Although steel embodies more energy than timber, when we look at the life-time energy of steel, this compares favourably with timber. Don't get too hung up on the energy used to produce the building materials. Usually it is not significant in terms of the energy used to run the building. But keep an eye on transport energy particularly when dealing with heavy materials such as masonry.
In addition, of course, steel is re-cycled and re-cyclable.
Those wishing to extoll the virtues of timber's embodied energy seem to conveniently forget about timber drying in kilns, being harvested and transported, cut to size and sometimes treated with chemicals etc.

At the end of the day, our question is just this: For how long can we continue to cut down ANY forests, to then conceal the resultant timber inside walls and roofs?

Because of the poor quality of framing timber today, builders are spending extra time packing out and trimming walls and straightening joists etc. Because of this, some builders are even importing Pine framing from Eastern Europe! How can this be justified except with short-term self-serving arguments?

We all love timber. Its touch and feel and smell. So logically lets reveal the timber we want to see and make use of new high-tech materials such as steel to do the hidden structural skeleton job more efficiently.

To say nothing of ongoing chemical treatments for timber which are required over extensive parts of Australia...sometimes on an annual basis! (Refer to article on termites on front page)