TIMBER


TIMBER ROADMAP: A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION


BMJ discovers that the Timber in Construction Roadmap will require collaboration to meet its goals.


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ublication of the Timber in Construction Roadmap in December 2023 represents a serious milestone for timber construction in England and Wales and sets up 2024 as the year in which the UK starts to close the gap with other major economies.


That’s according to Koppers’ sales director Paul Cave, who says that the roadmap recognises the huge opportunities of timber in construction but also in the creation of thousands of new, green jobs and the considerable strengthening of a homegrown UK timber industry. He says: “There is a need to understand the factors that have slowed growth in timber construction and acknowledge that concerns, particularly around fire safety, must be addressed along the way.


“Achieving any of the goals set out in the roadmap will require open and enthusiastic collaboration between timber producers, processors, constructors, insurers, lenders, and legislators, and getting it right will have serious benefits for everyone.”


Cave continues: “The built environment makes up almost half of UK’s carbon footprint, and the potential of timber to reduce the emissions totals of new projects is a major source of enthusiasm for expanded construction. This is reflected in the roadmap, where the immediate priority is improving data on timber and whole life carbon. “Establishing a robust and consistent method for measuring the contribution of timber to embodied carbon is more than a regulatory box to be ticked; it’s a necessary starting point if we’re to establish the business case for this


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material as a building block of the sustainable built environment.


“Developers, construction companies, housing associations, financial institutions, and the UK government are all working towards their own, fast-approaching, emissions targets and timber needs to make a significant, measurable contribution to these targets if it wants to get off the ground.


“The roadmap sets out key actions that need to come from both Government and industry to achieve this, putting particular emphasis on environmental product declaration (EPD) data for timber products compatible with existing frameworks for measuring embodied carbon.” Cave says that increasing sustainable supply is another priority that needs to be addressed, suggesting that the imported timber should come from “sustainably managed forests”, and domestic product and demand must both be carefully managed to ensure and maintain sustainable levels of biodiversity.


“Safety concerns about materials for high- rise buildings are particularly acute in the UK following the Grenfell Tower tragedy. These concerns go a long way to explaining the hesitancy around timber in recent years, particularly in residential developments and from insurers, with assumptions made about the performance of timber.


“Now, however, the emergence of powerful and sustainable engineered mass timber products has shone the spotlight on the potential for the use of timber in larger, non- residential projects.”


Cave concedes that the report does address


safety concerns, highlighting that industry, academia and regulators need to work together to create safe and robust usage guidelines for timber construction.


“This is where Koppers and the rest of the timber treatment industry has a huge role to play – cutting-edge fire retardants for industrial timber are powerful safeguards against structural damage caused by fire,” Cave adds. “Chemicals in fire retardants react with gases and tar to convert them to char, reducing flame spread and combustion while retaining structural integrity. He points out that awareness and understanding of treatment strategies for structural timber will be crucial to building the confidence in timber across the industry. “The Timber in Construction Roadmap is a huge leap forward on the path to a sustainable built environment in the UK, one that is long overdue given the progress made by our peers across the world.


“Of course, it is just the beginning and many of the measures set out in the roadmap are easier said than done, but it should provide key stakeholders with much-needed momentum and industry with the confidence that they are very much barking up the right tree.” BMJ


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net April 2024


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