and reduced stress responses when compared to other material types.
The incorporation of nature and its components into building design has been termed ‘biophilic design’.
Planet Ark’s Make It Wood campaign manager, David Rowlinson, said there is a long list of benefits associated with wood.
“We know that workers are less stressed and more productive, students learn better, patients heal faster, and people are generally happier and calmer in indoor areas which contain wooden elements," he said.
"Moreover, responsibly sourced, certified timber is the only major building material that helps to tackle climate change.
"As trees grow they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and, through photosynthesis, can convert this into sugars that form the compounds that comprise wood.
"Approximately 50 per cent of the dry weight of wood is carbon, which remains locked in the wood for the life of the product. Timber is also the only renewable building material currently available."
The report also found that wood improves air quality by moderating humidity. This effect occurs due to wood absorbing and releasing moisture in order to maintain equilibrium with the surrounding air, known as the equilibrium moisture content.
Wood therefore absorbs moisture from the air in humid conditions and releases moisture in dry conditions.
"The ability of wood to moderate humidity is a particularly important effect in workplaces," Rowlinson said.
"This is because productivity has been demonstrated to be reduced by an average of 12 per cent in offices where staff are
dissatisfied with the quality of the air."
Last year fire safety changes were introduced to the National Construction Code (NCC) that provides a Deemed-to-Satisfy solution for the use of timber building systems in Class 2 (apartments), Class 3 (e.g. hotels) and Class 5 (office) buildings up to 25 metres in effective height (8 storeys).
New timber buildings constructed under this change are required to use fire-protective grade plasterboard and have automatic fire sprinkler systems installed.
Conventional buildings of the same height are not required to have sprinklers making them less safe, the report said.