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Sustainable timber products come from well-managed forests, where new trees are planted to replace those that are harvested
Planting new trees means that even more
CO2 is stored, making sustainable timber products better than carbon neutral. Academics from Heriot Watt University, renowned worldwide for its construction expertise, conducted a comprehensive Life-Cycle Analysis on a variety of timber windows and compared them with PVCu alternatives.
They found that using timber to make windows could make ‘a significant contribution to low-carbon building’. This is for two key reasons. The first is that timber itself is a low-carbon material, and the second is that timber offers low thermal transmittance, meaning timber windows offer excellent thermal efficiency and allow homeowners to use less energy to heat their homes. Wood was also found to have ‘significantly lower’ environmental impact than PVCu alternatives. In fact, all the wood windows tested as part of the study were concluded to have negative global warming potential and be carbon negative over their entire 60-year average lifespan. These outstanding ecological credentials are reflected in the fact that the Building Research Establishment’s Green Guide rates wood windows as A or A+ for their minimal environmental impact. Timber is also highly durable, with some well-made wooden structures lasting for centuries. It also helps to meet increasingly strict government regulations aimed at reducing the construction sector’s environmental impact. With timber, you don’t just ensure you meet today’s legislative requirements, you future-proof your project against measures that could be introduced in future, and increase your chances of getting through the planning process. In fact, timber is without a doubt one of the most environmentally friendly, high performance building materials available today and for the future.
Sean Parnaby is managing director of West Port
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK ADF AUGUST 2018
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