The technical paper, produced by industry body Timber Development UK, is designed to ‘bring clarity’ to the process of assigning carbon values.
Assessing the carbon-related impacts and benefits of timber in construction products and buildings explains how to account for carbon in timber buildings and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) by applying the latest British and European Standards.
Timber Development UK sustainability director Charlie Law said: “The construction and built environment sector is responsible for nearly 40% of global CO2 emissions, and a significant proportion of this is through embodied carbon accumulated within the construction and manufacturing process. Regulatory and professional focus has for the past four decades largely focused on operational carbon, such as heating in buildings, while embodied carbon emissions have been overlooked – but this is beginning to change.
“Across the built environment professions there is rising wave of awareness that if we are to build to net-zero carbon we need to tackle how we account for embodied carbon. This paper seeks to help unify how we account for embodied carbon within timber buildings and structures so we can better understand, measure, and address these emissions in order to reduce their environmental impact.
“Along with the likes of Part Z and the Climate Emergency Design Guide, this paper seeks to help build understanding and drive forward low-carbon construction, and set the standard for measuring embodied carbon in timber construction.”
This paper is free to download from the Timber Trade Federation website: ttf.co.uk/download/tduk-technical-paper
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