Timber
Timber has nothing to prove in zero carbon building
Public Service Review: Transport, Local Government and the Regions Issue 10 - Friday, June 15, 2007
Zero carbon is now the big issue in UK housebuilding. Bryan Woodley, Chief Executive of the UK Timber Frame Association, explains.
A volume housebuilder phoned a timber frame manufacturer on his mobile. 'Quick, tell me,' he cried, 'how much carbon do I save if I built a timber frame home? I'm about to go into a board meeting and I need some numbers!'
Four tonnes on average, came the reply.
'Wow. Really? That's great. Why haven't you guys been telling me this before?'
We have - you just haven't heard it, was the manufacturer's exasperated response.
This anecdote illustrates the sea change that has gripped the housebuilding industry in the last six months. The whole timber frame industry has been shouting its environmental credentials from the sedum-covered rooftops for years, but the big difference now is that the world is listening.
In fact, the UK housebuilding industry seems to be in a bit of an eco-frenzy, gearing up for another new challenge. The gauntlet has been thrown down by English Partnerships once again, and now the race is on to design and build the UK's first near zero and zero carbon homes.
Even though the final definition of 'zero carbon' is yet to be agreed, the UKTFA has wholeheartedly welcomed the launch of English Partnerships' latest competition, the Carbon Challenge. It's about time that we started offering real incentives to those progressive housebuilders and developers who are building greener - and, increasingly often, timber frame - homes.
Of course it is possible to achieve energy- and water-efficient new homes without using timber. But it seems completely daft that such homes should be built using other, more polluting materials that have such a high environmental impact.
Timber has the lowest carbon cost of any mainstream building material, even allowing for transport. In contrast, the impact of extracting, refining, processing and manufacture of other building materials like concrete and steel is incredibly high, accounting for more than 10% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions.
The carbon dioxide emissions from a single timber frame three-bed detached home are 16.5% less than its brick and block equivalent. New research by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management shows that it is possible to achieve up to 86% reduction in greenhouse gases simply by increasing the amount of timber specified in buildings.
Both public and private sector developers aiming to meet the requirements of the Government's Code for Sustainable Homes will gain a real, cost-neutral boost by using timber frame construction.
We also know that it's both commercially and technically feasible to reach Levels 5 and 6 of the Code using timber frame in volume housebuilding. In fact, the proof will be put on display at BRE's Offsite 07 exhibition in June. That's why the UKTFA believes high quality, low and zero carbon homes can become a mainstream reality well before 2016.
When housebuilders and other clients decide to build with timber frame construction, they are making a positive contribution to tackling climate change:
• For every cubic metre of wood used instead of other building materials, 0.8 tonne of carbon is saved from the atmosphere. For a typical 100m2 two-storey detached timber frame house, this translates into a carbon saving of four tonnes of CO2 just like that;
• If all UK new houses built since 1945 had been timber frame, then more than 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been saved. To put this into context, consider the fact that at current rates it will take us another 200 years to achieve this sort of saving using the Government's latest energy regulations for new homes.
Processing the timber is not a gas-guzzling procedure either - 77% of the energy used in the production of wood products comes from wood residues and recovered wood. Converting timber into a useable building material takes far less energy and creates minimal pollution compared to all mainstream alternatives such as aluminium, steel, concrete and brick. Timber frame has the lowest embodied energy and CO2 cost of any commercially available building material.
Official figures show that every household in the UK creates around six tonnes of CO2 every year - enough to fill six hot air balloons 10 metres in diameter. New homes obviously perform better because they are better insulated, less leaky and have more up-to-date energy saving appliances. And timber frame new homes often do the best of the lot because they are so much more insulating and airtight. What more could you ask from a home that is also helping to reduce our carbon footprint?
Case Study - Stewart Milne Group
In response to the Government's target for zero carbon homes, a leading member of the UK Timber Frame Association, the Stewart Milne Group, has unveiled plans to build one of the UK's first commercially viable, 'near zero' carbon homes.
The house will be unveiled at BRE's modern methods of construction showcase event OFFSITE, 11-14th June 2007 in Watford. It will meet all the requirements of Level 5 of the new Code for Sustainable Homes.
The Stewart Milne Group uses advanced timber frame building systems for house construction. It decided to support its belief in that production process and the accompanying environmental qualities by building this state-of-the-art eco-home.
The property aims to achieve an extremely high environmental rating, but within a commercially viable design for volume housebuilding, developed with PRP architects, which responds to the issues facing housebuilders and customers.
Glenn Allison, MD of Stewart Milne Group, said: "The single biggest impact on our business is climate change and we felt we should take an industry lead by building a commercially viable house that reflected the Government's objective to achieve zero carbon houses within a decade."