Building with Biomass: A New American Harvest

What if we could effectively store millions of tons of carbon in a way that helps solve America’s housing crisis, creates jobs, and boosts manufacturing — all at once? This report sheds new light on a powerful and cross-cutting solution: manufacturing building products from upcycled biomass that’s already abundant across the United States.

RMI’s analysis investigates into the multiple benefits of converting the 400 million tons of underutilized biomass from farms, forests, and landfills into valuable building materials. We determined the scale of positive impacts by analyzing the life cycle of bio-based versus conventional building products in US home construction, US manufacturing capacity needs and resulting economic benefits, and the availability of low-value biomass feedstocks across the country.

We found that the United States could store 100 million metric tons of CO₂ in new residential buildings over 25 years — equivalent to almost the entire state of California being covered by a forest that is storing carbon in its soil and trees. Additionally, this would keep more than 35 million tons of waste out of landfills, prevent wildfires, and create $79 billion in new manufacturing opportunities, 42,000 direct jobs, and 310,000 indirect jobs (including supplier and induced jobs) in domestic manufacturing, while enabling the construction of healthier, affordable homes.

Unlike many carbon removal solutions still in development, biomass building products are already commercially manufactured in the United States and globally. From insulation to flooring, wall panels to concrete alternatives, these products are market-ready and cost-competitive with conventional materials.

This transformation requires four key actions:

The report also presents case studies of affordable new homes built with the types of biomaterials featured in our modeling, alongside examples of recently established manufacturing facilities for such products across the United States. By uncovering the potential benefits of transitioning toward greater use of bio-based building products, we hope to inspire further research and action to bring about this “new American harvest.”

More than 50 US builder companies and nearly 100 Home Energy Rating System raters have already joined RMI’s HomebuildersCAN program with the explicit intent to tackle embodied carbon in construction. We encourage you to download the report and join the leading builders, manufacturers, and policymakers that are embracing this sustainable revolution in residential construction.