The IMPACT

Sustainable timber enriches the environment
Using verified sustainable tropical timber from sustainably managed forests has numerous, often interrelated benefits. These are also increasingly objectively proven and documented and below we give an overview of leading reports providing evidence of those positive impacts.

• With trees’ capacity to absorb CO2 as it grows and store it long-term as timber, the forest is also key to regulating climate change and moderating the potential impact of man-made emissions. Timber can also readily substitute alternative materials based on finite resources and with much bigger carbon footprints, such as steel or plastic. Deforestation is also a prime greenhouse gas generator. Tropical deforestation accounts for about 10 percent of the world’s heat-trapping emissions. Selective logging as part of SFM, however, keeps 76% of carbon stocks in the forest and protects 85-100% of wildlife.
• Forests are also among the most varied and richest of habitats for both flora and fauna, providing a seedbed for global biodiversity. Many of the environmental services they perform are yet to be explored and analysed and their significance properly understood. It is increasingly accepted that, where sustainably managed, they offer huge, as yet untapped, potential.
• If sustainably sourced, timber is arguably one of the most renewable and environmentally beneficial manufacturing and construction materials we have. It scores highly in Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), the increasingly widely applied study of a materials’ cradle to grave carbon and broader environmental impacts. This examines every aspect of the market journey, from sourcing, through transport, processing and manufacture, to maintenance, recycling, repair and final disposal. Click here for the summary or complete report (Dutch only) of an LCA comparing performance of sustainably sourced tropical timber against other materials in the construction of cycle bridges, or here for the summary and infographic from an LCA study looking at tropical timber’s use in sheet piling.
• On average, 1m³ of wood absorbs 1 tonne of CO₂, and when used instead of 1m³ of steel, concrete or plastic, an average of 0.9 tonnes of CO₂ is saved. Click here for a report ‘Tackle climate change, use wood’ in English, or here for versions in Dutch, Danish, Spanish, French and Spanish.