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All our timber comes from sustainable forests in Lithuania. Here is a list of the forests:
Taurage
Silute
Sakiai
Jurbaarkas
Kretinga
Raseiniai
The Forest Sterwardship Council has a list here of all the Certified forests in Lithuania.
A typical 100 square metre two-storey detached timber frame home contains 5-6 cubic metres more wood than the equivalent masonry house.
Consequently, every timber frame home saves about 4 tonnes of CO2 (about the amount produced by driving 14,000 miles).
In addition to these CO2 savings, the operational cost of a house can be reduced due to timber’s thermal efficiency.
If all UK houses built since 1945 had been timber frame, then over 300 million tonnes of CO2 would have been saved.
Most wood products, from timber frame systems to joinery, can help designers and developers improve their EcoHomes ratings.
Wood is effectively a carbon-neutral material (even allowing for transport).
Timber frame has the lowest CO2 cost of any commercially available building material.
7% of the energy used in the production of wood products comes from wood residues and recovered wood.
Strength for strength, concrete uses 5 times (and steel uses 6 times) more energy to produce than timber.
Each cubic metre of wood stores an average of 0.8 – 0.9 tonnes CO2. Because wood sourced from sustainable forests is replaced by new growth, this represents a net gain. Use wood as a substitute for other materials and you also save the average 1.1 tonnes CO2 emissions they would have produced. This results in a total saving of approximately 2 tonnes CO2.
Source: Frühwald, Welling, Sharai-Rad, 2003, ‘Comparison of wood products and major substitutes with respect to environmental and energy balances’. ECE/FAO seminar: Strategies for the sound use of wood, Poiana Brasov, Romania, 24-27 March 2003
Waste and ‘end of life’ wood can be easily recycled.
More Information
Climate Change, and Global Warming in particular, is becoming a hugely important issue, given a public sense of urgency by natural disasters like the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina and local inconveniences like hosepipe bans and escalating energy prices, and a political urgency by the Government’s efforts not to miss its CO2 reduction targets.
CO2 is the main enemy. And the Government is belatedly trying to find ways to encourage the development of a ‘low carbon economy’ in all walks of life, not least house building and construction.
The latest Part L (J & F) of the Building Regulations, published in April 2006, goes some way towards enforcing more energy-efficient construction, without going anywhere near as far as our European and Nordic neighbours.
The pressure is yielding results. Already the requirement for buildings on English Partnerships land has been tightened so that they must now meet VERY GOOD to EXCELLENT standards. And by next June every house sold in England and Wales will be given an energy efficiency rating like those found on electrical goods. This Energy Performance Certificate will be part of the new ‘Home Information Packs’ to be introduced.
When it comes to reducing the carbon footprint (the total lifetime CO2 impact, including materials, construction and use) of a building, wood has unique advantages, which is why it is the only material to be featured specifically in the Code for Sustainable Homes:
- Wood grows naturally. Unlike other materials its manufacture needs almost no energy. In fact, if you use wood from well-managed forests (see ‘Procurement’ and ‘Certification’) it is effectively carbon neutral.
- Wood is a good insulator. Wood can increase the thermal efficiency of a building, reducing energy costs and CO2 emissions for the duration of its design life.
- Wood can be recycled. At the end of a building’s life, its wooden elements can often be re-used, or recycled as secondary products.
- Wood can be used as an energy source. End of life wood can also be burned as a substitute for fossil fuels.
- Wood is biodegradable. Strenuous efforts are being made to reduce the amount of all materials, including wood, in landfill. However, if wood does end up in landfill, it will degrade naturally.
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