change and contribute to the drive towards a low-carbon economy.
The popularity of wood in construction is set to grow further as, when sustainably sourced, it has the lowest carbon footprint of any mainstream building material. Wood can make a building carbon neutral or better. Every cubic metre of wood used in place of other building materials saves between 0.7 and 1.1 tonnes of CO². By using timber wherever possible in a building, for example in timber frames, external cladding, windows, doors and floors, it is possible to reduce the average 20 tonne CO² footprint of a new home by 17.6 tonnes. Indeed a project by White Design and Willmott Dixon at the Building Research Establishment’s Innovation Park featured a wood-rich house that achieved a negative materials footprint of -40.9 tonnes of carbon.
There is also increasing demand to use sustainably sourced wood to produce renewable energy. This is both a threat and an opportunity for forestry. In the UK, the resource is infinitely renewable but finite at any one point in time. Potential demand for wood for energy is four times the size of the forest resource. Wood has its greatest carbon and green jobs benefit when used in its solid form and then burnt at end of life. There is wood that currently has no market and whose use would benefit forest management. However, using this to produce local heat and electricity is far more efficient (up to 90%) than burning it in large electricity plants (typically 30%), as well as creating more jobs.
ConFor is working hard to explain to Government and to civil servants that incentive mechanisms like the current
Renewables Obligation could potentially destroy green jobs and release more carbon into the atmosphere – the opposite of what we all need.
Forestry was a key issue in recent international discussions on biodiversity at Nagoya in Japan. As attention on forestry has increased, so has understanding that,“ the forest that pays is the forest that stays”, and that a forest that is sustainably managed for wood production can also help to deliver all the other economically essential “ecosystem services” that forests provide, such as fresh water for agriculture, drinking water and hydro generation, fresh air, soil conservation etc, etc, etc. Such recognition is vital if we are to manage this valuable resource, both in the UK and abroad, for a sustainable, low-carbon future.
In conclusion, while there are many challenges, forests and the people and businesses that rely on them stand on the cusp of a new age of wood and forestry. As we look ahead to a daunting vision of carbon reduction targets and the low-carbon economy, wood can and will play a substantial role in achieving them. With all the associated benefits derived from growing trees, woods and forests, as well as from timber itself, you can rest assured that wood really is good.
ConFor (Confederation of Forest industries) represents
forestry and wood-using businesses from nurseries and growers to wood-processing end-users in the UK.
|90| ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152