TIMBER


SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY’S TRUE CLIMATE EFFECT


Nigel Buckley-Ryan, merchants’ sales director at Södra Wood, discusses the effect the forestry industry has on a sustainable future.


W


hile most of us instantly recognise that healthy forests capture harmful carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, fewer will appreciate the role and wider climatic significance of sustainable forestry. Delivering sawn timber for construction as opposed to traditional building materials such as concrete, steel and plastics results in significant reductions in fossil fuel emissions throughout the supply chain.


Using the very latest research, Södra’s Nigel Buckley-Ryan reveals the environmental attractions of sustainable forestry, and how the use of forest products to replace more emission-intensive components contribute to a proven positive net impact for the environment. There has been increasing attention over the last two decades surrounding the impact of rising carbon emissions and the importance of protecting, maintaining and planting forests globally. However, there have been few studies that look closely at the wider environmental implications of sustainable forestry. Enter Södra, Sweden’s largest forest- owner association. Its 52,000-plus members sustainably manage just over half (2.6 million hectares) of all privately-owned forests in southern Sweden, and operate jointly owned, forest industry processing units to create timber-based products. Our collective turns around 13.7 million m3 of harvested wood (2018) into construction materials, pulp for wood fibre products, bioenergy and onward timber delivery.


Last year, Södra decided to undertake detailed research to analyse, and empirically quantify, the full end-to-end-climatic impact of its sustainable forestry management, timber processing and supply chain operations. The findings are fascinating.


A carbon dioxide equivalent, or CDE, is a measure of the amount of CO2


that would have


the same global warming potential over 100 years. Climate emissions in Sweden equate to


38


approximately 53 million tonnes of CO2 year. Yet the positive climate change impact


per


of Swedish forestry is 93 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents…


When we talk about ‘sustainable’ forestry, what do we actually mean? Put simply, sustainable forestry aims to manage forests for many generations by ensuring a stable or increasing supply of wood, non-wood products and other ecosystem services.


Trees and vegetation absorb CO2 from the atmosphere via photosynthesis, using sunlight to convert it to wood growth and other forms of biomass. Ultimately, all organic matter returns CO2


to the atmosphere, either slowly


when it decomposes, or quickly through combustion. But responsibly harvesting trees for wood delays this release; instead, the carbon remains stored in the lumber, effectively captured within the material. This embedded carbon is released immediately if the wood is burnt (e.g. for bioenergy) or, until the wood ultimately rots and decays, much later. So, in the case of timber used in buildings or structures, this carbon capture can span a lifetime that runs into many decades, or even hundreds of years.


Providing forests are responsibly managed to reabsorb this CO2, forest products can be considered carbon and climate neutral. Our 2019 report by Peter Holgram confirms that if 25% of forest growth is saved as living trees, 25% is harvested and made into products, and 5% of tree dies, the green carbon cycle between biosphere and atmosphere remains in balance.


remove from the atmosphere. In 2018, the forests owned by Södra’s members constituted a carbon sink (carbon capture) of 2.1 million tonnes of CO2


equivalents. This is the net


To estimate the overall effect of Södra’s operations on the global climate, we need to take three important factors into consideration. Firstly, there’s the CO2


that the forests


carbon storage from forest growth of 13.1 million m³ (solid volume under bark, sub) and a harvesting volume of 11.9 million m³ (sub). Secondly, there’s the level of CO2 emissions created by using fossil fuels during operations and transportation. Since our mills are almost completely fossil-free, any emissions come mainly from the production of input products such as process chemicals and packaging materials, and from transportation of raw materials to mills, and of products to customers. Here, Södra’s fossil CO emissions accounted for 0.6 million tonnes of CO equivalents. And thirdly, there’s the impact of allowing the market to replace products with a higher climate footprint with low-footprint forest products. Known as substitution, this phenomenon is often overlooked. By allowing conventional products such as concrete and steel to be substituted by timber products, even using conservative estimates, the fossil emissions saved by using Södra’s products instead was 7.7 million tonnes of CO equivalents.


So, what does this mean in the final analysis? Does our sustainable forestry model deliver a positive impact overall? The news is resoundingly good. Taking all these findings together, Södra’s net climate-change impact was positive, reducing greenhouse


gas emissions by 9.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. Sustainable Swedish forests may seem a long way from UK merchants’ yards and construction sites; but, as the significant benefits of timber-framed construction and timber products become widely recognised, I believe transformative change is afoot. As the Structural Timber Association, amongst others, augments its already extensive fire-resistance testing data on cross laminated beams, I look forward to an informed review that will allow us to rapidly build the safe, affordable, eco-efficient homes the UK needs at scale. BMJ


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net April 2020


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