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07
Welcome: Foreword
Cover image:
Rhodes House Garden Pavilion
Winner of the Small Project category at the Wood Awards 2024.
Architect: Stanton Williams
Photo: Hufton+Crow
Welcome from the publishers
Welcome to the 26th edition of the Timber Industry Yearbook.
09
Welcome: From the editor A collaborative approach
We connect the key partners and organisations that are driving a more collaborative, informed, and united timber sector.
10
Events: Award winners
Celebrating structural timber
Dr Liz Walder presents a selection of buildings recognised by key industry award panels. Each winner exemplifies the technical and aesthetic capabilities of timber as a primary construction material.
16
Forest & Land APF Demo
The APF Demo is the flagship event for the industry and the must visit show for anyone working in the forestry, woodland, arboriculture, fencing, estate and ground maintenance sectors.
18 Forest & Land: Ecosystem services
Timber building and forest biodiversity
Are timber buildings helping or harming forest biodiversity? asks Asselia Katenbayeva. An ASBP project explores the impacts of timber sourcing and the challenge of measuring biodiversity.
22 Forest & Land: Supply chain Landscapes of change
Kate Palmer explores how policy, natural capital, and market innovation reshape the landscape for a resilient future.
26
Forest & Land: Timber supply
Maximising the climate benefits of timber
John Healey discusses the case for domestic wood production, as outlined in a Nature Communications paper co-authored with Eilidh Forster, Research Associate at Bangor University, and David Styles, Associate Professor at the University of Galway.
30
Forest & Land: Productive forestry
Reimagining materials for circular construction
Tom Henderson believes a strategic circular timber economy can unlock climate, housing and economic benefits for Wales – but only if we align forest policy, processing, and procurement.
32
Forest & Land: Productive forestry
Seeing the wood in the trees
Heddwyn Bye explains how terrestrial LiDAR scanning offers a breakthrough in assessing timber quality and carbon stocks in complex UK woodlands.
34
Forest & Land: Policy
Timber construction as climate infrastructure
Gary Newman explains why wood in construction must be treated as a greenhouse gas removal mechanism.
36 Materials
UK Construction Week
UK Construction Week is the UK’s largest built environment event..
38
Materials: Timber supply
Future-proofing timber merchants
David Hopkins looks at why embracing sustainability and circular economy principles is smart business for timber merchants.
42
Materials: Timber specification
It’s time to champion timber in the home
Helen Hewitt discusses the urgent need to challenge outdated myths in both housebuilding and homeownership.
51
Materials: Timber specification
Challenges of strength grading reclaimed timber
Phil O’Leary explores strength grading reclaimed timber.
57
Materials: Circular economy
Reimagining materials for circular construction
Dr Diana Waldron explores structural timber reuse.
60
Materials: Circular economy
The reclaimed wood market in the UK: an overview
Sara Morel explores how the sector can overcome challenges to play a crucial role in building a circular, low-carbon future.
68
Timber structures
UK Timber Design Conference
UK Timber Design Conference explored how timber can accelerate low-carbon transformation through innovation, policy and practice.
70 Timber structures: Policy
Unlocking timber’s role in construction
Timber has long played a critical role in sustainable construction.
73
Timber structures: Moisture
Moisture measurement importance in construction
Andy Pitman explains why measuring and controlling wood moisture content is essential to avoid decay, delays and design failure.
76
Timber structures: Offsite construction
Timber frame and offsite construction
David Himmons explains why factory-built timber systems are vital to meeting regulatory, environmental and housing challenges.
85 Timber structures: Sustainability
Reducing embodied carbon from the outset
Clara Koehler explores how early-stage thinking can unlock the greatest opportunities for embodied carbon reduction.
91 Timber structures: Engineered timber
Towards performance-led timber
Anna Lisa McSweeney highlights why a new national centre, new metrics, and new partnerships are driving mass timber forward.
96
Timber structures: Architecture
Timber innovation from Baden-Württemberg
Sabine Groeneveld uses Baden-Württemberg, a south-western federal state in Germany, as a case study to illustrate how to help promote the local timber industry whilst reaching out internationally.
104
Timber structures: Roofs
Raising standards with metal web beams
Nick Boulton explains why metal web beams structural use is on the rise in both new build and retrofit.
111
Timber structures: Exteriors
Timber cladding battens
Janet Sycamore clarifies why using the wrong battens for timber cladding can compromise durability, ventilation and performance.
117
Timber structures: Infrastructure
The rise of timber bridges in modern Britain
Timber bridges are making a comeback across the UK, blending engineering reliability with environmental sensibility.
120 Fire safety & protection
The Fire Safety Event
The UK’s No. 1 fire safety event explores the next-generation solutions, live product demos, and expert-led CPD sessions.
123
Fire safety & protection: Timber treatments
Flame-retardant treated wood
Jennie Ward outlines the legal obligations for businesses supplying flame-retardant treated timber.
129
Fire safety & protection: Safe buildings
Safe schools for the future
Seb Laan Lomas explains how new fire research shows how a low-impact design approach can deliver safe, healthy buildings.
132
Fire safety & protection: Certified doorsets
The importance of certified doorsets
Ainsley Evershed explains why certified doorsets offer a reliable, efficient route to safer, regulation-ready buildings.
137 Fire safety & protection: Fire doors
The Golden Thread: digital data conduits vs data silos
Philip Duckworth explains why moving from data silos to integrated digital conduits is essential for managing critical fire safety data.
142
Fire safety & protection: Fire doors
The changes to timber fire doors
Tomos Jones reflects on what the upcoming changes to Approved Document B may mean for timber door manufacturers.
147
Fire safety & protection: Fire doors
Advancing panelled fire door performance
Mike Rooney presents a case study demonstrating that EN 1634-1 testing shows panelled fire doors can achieve certified fire performance without compromising architectural design.
150 Wood knowledge WoodBUILD
A gathering for change-makers, WoodBUILD 2025 fused systems thinking with practical action across forestry and construction.
152
Wood knowledge: About WKW
Working together for a low carbon timber future
A gathering for change-makers, WoodBUILD 2025 fused systems thinking with practical action across forestry and construction.
156 Wood knowledge: Technical tools
TDUK’s Tech Toolbox
David Hopkins explores the most influential and technically robust outputs from Timber Development UK’s knowledge base.
158 Wood knowledge: Wellbeing
Woodland wellbeing
Woodlands are becoming spaces for healing, not just recreation. Ian Baker explores why woodland settings work.
162 Wood knowledge: Training
A training roadmap for UK low carbon buildings
Trish Andrews and her team have developed e-learning courses on retrofit and low energy buildings to upskill the construction sector.
166 Wood knowledge: Growing skills
Growing skills, growing futures
Caroline Harrison announces new initiatives to open doors across the UK and inspire a new generation of professionals.
170 Association partners Directory
The Timber Industry Yearbook 2025 brings together expert voices from across the supply chain.
Welcome from the publishers
Welcome to the 26th edition of the Timber Industry Yearbook. As publishers, we are proud to present this expanded edition reflecting a wider reach across more associations within the forestry and wood sector. Our mission remains clear: to connect people, policies, and practices across the full wood value chain.
This year, we’ve worked more closely than ever with partner associations, highlighting a shared ambition to bring together knowledge, innovation, and purpose across the industry. Collaboration lies at the heart of this edition driven by a growing momentum to align expertise from every corner of the timber world.
A key contributor to this effort is Woodknowledge Wales (WKW), whose deep commitment to building a sustainable, low-carbon future has shaped both the content and direction of this Yearbook. Led by Sarah Lawton, Editor-in-Chief and an outspoken advocate for timber innovation, the WKW team has played a central role in curating the insights, case studies, and technical contributions you’ll find in these pages.
Thanks to their efforts, this Yearbook brings together voices from across the wood value chain—from foresters and sawmillers to fabricators, architects, specifiers, contractors and clients—each sharing forward-looking perspectives.
This publication continues to champion timber’s dual role: reducing emissions while storing carbon for the long term. At the same time, it provides trusted, up-to-date technical information from experts across the sector.
To stay connected with the latest developments, thought leadership, and project updates across the timber industry, we invite you to visit our website www.timberindustryservices.co.uk and sign up for our monthly e-newsletter. It’s a simple way to stay informed, inspired, and involved with the growing timber community.
Yet this Yearbook is more than a compendium—it is an active connector. Whether you’re building forest capacity, designing with timber, responding to procurement opportunities, or shaping policy across the UK, we hope these pages inspire insight, collaboration, and ambition.
© Open Box Media & Communications Ltd
Advertising sales & production, and Timber Industry Yearbook published by:
Open Box Media & Communications, Premier House, 13 St Pauls Square, Birmingham B3 1RB
Telephone: +44 (0)121 200 7820
Email: inside@ob-mc.co.uk
Website: www.ob-mc.co.uk
Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the advice given, we cannot accept liability for loss or damage arising from the information supplied. All information and photographs/drawings are the responsibility of the contributor.
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the firms whose advertisements appear in this publication. Whilst every care has been taken in compiling this publication, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any inaccuracies, or for the products or services advertised.
The inclusion of adverts and information herein does not in any way imply endorsement. All commercial contributors are encouraged to meet the highest ethical and environmental standards in their operations and supply chains.
As we are committed to sustainable forest management, Open Box specifies paper that meets chain of custody certification requirements. This publication is printed by Buxton Press. Further environmental information is available here: www.buxtonpress.com/environment
Let’s continue to grow a timber sector and a built environment that is rooted, responsible, regenerative, and ready for the future. We hope you enjoy the Timber Industry Yearbook 2025.
A collaborative approach
With an editorial career that includes technical publishing at BM TRADA and my current role leading communications at Woodknowledge Wales, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with experts across the forestry, timber and construction sectors. That experience has given me both an appreciation for the depth of knowledge within our industry and a commitment to making it more widely accessible.
As editor of the 2025 Timber Industry Yearbook, my role has been to connect the key partners and organisations that are driving a more collaborative, informed, and united timber sector. This edition brings together a diverse range of expert voices from across the entire value chain. Our contributors have shared their knowledge generously, helping to shape important industry conversations, amplify insights, and strengthen the connections between professionals across forestry, timber, construction and policy.
We extend sincere thanks to all our partners for their expert contributions and for sharing this digital edition with their members and networks. You are helping to ensure that it reaches a broad and engaged readership.
In addition to the Yearbook, we are launching a dedicated website www.timberindustryservices.co.uk and a monthly e-newsletter with the latest thinking and developments from across the sector, designed to keep you informed, inspired and connected all year round. n
Sarah M Lawton Timber Industry Yearbook Editor Woodknowledge Wales
Email: sarah.lawton@woodknowledgewales.co.uk www.woodknowledge.wales
The Timber Industry Yearbook 2025 brings together expert voices from across the supply chain. Our publication partners help amplify these insights—sharing knowledge, shaping the conversation, and connecting professionals across forestry, timber, construction and policy.
Celebrating structural timber
In this section, Dr Liz Walder presents a selection of buildings recognised by key industry award panels. Each winner exemplifies the technical and aesthetic capabilities of timber as a primary construction material.
From the expressive timber cladding of the affordable housing development at Hazelmead for Bridport Cohousing CLT, to the precise structural framing of Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects, and the refined internal interventions at the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios—each project demonstrates a deliberate and skilful integration of timber within the architectural fabric.
These buildings reflect high levels of design ambition and execution. The architects and engineers involved have leveraged timber’s inherent versatility, working with its structural, environmental and tactile properties to shape spaces that are both functional and characterful. The detailing and articulation across each scheme reveal a clear understanding of timber as a material that demands precision and rewards craftsmanship.
Timber is not only renewable and carbon-sequestering, but also offers practical advantages in construction, including reduced build times and improved site performance. It contributes to a built environment that is warm, natural and resilient.
This showcase highlights the best of contemporary timber architecture—celebrating the innovation, performance, and enduring appeal of timber in the hands of expert practitioners.
About the author
Dr Liz Walder
Events, Woodknowledge Wales
Email: liz.walder@woodknowledgewales.co.uk www.woodknowledge.wales
Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Gold Award winner at the Wood Awards 2024, Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios also won the Restoration & Reuse category. Celebrating its rich cultural past, this cherished piece of Brighton’s history adjoining the famous Royal Pavilion, the Grade-I listed Corn Exchange and Grade-II listed Studio Theatre buildings have been transformed and reimagined for today’s audience.
A new foyer and café have been introduced creating more welcoming and accessible spaces, whilst behind the scenes, master craftspeople carefully repaired dormer roof arches and restored the iconic decorative window details, bringing the beauty of the UK’s longest single-span timber frame back into view. Innovation and tradition sit alongside each other in a detailed marriage of craftsmanship. >>
Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre
Architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Structural Engineer: Arup
Wood Supplier: Neil Burke Joinery (NBJ) / Weitzer Parkett
Contractor: R. Durtnell & Sons / Westridge Construction Ltd
Landscape Services: LT Studio
Quantity surveyor & project manager: Jackson Coles
Building services & sustainability consultant: Max Fordham
Species: European Oak (Croatia). FSC certified
Photo: ©Richard Chivers
Uist House
Architect: Koto Design and Hiraeth Architecture
Structural Engineer: Paramount Structures
Wood Supplier: Unnos Systems
Contractor: Unnos Systems
Joinery: Kenton Jones Collection
Cladding & Decking: IRO/BSW Timber
Species: Douglas Fir (Wales), Sitka Spruce (UK), Larch (UK), Oak. FSC certified
Uist House by Koto Design and Hiraeth Architecture
Situated on the Isle of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Uist House by Koto Design and Hiraeth Architecture uses home-grown Welsh timber to withstand the uncompromising Scottish weather. Winner of the Research & Innovation category at the Wood Awards 2024, Uist House merges natural, local materials with cutting-edge design, delivering superior performance that respects its natural setting.
Building to meet passivhaus standards can bring challenges in durability and sustainability. This approach tackles both head-on: combining ultra-airtight insulation with timber box beams filled with cellulose for strength and low carbon impact. Engineered to handle extreme wind loads, Uist House delivers performance without compromising the environment.
Rhodes House Garden Pavilion by Stanton Williams
Winner of the Small Project category at the Wood Awards 2024, Rhodes House Garden Pavilion by Stanton Williams crafted an inviting glass and timber meeting space for scholars and the public to connect.
Architect: Stanton Williams
Structural Engineer: Webb Yates Engineers
Wood Supplier: Braden Timber Structures
Contractor: Beard Construction
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: Skelly & Couch
Joinery: Braden Timber Structures
Internal Joinery: Paragon Joinery
Species: Spruce LVL (Scandinavia), Ash (Europe). PEFC certified
The Rhodes House Garden Pavilion seamlessly combines craftsmanship and innovation through its organic design. Traditional woodworking blends with advanced engineering, creating a timber lattice that elegantly extends over protected tree roots. Above, the green roof, resting gracefully on frameless glass walls, offers users the chance to experience beauty, sustainability, and harmony with nature.
Rhodes House Garden Pavilion
Photo: Olco Studios
Photo: Hufton+Crow
Photo: Hufton+Crow
Hazelmead, Bridport Cohousing, Bridport
Masterplan & Housing Architect: Barefoot Architects
Common House Architect: Common Practice
Structural Engineer: JDL Consultants
Landscape architect: LT Studio, Land Products, Aileen Shackel Landscape Design
Contractor: C G Fry
Species: Timber frame with MMC-insulated panels
Cladding in brick and larch
Hazelmead, Bridport Cohousing, Bridport by Barefoot Architects
Winner of the RIBA South West & Wessex Sustainability Award and a RIBA National Award 2025, Hazelmead, Bridport Cohousing by Barefoot Architects is the culmination of 10-plus years of collaboration between the architect and client Bridport Cohousing CLT.
Against a backdrop of urgent affordable housing need, Hazelmead delivers 53 safe, accessible, and eco-friendly timber-framed homes designed to foster community living and sustainability. This development offers homes built with low-carbon materials, functional design and energy efficiency, with sustainability at its core.
These homes offer streamlined designs, airy interiors with abundant natural light, and traffic-free spaces rich in greenery—delivering peace, safety, and stunning countryside views.
Architect: MawsonKerr Architects
Client: English Heritage
Structural Engineer: Ramboll UK Limited
Contractor: Hutton Group
Species: Douglas Fir
Winning the Retail & Leisure Project of the Year at the 2024 Structural Timber Awards is the new Visitors Centre and Exhibition space at Grimes Graves, Norfolk by MawsonKerr. This delightful timber structure hovers above the entrance to Pit 1 of the UK’s largest known Neolithic flint mine.
Delivering a sympathetic building on a sensitive site is always a challenge but this scheme bonds the constraints of a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with a modern building that floats above the protected landscape.
The circular timber pavilion acts as an interpretive guide to Grimes Graves as dates from the site’s history are inscribed on the structure as visitors wind their way beneath the ground. The structure has minimal impact on the landscape and has become part of the fabric of one of Britain’s most remarkable prehistoric sites. >>
Grime Graves visitor entrance by MawsonKerr
Grime Graves visitor entrance
Photo: English Heritage
Photo: Rebecca Noakes Photography
Bough Terrace by Tuckey Design Studio
Winner of the Interiors category at the 2024 Wood Awards, Bough Terrace by Tuckey Design Studio set out to celebrate the natural timber structure through its interior finishings.
By uncovering the natural textures and imperfections of the floor joists and roof trusses, the project turned preservation into a highlight of the design. Gnarled and old timber sits side-by-side with the precise craftsmanship of new timber, opening a conversation about old and new, past and present.
The new joinery flows upwards from a single post in the basement, branching and rising to the upper floor like a tree, whilst handcrafted by skilled shipbuilders, the curved staircase is made from hand-folded plywood and appears to levitate in its dedicated space. This enchanting structure is a true celebration of the form, function and colour of timber.
Angles House, Suffolk by Beech Architects
Four single storey timber clad “huts” form Angles House which won the 2024 Structural Timber Awards Timber Frame Project of the Year. This scheme, by Beech Architects, was inspired by the single storey Anglo-Saxon settlements at West Stow Country Park, thus Angles House is also single storey.
Blending seamlessly into the wildflower landscape, the building is constructed entirely in wood, for its frame, walls and cladding, sourcing materials and craftspeople locally. A series of glazed boxes will break up the timber forms,
Bough Terrace
Architect: Tuckey Design Studio
Structural Engineer: BC Structural Design
Contractor: Imperial Building
Joinery: Cube and Design & Making
Species: Redwood Pine (Sweden, Finland), Douglas Fir, reclaimed timber. FSC certified
interlinked and inserted as connected areas between the Siberian larch panels. In time, its timber cladded form will weather naturally into the colours of the Waveney Valley.
This dramatic but quiet, environmentally friendly building reflects the landscape in which it sits, yet offers a full domestic structure of sustainability and functionality.
Angles House, Suffolk
Architect: Beech Architects
Structural Engineer: Frith Blake
Contractor: Amplis Ltd
Species: Siberian Larch FSC® certified
Factory coated with OrganoWood® surface treatment
Photo: Fran Mart
Photo: MSAP
St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy in Derby by Hawkins\Brown
The Education Project of the Year for the Structural Timber Awards 2024 is St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy by Hawkins\Brown, and was the first school in the UK to meet the Department of Education’s GenZero specification. Known as the UK’s “greenest primary school”, the commitment to sustainability led the project design team to select natural materials wherever possible, including a rooftop meadow and timber cladding.
Along a connecting, covered central canopy sit five buildings designed for five age groups, each offering light and airy learning environments with easy access to the outdoors. Students are linked both physically and visually with the changing seasons of their landscape.
The innovative design of the school is part of a research programme with the University of Derby, to understand and quantify the health benefits of the GenZero specification through reporting health and wellbeing of the students.
Dovehouse Court Passivhaus Almshouses
Architect: Mole Architects
Timber Frame: Lowfield Timber Frames
Structural Engineer: Conisbee
Contractor: Barnes Construction
Species: Spruce softwood
St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy in Derby
Architect: Hawkins\Brown
Landscape Architects:
Ares Landscape Architects
Structural Engineer: Adept Engineering
Contractor: Tilbury Douglas Construction
Species: Red cedar
Dovehouse Court Passivhaus Almshouses by Mole Architects
The new almshouses of Dovehouse Court in Cambridge have redefined accessible elder-living housing, combining independent living with draught-free electric homes. Designed by Mole Architects, the three timber-frame Passivhaus certified blocks was named as the Social Housing Project of the Year for the Structural Timber Awards 2024
Dovehouse Court seamlessly blends independent living with improved air quality, better insulation and low energy costs, achieved through passive solar principles, optimal orientation, and deep overhangs for shading. Each apartment has triple-glazed windows, air source heat pumps and mechanical ventilation systems.
Spruce softwood was used for the timber framed panels, sourced from Scandinavia and manufactured in Welshpool by Lowfield Timber. n
Photo: Jack Hobhouse
Photo: David Butler Photography
APF 2026: our golden anniversary
The APF Demo is the flagship event for the industry and the must visit show for anyone working in the forestry, woodland, arboriculture, fencing, estate and ground maintenance sectors. It is the place to network with all the industry’s stakeholders, catch up with old friends, and see the latest state of the art machinery and equipment.
APF 2026 will celebrate 50 years of the APF Demo since the very first show in 1976 at Longleat Estate. It will take place on the 24–26 September 2026 at Ragley Estate, Warwickshire.
APF 2024 was a huge critical success, and we are working hard to ensure that APF 2026 is a fitting event for our 50th birthday. 300 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors are expected to attend with over £90m of working machinery on show.
One of the standout features of APF 2024 was the number of events and competitions we had on display. There were two world championships, one European championship and five UK championships. We are looking to build on that for APF 2026. The favourites will be there including the World 25m poleclimbing championships, the European chainsaw carving championships, the UK Forwarder driving championships, the UK tree climbing competition and the British fencing championships.
Look out for new events such as the UK Loggers and the UK Lumberjack championships and a new category event for students in the Forwarder driving, with a chance to take part in a state-of-the-art forwarder. There will be plenty of have-a-go events such as tree climbing, axe throwing and a 4 x 4 course.
Our Arb worker zone will return and be based around the UK tree climbing arena so you can watch the climbers go against the clock and then browse all the latest arb kit on offer. The Forest Worker Zone will, as ever, be a fantastic source of help, advice and practical demos on a huge array of subjects.
The woodland craft area will have the largest display of rare and traditional woodland crafts on show anywhere in the UK. The seminar tent will have all the latest topical news on grants, safety, training, pests and diseases.
The UK Loggers and the UK Lumberjack championships
One of the standout features of APF 2024 was the number of events and competitions on display
We have now opened for bookings for both exhibitors and visitors. Exhibitor booking forms are available on our website. Demand is expected to be high and we sold out our Demo circuit last time. Advance visitor tickets are just £25 and represent a £5 saving on the gate price.
We still have some fantastic sponsorship opportunities to promote your company to a very targeted audience including the chainsaw carving, UK Loggers, UK Lumberjacks and tree climbing competitions as well as axe throwing, tree climbing, gates and car parks, our schools and education programme, woodland crafts area and seminar tent.
We look forward to welcoming you to APF 2026. n
Further information
When the first exhibition took place at Longleat in 1976 it was run by The Association of Professional Foresters (The APF).
Around the year 2000 the APF merged with other member organisations to form Confor and the full name of the Association disappeared, however, most people in the industry referred to the Exhibition as The APF so we kept the initials as our trading name and, at the same time, formed a separate limited company, The APF International Forest Machinery Exhibition Ltd, whose sole shareholder is Confor. This was to keep the trading nature of the exhibition separate to the representative role of Confor.
Stay connected
For more information on APF 2026 then please visit our website at www.apfexhibition.co.uk, or email info@apfexhibition.co.uk or call us on 01428 723545.
Exhibitors showcased their working machinery
The British fencing championships
The European chainsaw carving championships
The world 25m poleclimbing championships
Timber building and forest biodiversity: a net gain or net loss?
Are timber buildings helping or harming forest biodiversity? asks Asselia Katenbayeva. An ASBP project explores the impacts of timber sourcing and the challenge of measuring biodiversity. Why biodiversity matters—now more than ever.
One million species are edging toward extinction, the global science body IPBES warns.1 Forests remain their main refuge: four-fifths of all land plants and animals live under a canopy. Woodlands stabilise soils, regulate water, and sequester carbon; their biological richness is therefore a silent buttress for every climate-mitigation plan.
Net-gain
rules—and a blind spot
The topic of biodiversity has never been as high as it is today. In England, Biodiversity Net Gain regulations now oblige most developments to deliver a 10% ecological uplift on site. Some companies also disclose nature-related risks in supply chains under voluntary TNFD framework.2 But how many consider whether a glulam beam CLT panel they specify helped or harmed the biodiversity of the forest it came from? Supply chain impacts remain a blind spot.
What the industry thinks
To gauge sentiment, the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) surveyed architects, engineers, developers, and other construction stakeholders; 46% thought that harvesting timber for construction has a negative impact on forest biodiversity and 26% were unsure. Barely one in five believed that timber harvesting could go hand-in-hand with thriving ecosystems.
The IMPACTT project
Bridging that gap was the goal of IMPACTT, an 18-month ASBP-led initiative funded by Built by Nature and partnered with PEFC UK, Stora Enso, DoubleHelix, Woodknowledge Wales, Agrodome, Eurban, and other partners. The team traced the supply chains of 11 timber buildings—from forest to frame—and published the journeys as interactive maps (see ASBP Impactt3). The project also addressed common misconceptions around sourcing timber.
Myth — “Commercial forests are ecological deserts”
This view is outdated. While early commercial forests focused on monocultures and timber production only, modern sustainable forestry aims to integrate a balanced approach. The truth is, in the Anthropocene, we are beyond the idea of “just leave the forest alone”. Faced with rapid climate change, forests must be actively managed to curb pests and diseases, lessen fire risk, and buffer escalating climate impacts.
Two large-scale surveys assessed biodiversity in commercial forests of Great Britain:
• 2003 Forestry Commission study4 recorded 2,000+ species in commercial forests, with vascular plants and lichens sometimes richer than in native woods.
• 2024 survey5 confirmed that commercial forests can support specialist woodland mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles.
A key finding is that forest age and structure significantly affect biodiversity levels. Younger plantations tend to have lower species diversity, but as they mature – developing varied tree heights, understory growth, and deadwood accumulation – they become increasingly valuable wildlife habitats. In many respects, habitat development in planted forests in Great Britain has occurred by accident rather than design, as a result of ‘normal’ (not sustainable) commercial forestry practice during the 20th century. With deliberate, well-managed practices, the potential is far greater.
Let’s refer to real examples of biodiversity in commercial forests. Kielder Forest, England’s largest planted estate, shelters roughly half of Britain’s endangered red squirrel population. Thetford Forest, on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest supporting nightjar, goshawk, woodlark and other birds. Under deliberate management, a working forest can be a thriving living landscape.
“The truth is, in the Anthropocene, we are beyond the idea of ‘just leave the forest alone’.”
How do we measure biodiversity in forests?
“Measure it, manage it” sounds simple until you enter the woods. A review of 149 studies6 found 83 different sets of indicators used by academics for biodiversity in European forests, which fall into two groups:
1. Species-based metrics – presence, richness or abundance of birds, beetles, fungi, microbes.
2. Structural metrics – habitat proxies such as deadwood volume, canopy layering, soil moisture.
No single, universally accepted forest biodiversity metrics exist. To capture varied perspectives, we convened a workshop with forest specialists, forest owners, leading academics, and eDNA analysis company.
eDNA—reading the soil’s barcodes
UK-based NatureMetrics analyses forest soil and water, sequencing genetic fragments left by organisms. This method can reveal hundreds of taxa, including cryptic fungi and invertebrates, offering a rapid biodiversity snapshot. It cannot, however, establish a population size or confirm breeding success, but it widens the lens beyond what field observers can spot.
Digital twins of forests
CLT producer and one of the world’s largest forest owners, Stora Enso, apply a range of methods for monitoring and managing biodiversity. They build digital twin simulations of its forests to test management options and use predictive modelling to pinpoint where certain species are likely to thrive. Where the company buys from third-party forests, it offers financial incentives for owners who exceed sustainable forestry certification targets. >>
Photo: ASBP
Beyond the numbers—function and value
Counting species alone does not tell the whole story. Chris Jones, silviculture specialist at Woodknowledge Wales, notes that each species should play a functional role—a “service” in the woodland ecosystem. For example, certain conifers, like spruce, are valuable for harvesting timber, while deep-rooted pine species offer wind resistance. Using an ecosystem services approach, different functions of the forest—timber, recreation, biodiversity, clean air—can be assigned value. In multifunctional forests, resilience to environmental change underpins the forest’s ability to support biodiversity.
Different trees also host very different lives. Dr Ruth Mitchell from James Hutton Institute referred to research comparing four UK staples: Scots pine, oak, ash, and Sitka spruce.7,8 Scots pine, a native tree, supports far richer biodiversity than Sitka. However, simply counting the species is not enough; it is crucial to understand the roles these species play within the forest ecosystem. Likewise, tree species diversity alone is not sufficient for promoting biodiversity; forest managers must also consider how forests are structured and managed.
The baseline dilemma
“If we want to determine the impact,” noted Prof. John Healey of Bangor University, “how do we decide what to compare it against?” Should a production forest be compared with an unharvested reserve, an area managed exclusively for biodiversity, or another production forest managed differently? The choice of counterfactual can reverse conclusions. Biodiversity in forests is also influenced by complex variables such as management practices, geographic location, and the forest growth cycle. Furthermore, the metrics must consider not only species numbers but also conservation values. For example, a forest with fewer species might actually host a higher proportion of endangered animals.
Borrowing concepts from carbon accounting helps:
• Additionality – gains must be above business-as-usual.
• Leakage – protection in one area must not shift damage elsewhere.
• Permanence – benefits should last in the long term.
Switching the narrative from ‘do no harm’ to ‘achieve net benefit’ is crucial.
Figure 2: Number of species supported by Sitka Spruce, Oak, Scots Pine, and Ash trees in the UK. Image courtesy of Ruth Mitchell
What we learned about forest biodiversity metrics
• Measuring forest biodiversity is complex; no standard system yet exists.
• Biodiversity and sustainable forest management are intertwined—timber, recreation, clean air, carbon sequestration and habitat are co-produced services.
• Biodiversity is not a league table; what matters is ecosystem function and the resilience of forests in the face of rapid climate change.
• Choosing the right baseline, considering complex variables (e.g. geographic location, and the forest growth cycle), as well as additionality, leakage and permanence, can help to turn metrics into meaningful management.
• “Do no harm” is too low a bar; the real goal is net-positive biodiversity—forests that leave nature richer than they found it.
Closing thought
Every joist, beam and panel that rises inside a building begins life in a living forest. If we want architecture to serve the planet, the ledger must capture the full impact of sourcing materials. Specifying timber is not merely a procurement decision; it is a vote for the forest’s future. We should raise the bar and ask not only about cost and thermal performance—or even how many tonnes of CO2 were sequestered and locked into the building— but also: What did the forest of origin gain? n
About the author
References
Dr Asselia Katenbayeva
Sustainability Research Lead
Alliance for Sustainable Building Products
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/asselia-katen
1. IPBES (n.d.) A million species threatened: thirteen questions and answers. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Available at: www.ipbes.net/news/million-threatened-speciesthirteenquestions-answers
2. Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (n.d.) Available at: www.tnfd.global
3. Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (n.d.) IMPACTT Project: Assessing and improving the performance of construction materials. Available at: www.asbp.org.uk/project/ impactt
4. Humphrey JW, Ferris R, Quine C. (2003) Biodiversity in Britain’s planted forests. Forestry Commission, Edinburgh, p. 118. Available at: www.cdn.forestresearch.gov.uk/2003/01/ fcrp004.pdf
5. Barsoum N, Field E, Broome A, Cottrell J. (2024) Rapid review of evidence on biodiversity in Great Britain’s commercial forests. Forest Research, Edinburgh, pp. i–iv + 1–44. Available at: www.forestresearch.gov.uk/publications/biodiversitycommercial-forests
6. Gao T, Nielsen AB, Hedblom M. (2015) Reviewing the strength of evidence of biodiversity indicators for forest ecosystems in Europe. Ecological Indicators. 57:420–434. www.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.05.028
7. Mitchell RJ, Beaton JK, Bellamy PE, Broome A, Chetcuti J, Eaton S, et al. (2014) Ash dieback in the UK: a review of the ecological and conservation implications and potential management options. Biological Conservation. 175:95–109. www.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.04.019
8. Mitchell RJ, Bellamy PE, Ellis CJ, Hewison RL, Hodgetts NG, Iason GR, et al. (2019) Collapsing foundations: The ecology of the British oak, implications of its decline and mitigation options. Biological Conservation. 233:316–327. www.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.03.040
Further information
For further information visit: www.asbp.org.uk
Photo: ASBP
Landscapes of change: natural capital, land use and the future of woodland creation
Woodland creation is central to UK land use, balancing climate goals, biodiversity, and rural livelihoods. Kate Palmer explores how policy, natural capital, and market innovation reshape the landscape for a resilient future.
As 2025 unfolds, the UK faces a pivotal juncture in land use and natural capital policy. Competing demands—securing future timber supply, meeting net zero targets, halting biodiversity loss, ensuring food security, and sustaining rural economies— are reshaping how we value and manage land.
Woodland creation sits at the heart of this transformation, recognised not only as a vital carbon sink but also as a reservoir of biodiversity and a long-term economic asset. With major policy shifts underway - such as England’s ELMs, Wales’s Sustainable Farming Scheme, and Scotland’s AgriEnvironment Scheme - the role of multifunctional woodlands in a resilient green economy has never been clearer.
Policy landscape and strategic direction
The UK’s policy framework for woodland creation is increasingly ambitious, with each devolved nation setting its own strategic direction. England’s Environmental Improvement Plan 1, Scotland’s Forestry Strategy 2019–2029 2, Wales’s Woodlands for Wales 3 initiative, and Northern Ireland’s Forests for the Future 4 program all aim to expand tree cover and enhance ecosystem services. Despite a shared UK-wide target of 30,000 hectares of new woodland per year 5, progress is mixed. Scotland consistently leads on planting rates, while England and Wales face delivery challenges linked to land availability, planning and approval processes, and capacity within the sector.
Funding and incentives remain a key area of uncertainty. England’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes have experienced delays and shifting eligibility criteria, affecting landowner confidence. Wales is transitioning to its Sustainable Farming Scheme, aiming to integrate woodland creation into broader land stewardship, though details remain in flux. Scotland’s Forestry Grant Scheme is struggling to keep pace with rising costs and pressure on public funding. Divergent policy approaches
across the UK highlight the need for greater coherence and long-term certainty to scale woodland creation and realise natural capital ambitions.
Natural capital accounting: measuring value beyond timber
Woodlands are no longer valued solely for the timber they produce. A new era of land management is emerging, driven by natural capital accounting - where ecosystems that historically had limited economic value are assessed for the full range of services they provide, from carbon sequestration and water regulation to biodiversity, recreation, and air quality. This shift is reshaping investment priorities and landowner strategies across the UK.
Carbon and biodiversity markets are creating new revenue streams, but they also introduce complexities. Ensuring permanence, avoiding double-counting, and achieving credible verification are ongoing challenges. As these frameworks mature, they are influencing woodland creation at scale, guiding where and how new planting occurs.
For landowners, understanding these evolving metrics is crucial - not only to unlock new funding mechanisms but to ensure their land-use decisions support long-term environmental and economic resilience. The landscape is changing - both in how land is managed and how we value it.
Land use pressures and trade-offs
Land use across the devolved nations is increasingly shaped by a complex interplay of priorities - from timber and food production to housing, biodiversity, and renewable energy. Woodland creation, while vital for growing timber for houses, fencing, biomass, as well as sequestering carbon and enhancing ecosystem resilience, must navigate these competing demands. The principle of “the right tree in the right place for the right reason” has never been more relevant.
Thoughtful spatial planning is essential to resolve these tensions and maximise synergies. Tools like Local Nature Recovery Strategies and the emerging Land Use Framework in England can offer structured approaches to align national ambitions with local needs. These mechanisms can integrate woodland creation with wider land use goals, however, these tools have highlighted that at a local level there is still limited understanding of the value of productive woodlands in supporting both environmental and socio-economic outcomes.
Agroforestry and integrated land management practices are also gaining traction, presenting promising pathways to reconcile woodland expansion with agricultural productivity and biodiversity goals. By embedding woodland creation within a multifunctional landscape vision, the devolved nations can unlock natural capital benefits while supporting resilient rural economies.
Woodland creation: from policy to practice
Woodland creation remains a cornerstone of the UK’s strategy for enhancing natural capital and securing future timber supply. In Wales and beyond, demand for softwood continues to grow, driven by a tightening global timber market and increased focus on sustainable construction. The Welsh Industrial Timber Strategy reinforces this demand by setting out a clear ambition to increase the supply of high-quality,
“Woodland creation remains a cornerstone of the UK’s strategy for enhancing natural capital and securing future timber supply. In Wales and beyond, demand for softwood continues to grow, driven by a tightening global timber market and increased focus on sustainable construction.”
domestically grown softwood for use in modern construction and manufacturing. It emphasises the economic potential of productive forestry and the role of homegrown timber in decarbonising the built environment. Yet, afforestation rates lag well behind government targets. Across the UK, approximately 16,000 hectares of new woodland were created in 2024–25, falling far short of the 30,000-hectare annual UK goal set in the England Tree Action Plan.6
Across the UK, woodland creation projects continue to be planted, but regulatory challenges, economic viability, and land availability, continue to pose serious challenges. Added to this are labour shortages and a pressing need for upskilling across the forestry sector. Success depends heavily on early and meaningful engagement with local communities and landowners to build trust and long-term support. >>
Preparing the ground at Llwyn Derw Woodland Creation, Wales – laying the foundations for resilient future forests. Photo: Jim Wright
Case study: Llwyn Derw woodland creation, Wales
Situated on the edge of the Tywi Valley Forest Complex, the Llwyn Derw project is a 250-hectare mixed species woodland creation scheme that exemplifies large-scale integrated land stewardship. Delivered under the Welsh Government’s Woodland Creation Grant Scheme, the project is being implemented in two phases on previously degraded land dominated by steep, bracken-covered banks.
The scheme features 80% native broadleaves, alongside a carefully selected mix of Scots pine and Norway spruce to support the adjacent red squirrel buffer zone. Designed to support the red squirrel population with additional carbon sequestration benefits, Llwyn Derw also contributes significantly to flood prevention, watercourse protection, and landscape resilience.
Crucially, the estate has prioritised positive stakeholder engagement, hosting farm open days to inform and involve the local community. This early and transparent approach has helped build trust and foster support for the project’s long-term goals.
Located in a heavily wooded area with strong biodiversity value, Llwyn Derw enhances ecological connectivity while offering potential for recreational access and local economic benefit. The project stands as a compelling example of how strategic woodland creation can meet climate, nature, and community objectives in tandem.7
Woodland management and the future of long-term land stewardship
Across Wales and the wider UK, over 40% of existing woodlands remain unmanaged8. Bringing more woodlands into active management is essential - not only to enhance biodiversity and timber yield, but also to improve long-term carbon sequestration, which is consistently higher in well-managed forests. Certification schemes such as FSC and PEFC provide frameworks to assure sustainable practices, yet uptake and monitoring require further support.
Emerging technologies, including drone surveillance, remote sensing, and digital inventory platforms, offer powerful tools to monitor forest condition, assess risks, and inform timely interventions. By embracing innovation and integrated stewardship, we can secure resilient, productive woodland landscapes for future generations.
The role of the private sector and market innovation
The private sector is increasingly pivotal in driving woodland creation through innovative market mechanisms and green finance. A surge in private investment - driven by carbon offsetting commitments and ESG-aligned forestry funds - is reshaping land use strategies across the UK.
Frameworks like the Woodland Carbon Code provide critical assurance, enabling credible, measurable climate benefits that attract institutional investors. These verification schemes are essential in translating natural capital into investable assets, aligning carbon sequestration with financial returns.
However, the long-term success of these schemes hinges on transparent governance and robust verification standards. Market confidence depends on integrity: without it, the risk of greenwashing could undermine both ecological outcomes and investor trust.
Planting on steep Welsh hillsides shows both the challenges and opportunities of expanding woodland cover at Llwyn Derw Woodland Creation, Wales. Photo: Jim Wright
Looking ahead: integration, collaboration, and landscape resilience
Over the next decade, the future of woodland creation will depend on a more integrated and collaborative approach to land use. Developing a clear, cross-sectoral land use framework is essential to align public policy with private sector action, providing clarity and confidence for long-term investment.
Bridging the gap between policy and practice will require new mechanisms that incentivise multifunctional landscapes - those that deliver for nature, climate, and rural economies.
Crucially, forestry, farming, and conservation communities must work together to navigate competing demands on land. By fostering collaboration, we can co-create resilient landscapes that support timber and food production, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity within a shared natural capital strategy. n
About the author Dr Kate Palmer
Technical and Industry Support Manager
Confor: Confederation of Forest Industries (UK) www.confor.org.uk
References
1. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (2023) Environmental improvement plan 2023: Delivering a green future. UK Government. Available at: www.gov.uk/ government/publications/environmental-improvement-plan
2. Scottish Government (2019) Scotland’s forestry strategy 2019–2029. Available at: www.gov.scot/publications/ scotlands-forestrystrategy-20192029
3. Welsh Government (2018) Woodlands for Wales: The Welsh Government’s strategy for woodlands and trees. Available at: https://www.gov.wales/woodlands-wales-strategy
4. Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (2023) Forest for Our Future – Forest Expansion Scheme reopens. Northern Ireland. Available at: www.daera-ni.gov.uk/news/ forest-our-future-forest-expansion-scheme-reopens
5. UK Parliament (2024) Seeing the wood for the trees: The contribution of the forestry and timber sectors to biodiversity and net zero goals. House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. Available at: www.committees.parliament. uk/work/7989/forestry-and-biodiversity
6. Forest Research (2025) Forestry statistics 2025. Forestry Commission. Available at: www.forestresearch.gov.uk/ tools-and-resources/statistics/publications/forestrystatistics/ forestry-statistics-2025
7. Llwyn Derw (n.d.) Llwyn Derw Broadleaved Woodland Creation Project. Available at: www.llwynderwwoodlandcreation.com
8. Forestry Commission (n.d.) Woodland management: Missed opportunities. [PDF file].
Freshly planted trees at Llwyn Derw Woodland Creation, Wales – delivering climate action, biodiversity gains, and long-term local value. Photo: Jim Wright
Maximising the climate benefits of timber
John Healey discusses the case for domestic wood production, as outlined in a Nature Communications paper co-authored with Eilidh Forster, Research Associate at Bangor University, and David Styles, Associate Professor at the University of Galway.
Productive forestry in Wales.
Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
“Only a strategy that combines large-scale expansion of productive forest area and a substantial increase in tree growth rates will enable higher rates of wood use to make a positive contribution to reducing global warming over the coming century.”
Wood is a low-carbon alternative to materials like steel, concrete, and plastic, and plays an increasingly prominent role in strategies to decarbonise the built environment. But while the UK government has highlighted increased wood use as a key element in meeting climate goals, there is a critical issue often overlooked: the supply chain behind that wood.
Despite its ambitions, the UK currently imports more wood than almost any other country and has one of the lowest levels of forest cover in Europe, with just 14% of its land area under woodland. Only a fifth of UK demand is met by domestic timber production. This reliance on imported wood not only increases vulnerability to global market shocks—it also risks undermining the environmental benefits of choosing wood in the first place.
The carbon cost of imported timber
New research published in Nature Communications (www.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58463-5) explores how national net zero strategies could be affected by these supply dynamics. In particular, it examines the carbon implications of sourcing wood from domestic sources or importing it from different types of overseas forest.
The findings highlight a crucial point: using more wood in construction and manufacturing can indeed contribute to lowering emissions—but only if the wood comes from forests managed in a way that enables rapid regrowth and sustained carbon sequestration. It takes far longer for the stocks of carbon in slow-growing boreal forests, such as those in Scandinavia and the Baltic States, to recover after harvesting than is the case for faster-growing temperate conifer forests, such as those in the UK.
A new model for understanding long-term climate impact
To investigate this further, researchers at Bangor University developed an advanced consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) modelling methodology. We used “prospective dynamic LCA” to project global warming impacts over the next century. Our approach combined modelling forest carbon stock dynamics (using the Canadian CBM-CFS3 model) >>
with our new model for wood harvesting, transport, processing and use to generate an integrated analysis of future net greenhouse gas emissions for the whole wood value chain system. We included the emissions resulting from greater use of alternative materials—such as concrete and fossil fuel derivatives—if timber was not available in sufficient quantities, using “expanded system boundary LCA”.
Our results show that it is possible to increase wood use and still achieve substantial benefits of reduced global warming—provided there is a sufficient uplift in temperate
“The findings highlight a crucial point: using more wood in construction and manufacturing can indeed contribute to lowering emissions—but only if the wood comes from forests managed in a way that enables rapid regrowth and sustained carbon sequestration.”
forest production in countries like the UK. Under modest growth in wood demand (1.1% annually), this would require at least a 50% increase in the area of productive conifer forest over the next 50 years. A more ambitious approach, involving both a doubling of productive forest area and an increase in forest productivity by 33% (e.g. from a yield class of 18 to 24), would amplify climate benefits of reducing global warming further—by as much as 175%.
To illustrate this specifically: starting with 100,000 hectares of temperate conifer forest at yield class 18, expanding this to 200,000 hectares while improving productivity to yield class 24 could deliver cumulative greenhouse gas emissions reduction of around 277 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over a 100-year period. However, this scenario depends on maintaining forest health and growth rates, which are threatened by tree pests, diseases and drought, all of which are predicted to increase due to climate change.
The challenge becomes even more pressing under higher rates of increase in wood demand. If annual demand rises by 2.3%, individual measures—whether increasing temperate forest productivity, expanding forest area, or adjusting rotation cycles—will not be sufficient on their own. Only a combined strategy including a doubling of productive conifer forest area and a 33% increase in forest growth rates will sustain a net reduction in global warming over the coming century.
Sawlogs awaiting transport. Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
Four priorities for future-proofing the UK timber strategy
The study outlines four core priorities for the UK:
1. Reassess sourcing strategies: The timber industry needs to examine more closely its future sources of wood in terms of their potential impacts on net carbon emissions. There is a significant risk that increasing supply from the main current source forests will have harmful global warming impacts.
2. Reverse the stagnation in afforestation: The UK has seen virtually no increase in productive conifer forest over the past three decades. Harvestable volumes are expected to decline after 2039, while rise in demand is forecast to continue. Strategic land use planning is urgently needed to address the priority of wood security alongside those of food security and biodiversity conservation.
3. Improve forest resilience and productivity: Research and investment should focus on enhancing the productivity of UK forests while building resilience to threats from pests, pathogens and drought.
4. Use timber more efficiently: We need to moderate future increases in demand by reducing waste, extending the life of wood products and promoting reuse, in line with circular economy principles.
Ultimately, our study provides strong evidence of the need for better alignment between net zero strategies and land use policy. The full potential of timber as a contributor to greenhouse gas removal lies not just in its use, but in how and where it is grown, harvested and reused. As such, policy assessments must integrate forest and wood product carbon accounting, including material substitution, using the kind of forward-looking analysis developed in our study.
By ensuring that more of the UK’s wood demand is met domestically—through well-managed, productive forestry—the nation can reduce pressure on overseas forests, lowering the risk of ‘offshoring’ carbon and biodiversity impacts of our wood consumption. Just as food security is advocated as a priority for national resilience, so too must wood security become a strategic priority in the transition to a low-carbon future. n
About the author
John Healey Professor of Forest Sciences Bangor University
Further information
Download the paper at www.nature.com/articles/ s41467-025-58463-5
Sawlogs in transit. Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
Reimagining materials for circular construction
Tom Henderson believes a strategic circular timber economy can unlock climate, housing and economic benefits for Wales—but only if we align forest policy, processing, and procurement.
As global efforts to decarbonise accelerate, timber is back in the spotlight—not just as a renewable material, but as a strategic climate solution. And yet, in Wales, despite world-class growing conditions and deep cultural connections to land, our timber resource remains underutilised.
We import most of the wood we use. Our forests are not expanding fast enough to meet national afforestation targets. And of the timber we do harvest, the vast majority is directed to short-lived uses—pallets, fencing, biomass— while only 6% is structurally graded for housing.
alternatives to steel and concrete. Yet the UK currently has no large-scale engineered timber production—and imports dominate.
Meanwhile, demand for timber in construction is booming. If Wales is serious about climate leadership, rural regeneration, and affordable housing, we must ask: what would it take to turn our timber value chain into an engine of low-carbon prosperity?
Circular economy, rooted in place
Timber and Decarbonising Wales1, an evidence-based report written as part of the Timber Industrial Strategy for Wales is an attempt to answer that question. It sets out a joined-up vision: expanding forest cover, managing it well, using timber wisely, and recovering its value through reuse, remanufacturing and recycling.
Timber is uniquely suited to circularity. Though it degrades over time, each piece can serve multiple lives. A beam can become joinery; offcuts become panel board; fibres can be recycled into insulation; and only at the very end should timber become fuel. When wood is kept in circulation – in buildings, products and fibres – it stores carbon, displaces more harmful materials, and generates greater economic value from every tree harvested.
Manufacturing our way to net zero
A key piece of the puzzle is engineered timber. Products like crosslaminated timber and glulam offer high-performance, low-carbon
Wales has the softwood resource (notably Sitka spruce), the workforce potential, and the market need to change that. A modest-scale CLT facility using 60,000 m³ of Welsh timber could produce 30,000 m³ of panels a year – storing over 22,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, creating skilled rural jobs, and keeping value in the domestic economy.
The same logic applies to wood fibre insulation—ideal for retrofitting homes, yet less than 0.1% of the UK insulation market. As new fibre recovery techniologies and systems come on line, Wales could lead the way in recycling and manufacturing biobased materials for net-zero construction.
Forests as climate infrastructure
But manufacturing is only one part of the story. It begins—and depends—on what we grow. Forest creation and management are crucial to the long-term carbon story.
Afforestation alone, if scaled to 5,000 hectares per year, could deliver around 15 million tonnes of CO2e removals by 2050. Add to that the carbon stored in timber products, and the avoided emissions from substitution, and forestry becomes a major contributor to national climate targets.
Mapping the Welsh timber value chain. Source: Timber and Decarbonising Wales1
Joining the dots
Timber alone is not a silver bullet. But used wisely, it can help us meet our goals for climate action, housing supply, rural jobs, and resource resilience.
To get there, we need to act on several fronts:
• Scale up afforestation on suitable land— with multifunctional, productive forests that serve both climate and biodiversity.
• Invest in domestic manufacturing— especially engineered timber and wood fibre insulation, to retain value and reduce imports.
• Upgrade circular infrastructure—from advanced sorting to fibre recovery, ensuring wood stays in the system longer.
Forest management matters too. Adaptive forest management silviculture suited to site and climate can enhance both forest resilience and the provision of ecosystem services. As climate pressures mount across all European temperate forests, shifts in what we grow will be unavoidable—and there is an opportunity to align this with demand. We therefore need to bring markets and processing into step with adaptive management, while also considering the long-term markets for the alternative species we establish. At the same time, Wales has a comparative advantage in being able to grow trees exceptionally quickly. In the context of European forestry, where traditional systems are increasingly threatened by climate pressures and institutional inertia, Wales’ more fluid land use and timber sector creates scope for dynamism. Without this, we risk degradation or worse, offshoring our climate impacts by relying on slowgrowing boreal forests elsewhere, as Elidh Forster warns.2
From softwood to social housing
Housing is where many of these threads come together. Timberframe construction offers one of the clearest climate wins—each home locking in 15 –18 tonnes of CO2 from the wood alone, and avoiding another 15 – 20 tonnes by replacing concrete and steel.
Redirecting just 15% of Wales’s current timber harvest into housing could support over 8,000 homes per year and save around 0.56 MtCO2e annually. That’s equivalent to the emissions from over 120,000 cars.
Most Welsh softwood primarily Sitka spruce can meet C16 construction standards, but specifier confidence remains low. This is where public procurement and programmes like Tai ar y Cyd come in creating stable demand for Welsh-grown timber and supporting a homegrown industrial base.
• Reform procurement and design standards— so low-carbon, circular materials like Welsh C16 become the default, not the exception.
• Support rural enterprise and workforce development— particularly the small mills and nurseries that add value locally.
This is not a prescriptive roadmap...
This is not a prescriptive roadmap, but a shared evidence base to guide future investment, policy and practice. It offers a practical foundation for decision-makers across forestry, housing, manufacturing and public procurement to coordinate action— helping Wales transition from extractive to regenerative systems, and from imported dependency to homegrown opportunity. n
About the author
Tom Henderson
Forestry & Timber at Woodknowledge Wales
Email: tom.henderson@woodknowledgewales.co.uk www.woodknowledge.wales
Further information
www.woodknowledge.wales/timber-anddecarbonising-wales/
References
1. Henderson T Timber and Decarbonising Wales Woodknowledge Wales 2025 www.woodknowledge.wales/ timber-and-decarbonising-wales
2. Forster EJ, Styles D, Healey JR Temperate forests can deliver future wood demand and climate-change mitigation dependent on afforestation and circularity Nat Commun 2025;16:3145 www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58463-5
Unlocking value through circular wood use. Source: Timber and Decarbonising Wales1
Seeing the wood in the trees
Heddwyn Bye explains how terrestrial LiDAR scanning offers a breakthrough in assessing timber quality and carbon stocks in complex UK woodlands—unlocking economic potential and supporting climate-smart, precision forestry.
Across the UK, hundreds of thousands of hectares of small, irregular and underutilised woodlands are overlooked by traditional forest management systems. Their complex structure and non-uniform species mix make it difficult to assess timber value or carbon potential using standard inventory tools. But what if there were a way to peer inside the tangled canopy and see, with precision, what each tree could really offer?
A growing body of research suggests there is. At Bangor University, I’ve been exploring how terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)—a tripod-mounted form of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging)—can measure the structure of standing trees with millimetre accuracy. Our findings show that TLS doesn’t just replicate conventional forest inventory metrics like DBH (diameter at breast height) or tree height—it is able to provide deeper insights into timber quality and carbon storage potential.
This technology could be transformational for complex woodlands: the unmanaged alder and hazel groves, the overstood coppice, the farm woodlands that dot the Welsh landscape. These are the forests that rarely see a forester’s tape measure, let alone a management plan. TLS gives us a way to measure their value—accurately, efficiently, and, crucially, before a single tree is felled.
From scan to sawlog: predicting timber yield in 3D
Traditional forest surveys rely on manual tools and a great deal of subjective visual assessments by a professional. Measuring the structural quality of a tree—its sweep, lean, taper, or stem defects—is a slow and imprecise process. For small-scale or inaccessible sites, it’s often simply not done.
TLS changes this. It works by firing hundreds of thousands of laser pulses per second, creating a dense 3D ‘point cloud’ of the forest. From this cloud, we can extract not just DBH and height, but also detailed shape parameters: how straight or curved a tree is, how much it leans, how its trunk narrows towards the top.
In our study, we surveyed 55 trees across eight Welsh woodland plots of varying complexity—from well-managed Douglas fir plantations to dense, naturally regenerated broadleaf stands. Using a Leica BLK360 scanner, we
Figure 1: LiDAR point cloud of forest showing fitted diameter sections and stem diameters (labels) processed using the 3DFin plugin.
Figure 3: The Leica BLK360 device used to scan a plot (central) and two of the three reference spheres used to act as tie-points to assist in alignment of individual scans.
Figure 2: TLS point cloud of a stand of oak trees, colourised. Left: the whole point cloud is shown. Inset Panel: a zoomed-in section in which the individual points making up the model of the tree can be seen. Processing these point clouds enables measurement of objects within them, and subsequently, the measurement of variables of interest for forest inventory applications.
captured highly detailed scans of each plot, later segmented and analysed using open-source tools like CloudCompare and RStudio. A custom-built algorithm then applied UK-specific sawlog grading rules to the measurements, estimating what proportion of each tree’s stem could be classed as green or red sawlog—and calculating the associated market value.
The results were promising. TLS-derived measurements of DBH and taper showed high correlation with manual methods, while also offering a level of detail—and consistency— that manual surveys struggle to match. For each tree, we could estimate not only total timber volume, but the likely grade, length, and commercial value of future sawlogs.
Precision forestry for carbon accounting
What’s needed next is automation: software that can process TLS data in the field, classify trees, assess their form, and generate usable inventory outputs with minimal human input.
Better timber data is only half the story. When it comes to forestry’s role in climate mitigation, accurate carbon accounting is essential. Current approaches rely heavily on allometric equations—broad statistical estimates based on simple measurements like DBH and height. These are useful at scale but often fail to capture the structural quirks of broadleaf trees or small branches, leading to underestimates of biomass and stored carbon.
TLS allows us to move beyond estimation. By directly measuring the tree’s volume in 3D—including its taper, sweep, and branching structure—we can derive more accurate calculations of aboveground biomass. In one comparison, TLS-derived volumes were found to be nearly double those predicted by standard equations. This has profound implications for landowners participating in woodland carbon schemes or aiming to quantify the climate benefit of restoration efforts.
For example, a neglected farm woodland that’s too complex for traditional inventory may still hold significant carbon value. TLS provides a method to evidence that, bringing these woodlands into scope for management, funding, and long-term stewardship.
Why isn’t everyone using it yet?
Despite its promise, TLS is not yet widely used in UK forestry. There are several reasons. First, the scanners themselves are expensive and sensitive to weather—rain or strong wind can distort point clouds. Second, the data they generate is complex and unwieldy. Processing a single plot’s scan requires specialised software and expertise.
In our study, we developed a multi-step data processing pipeline using open tools and custom R scripts. This approach worked—but it’s not realistic for routine operational use.
Some progress is being made on this front. Researchers have demonstrated helmet-mounted laser scanners with real-time processing capability. But these tools are not yet widely available, and full automation remains a work in progress.
A new era for small woodlands
TLS will not replace conventional forest inventory overnight. But it could expand what’s possible—especially in the UK’s mosaic of small, complex woodlands. These are the areas where conventional approaches struggle but where the need for better management is acute. Better data leads to better decisions. And with the right tools, we can see beyond the trees to understand the full value of our woodlands— economically, ecologically, and climatically.
By embracing TLS, we can bring overlooked forests into active management, increase the proportion of timber going into high-value, long-lived products, and deliver more robust carbon outcomes. In a world racing toward net-zero, that’s a shift worth scanning for. n
About the author
Heddwyn Bye
A researcher with Woodknowledge Wales and an MScRes candidate at Bangor University, co-supervised by Dr Marielle Smith, Professor John Healey (Bangor University) and Matthew Drummond (University of Wales Trinity Saint David), specialising in forestry measurement and sustainable land use.
Email: heddwynb@hotmail.co.uk www.woodknowledge.wales
Further information
www.woodknowledge.wales/estimating-timbervalue-and-carbon-in-complex-woodlands-usinglaser-scanning
Figure 4: Method used for the calculation of metrics from LiDAR point cloud of a forest. Each step describes a separate stage in the semi-automatic data processing method. These steps are explained further in the text below.
Timber construction as climate infrastructure
Gary Newman explains why wood in construction must be treated as a greenhouse gas removal (GGR) mechanism, and what this means for policy, carbon accounting, and the future of our industry.
As the UK Government ramps up its investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) pledging over £21bn to remove 8.5 MtCO₂e a year by 2050 it remains bafflingly slow to recognise an arguably simpler, cheaper, and already-scalable solution: using more wood in construction.
Our new research, Using Wood in Construction as a Significant Greenhouse Gas Removal Mechanism 1, sets out the case for treating timber-based buildings not merely as low-carbon alternatives to concrete and steel, but as legitimate carbon removal infrastructure. Done well, and at scale, this could remove atmospheric carbon faster, more affordably and with greater co-benefits than many engineered solutions currently in the spotlight.
This is not fringe science. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Climate Change Committee (CCC), and even the UK Government’s own consultants have acknowledged the role of biogenic materials in construction in engineered carbon removal2-4
From sequestration to storage: wood’s climate value
The principle is simple. Trees capture carbon through photosynthesis. If the resulting biomass is harvested from a sustainably managed forest and used to construct a home, that carbon stays locked away—potentially for decades or centuries. This transfer from the forest carbon pool to the ‘harvested wood products’ (HWP) pool is already recognised in national greenhouse gas inventories. The building becomes a carbon store.
In 2018, it was estimated that 1.14 MtCO2e were added to the UK’s HWP pool through timber construction—mostly in housing5. With the right demand signals, we could rapidly increase that annual inflow. Critically, even modest interventions—such as favouring timber frame over masonry— can double the carbon stored per unit of floorspace.
Yet, life cycle assessment (LCA) rules used in net-zero building frameworks assume that all biogenic carbon stored in construction products and materials is released. In GWP100 terms, this means no net climate benefit is recorded—regardless of whether the building lasts 30 years or 130. Our report challenges this logic, aligning instead with emerging international carbon removal frameworks1,6
GGR, not just LCA
What makes this issue urgent is that timber buildings do more than reduce emissions (by replacing concrete and steel). They actively remove atmospheric CO2—just like direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) or Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).
Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
This makes them part of the UK’s GGR arsenal. The CCC’s Sixth Carbon Budget and the Royal Society’s landmark 2018 report both state clearly: to hit net zero by 2050, we must remove 75–130 MtCO2e per year through GGR3,2. Yet wood in construction was inexplicably excluded from the UK Government’s GGR demonstration programme4
This omission matters. Not because wood is better than every other method—but because it is shovel-ready. Unlike DACCS or BECCS, it needs no new infrastructure, no long-term liabilities, and no billion-pound subsidy regimes. We already know how to build with timber. What we lack is a market and regulatory framework that rewards the carbon value of doing so.
What industry needs to do
For this to change, we must do three things:
About the author
1. Push for recognition in policy. Timber buildings must be included in national GGR portfolios and treated equivalently to other carbon storage technologies. That includes eligibility for incentives under future carbon certification schemes.
2. Improve measurement and reporting. New standards under development—such as ISO’s draft for quantifying carbon in harvested wood products—should be adopted and operationalised by manufacturers and building clients alike.
3. Design for longevity and reuse. If buildings are to be recognised as carbon stores, they must be built to last. That means paying attention to service life, circularity, and deconstruction pathways. Reuse and cascading use can extend carbon residence times well beyond 100 years7
A call to action
It’s time the timber industry claimed its rightful place in the climate solution portfolio. We are not just low-carbon. We are carbon negative. But unless we frame our product as a GGR mechanism—not just as a ‘greener material’—we risk being sidelined in favour of flashier tech with bigger lobbyists.
The timber sector needs to speak the language of climate policy: quantification, degree of permanence, additionality, verifiability, and cost-effectiveness. If we do, we will not only grow our market, but ensure that the buildings of the future actively help to cool the planet.
Wood in construction is not a silver bullet. But it is an overlooked workhorse. Let’s put it to work. n
Download
Gary Newman CEO of Woodknowledge Wales and MAKAR board member
Email: gary.newman@woodknowledgewales.co.uk
Using Wood in Construction as a Significant Greenhouse Gas Removal Mechanism:
References
1. Newman, G. et al. (2025). Using Wood in Construction as a Significant Greenhouse Gas Removal Mechanism. Woodknowledge Wales.
2. The Royal Society (2018). Greenhouse Gas Removal.
3. Climate Change Committee (2020). Sixth Carbon Budget: The UK’s path to Net Zero.
4. Element Energy & Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (2021). Greenhouse gas removal methods and their potential UK deployment.
5. Ricardo Energy & Environment (2024). UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory: 1990–2022. Prepared for DESNZ.
6. Matthews, R. et al. (2023). “Temporary carbon storage in wood products and the climate change mitigation challenge.” Nature Communications.
7. Spear, M. (2024). How long is long enough? Carbon storage and wood products. Bangor University.
8. HM Government (2022). UK NDC ICTU Report.
9. UNECE/FAO (2021). The carbon sink potential of harvested wood products. Policy Brief.
Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
UK Construction Week : timber and building envelope innovation
UK Construction Week (UKCW) is the UK’s largest built environment event— bringing the supply chain together to showcase innovation, share knowledge, and accelerate the transition to low-carbon construction.
UKCW is the UK’s leading showcase of structural timber, offsite solutions, and engineered innovations such as CLT and glulam.
Alongside, the Roofing, Cladding, Insulation Expo demonstrated cuttingedge systems that define the building envelope—delivering energy efficiency, safety, and design flexibility. The London event also features the Offsite Show, giving visitors insight into how modern methods of construction and prefabricated timber systems are reshaping project delivery.
“From timber to roofing, insulation and cladding— UKCW is where the future of construction comes together.”
Birmingham: 30 Sept – 2 Oct 2025 | NEC
London: 12 – 14 May 2026 | ExCeL
The UK’s leading timber showcase featured innovation across the supply chain
Across three days, visitors discover new products, attend CPD-accredited sessions, and explore Net Zero case studies. With more than 20,000 professionals and 300+ exhibitors, UKCW Birmingham and London offer an unmatched platform for learning, collaboration, and discovery.
Join us in 2025 and 2026 to see how construction is evolving— from material innovation to wholesystem solutions.
UKCW features include:
• Roofing, Cladding, Insulation Expo
• The Offsite Show – modern methods in action
• Net Zero Hub – net-zero strategies in action
• CPD theatres and Net Zero Trail
Be part of it.
Register now for UKCW Birmingham 2025 or London 2026.
Building envelope solutions took centre stage, from timber cladding to advanced roofing systems
Hands-on demonstrations and informal spaces created new opportunities to connect
UKCW brings together over 20,000 construction professionals at NEC Birmingham
Future-proofing timber merchants
David Hopkins looks at why embracing sustainability and circular economy principles is smart business for timber merchants—offering greater resilience, customer loyalty, and cost efficiencies in a carbon-conscious, resource-constrained construction sector.
In a world increasingly shaped by climate regulations, shifting consumer preferences, and supply chain volatility, timber merchants are facing a choice: adapt or risk obsolescence. While sustainability has long been seen as a concern for policymakers or manufacturers, it’s now central to the business case for timber merchants across the UK and beyond.
From securing long-term supply to meeting client demands and unlocking new revenue opportunities, committing to sustainability isn’t just good ethics—it’s smart business. This article explores how timber merchants can embed sustainability into their operations and why circular economy principles are the key to future-facing business models. We examine the challenges, the implications, and the real opportunities—drawing from case studies and examples within and beyond the UK timber sector.
Why sustainability now?
The climate crisis, tightening regulation, and customer pressure have converged to create a new operating environment. Timber merchants are increasingly expected to demonstrate responsible sourcing, reduce waste, and offer lower-carbon options. This expectation is coming not just from governments, but from housing associations, contractors, specifiers, and even individual consumers.
New environmental regulations—such as the UK’s commitment to net zero by 2050 and emerging carbon disclosure requirements—are accelerating this shift. With embodied carbon in materials now a key factor in procurement decisions, the demand for responsibly sourced timber with verified credentials is growing fast.
For example, companies bidding for public sector projects increasingly require Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), FSC or PEFC certification, and clear carbon data. Merchants who can’t supply this risk losing business to competitors who can1
Understanding the circular economy in timber
Circular economy principles revolve around keeping materials in use for as long as possible, designing out waste, and regenerating natural systems2. For the timber industry, this translates into a range of actions:
• Prioritising longer-life timber products
• Enabling disassembly and reuse at end-of-life
• Offering reclaimed and remanufactured timber
• Reducing processing waste and improving offcut reuse
• Supporting timber’s role as a carbon sink through responsible forestry
Critically, the circular economy is not about stopping the use of materials—it’s about using them better. And timber, as a renewable, versatile, and sequestering material, is perfectly placed to lead this shift.
Business benefits: why it pays to be sustainable
1. Securing supply chains
Sustainability-minded merchants often enjoy more secure long-term supply, especially as forest certification becomes a procurement requirement. By working with sawmills and importers who can demonstrate sustainable practices, merchants reduce their exposure to volatile markets and reputational risk.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent timber shortages, merchants with traceable and local supply chains fared better than those reliant on global imports3
2. Winning work with clients who care
Developers and housing associations are under pressure to prove their net zero and social value credentials. As a result, they are seeking partners who can help them meet these goals. Merchants who offer certified, low-carbon timber products—and can provide data on their environmental impact—are more likely to be seen as value-adding partners.
3. Reducing waste and increasing margins
Sustainability often goes hand in hand with efficiency. Merchants who implement better stock management, offcut reuse systems, or secondary processing (e.g. machining waste into sellable products) not only reduce environmental impact—they improve their margins.
Case study: Whitmore’s Timber, a UK hardwood merchant, has invested in drying kilns powered by wood waste, turning a disposal cost into an energy source. Their sustainability credentials have opened doors to bespoke work for high-end heritage and architectural projects4
Taking
practical
steps: where to start
Not every merchant can overhaul their operations overnight. But every merchant can take steps toward more sustainable, circular practices. Here are realistic starting points:
1. Assess and reduce waste
Simple waste audits can identify offcuts, packaging, or unsold stock that could be reused, remanufactured, or sold on.
Case study: Arnold Laver (now part of National Timber Group) introduced a take-back scheme for timber packaging and offcuts at selected sites, diverting waste from landfill and improving customer loyalty5
2. Stock responsibly sourced timber
Merchants should actively stock FSC- or PEFC-certified timber where possible, and work with suppliers to improve chain of custody.
3. Support reuse and reclamation
Offering reclaimed timber, second-grade materials, or hosting a trade exchange noticeboard can create new revenue streams and reduce landfill.
Case study: The Bristol Wood Recycling Project, while not a traditional merchant, demonstrates how urban timber reuse can generate community value and economic return6. Mainstream merchants could adopt aspects of this model at scale.
4. Train staff and inform clients
Staff who understand sustainability can advise customers better. This adds value and positions the merchant as a knowledgeable, future-ready partner.
Barriers to adoption: being realistic
Despite the benefits, several challenges remain:
• Space and logistics: Many merchant yards are tight for space, making segregation of reclaimed materials or storage of diverse product lines difficult.
• Customer habits: Some clients still prioritise cost and convenience over sustainability, especially in competitive markets.
• Supplier variation: Not all suppliers offer EPDs or certification, especially in hardwoods or niche products.
• Lack of standardised data: Comparing products on embodied carbon can be difficult without consistent declarations. >>
Photo: TDUK
“Sustainability isn’t a burden—it’s a business advantage in a world demanding traceability, low-carbon solutions, and circular thinking.”
These are not trivial challenges. But they are not insurmountable—and the landscape is changing. Industry bodies, like the Timber Development UK and ASBP, are increasingly offering tools, training, and data sets to support merchants in navigating these complexities7
Towards a circular timber marketplace
Imagine a future timber merchant that doesn’t just sell products but offers a material service: supporting reuse, offering design-fordisassembly advice, taking back waste, and connecting clients to low-carbon solutions. This is already happening in other sectors— from carpets to electronics—and it is beginning in timber.
In the Netherlands, Stiho, a major timber and building supplier, is trialling material passports and circular stock planning in collaboration with architects and digital platforms8. These pilots suggest a clear trajectory: the future merchant is circular, dataliterate, and embedded in the sustainable built environment value chain.
Be part of the change
Sustainability and circular economy principles are not a threat to timber merchants—they are a strategic opportunity. Those who act now can differentiate themselves, secure supply, and win the loyalty of future-facing clients. Those who delay may find themselves locked out of procurement frameworks, unable to offer the transparency or flexibility the market increasingly demands.
Change need not be radical or immediate. But it does need to start. From waste reduction and responsible sourcing to better customer advice and reclaimed stock, every step matters.
For the timber industry, the path to circularity isn’t just possible—it’s perfectly natural. n
About the author
References
David Hopkins Chief Executive Officer Timber Development
UK (TDUK) www.timberdevelopment.uk
1. Timber Development UK. (2024). Embodied Carbon: Why Timber Needs to Lead. Retrieved from www.timberdevelopment.uk
2. Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (n.d.). What is a Circular Economy? Retrieved from www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
3. Timber Trades Journal. (2021). Lessons from the Timber Shortage: Local Wins. Retrieved from www.ttjonline.com
4. Whitmore’s Timber. (2022). Sustainable Hardwood Supply Case Study. Retrieved from www.whitmores.co.uk
5. National Timber Group. (2023). Sustainability Report. Retrieved from www.nationaltimbergroup.com
6. Bristol Wood Recycling Project. (2023). About Us. Retrieved from www.bristolwoodrecycling.org.uk
7. Alliance for Sustainable Building Products. (2024). Circular Economy in Construction. Retrieved from www.asbp.org.uk
8. Circle Economy. (2021). Case Study: Circular Construction Practices at Stiho. Retrieved from www.circle-economy.com
Photo: TDUK
It’s time to champion timber in the home
As demand grows for low-carbon housing, new research highlights timber’s untapped potential. Helen Hewitt discusses the urgent need to challenge outdated myths in both housebuilding and homeownership.
Llanbedr site, Williams Homes, Bala.
Photo: Williams Homes
“Housebuilders want measurable, credible, and transparent sustainability data. Timber, with its inherent renewability and carbon-storing capabilities, is in a strong position to fill this need but as an industry, we need to be able to provide the right documentation and evidence.”
With the Government’s ambitious housing targets and the construction industry’s move toward its net zero future, there has never been a more important time to reassess the materials used to build and renovate homes.
Timber, with its aesthetic appeal, low-carbon footprint, and renewable credentials, is ideally placed to meet this challenge. Yet, despite its proven advantages, timber continues to be overlooked in key areas of the housing sector, particularly in the specification of windows and doors.
Understanding the current landscape
To better understand the current landscape, the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) undertook research into the attitudes and priorities of two vital groups: those with specification responsibility at UK housebuilders, and homeowners. Drawing on responses from 150 housebuilding professionals and 1,000 homeowners, the findings offer compelling insight into the opportunities that lie ahead for the woodworking and joinery manufacture sector.
Housebuilder priorities: performance, proof and practicality
UK housebuilders are under increasing pressure to quickly deliver homes that perform better environmentally, comply with evolving regulations, and meet evolving buyer expectations.
It’s therefore no surprise that energy efficiency and cost top the list of specification drivers for windows, with 33% citing each as the primary influence. Doors, meanwhile, are most influenced by aesthetic appeal (34%) which is potentially a reflection of their kerbside visibility. For garden buildings, canopies and stairs cost again tops the priority list followed by a mix of safety credentials, aesthetic appeal and lifespan.
Our latest data also found that positively timber is already well embedded in certain aspects of housebuilding. It is the dominant material for staircases (67%) and garden buildings (59%) and specified “often or always” for windows and doors by 65% of housebuilders. >>
Softwoods
C16/C24 Reg’d carcassing
Treated C16/C24 Reg’d carcassing
CLS
Treated graded battens
Green / Brown treated fencing
Treated softwood decking
New softwood sleepers
Graded scaffold board
Unsorted redwood
Fifth redwood
Sawfalling redwood (Exc 6th)
Sawfalling whitewood (Exc 6th)
Softwood plywood
Far Eastern plywood
Q Mark Chinese plywood
Chinese hardwood plywood
OSB
MDF
Standard chipboard
Flooring chipboard
Hardboard
Marine plywood
Large press plywood
Door blanks www.mdmtimber.co.uk
Misconceptions
Yet, where timber isn’t specified, the reasons shared for not using the material include lack of consumer demand, concerns about product availability, aesthetic fit and future maintenance needs.
These perceptions are largely based on outdated assumptions. For instance, the perception that timber windows require excessive maintenance, when today’s modern coatings and finishes can extend product lifespans beyond 50 years with minimal upkeep.
Specification is a trust decision
The homeowner perspective: appearance and assurance
When digging deeper into the factors shaping specification, they become more focused, driven by sustainability expectations which are becoming more sophisticated. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) - both generic and product-specific - are now the most valued form of proof, especially for high-investment areas like windows and doors. Housebuilders want measurable, credible, and transparent sustainability data. Timber, with its inherent renewability and carbon-storing capabilities, is in a strong position to fill this need but as an industry, we need to be able to provide the right documentation and evidence.
Beyond performance metrics, trust and assurance continue to play a pivotal role in procurement. Membership of specialist schemes, such as the BWF Fire Door Alliance and the BWF Stair Scheme, along with membership of trade associations, such as the British Woodworking Federation, were cited as key factors by housebuilders when selecting suppliers.
This clearly demonstrates the growing importance of visible credentials and third-party verification in a compliance and quality-focused market.
The homeowner picture is equally enlightening. While initial cost remains a consideration (90%), it is not the only lens through which value is judged. Homeowners overwhelmingly value aesthetics (91%), durability (92%), and safety (91%) when choosing products for the home.
Similar misconceptions of timber, however, also shape the homeowners view of the material. For example, when considering timber windows, 63% of homeowners believe alternative materials have better sustainable credentials, while 86% believe alternatives offer better energy efficiency performance (u-values). Added to this 86% believe alternatives offer ease of maintenance and 88% think they offer a longer lifespan.
This mismatch reveals a clear educational opportunity. In truth, modern timber windows and doors offer exceptional thermal performance, can match or exceed alternatives in lifespan, and provide the reduced maintenance needs as well as aesthetic flexibility that many homeowners seek. Timber’s ability to be repaired, repainted, and refreshed also means it delivers lasting value and reduces waste.
These are key selling points in an increasingly sustainable and cost-driven market, but the timber message is not cutting through these deeply rooted myths.
Sustainability: a priority, not yet a decider
When focusing in on sustainability, it becomes clear that it is not yet a key influence when it comes to decision making. However, our latest data shows that this is likely due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of how to choose a sustainable product. >>
Photo: Williams Homes
Photo: Williams Homes
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As while 77% ranked environmental impact as a top consideration when choosing wooden fixtures, 41% admitted they don’t know which materials are most sustainable. Added to this, a third believe sustainable options are too expensive, and 26% don’t know what sustainability credentials or markers to look for.
This presents a significant opportunity for our sector to not only champion the sustainable credentials of timber and help educate homeowners, but to also to dispel existing myths such as those around expense.
By clearly communicating the evidence-based sustainable benefits of timber, and highlighting recognisable certifications, such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certification, we can elevate the profile of timber in the minds of homeowners.
Maximising the opportunity for growth
The findings of this year’s report send a clear message to the timber industry: we must tackle outdated perceptions head-on, through clear evidence, education, and messaging.
“Timber is ready to meet the challenge of net zero—now it’s up to us to prove its value and correct the misconceptions.”
To do this we need to come together as one to:
1. Champion proof, not just performance EPDs, lifecycle analysis, and recognised certifications must become standard practice to provide robust proof of performance.
2. Educate across all channels
Whether through digital content, showrooms, or direct engagement with specifiers and homeowners, we need to highlight timber’s real-world benefits: strength, longevity, sustainability and aesthetic flexibility.
3. Position timber as the modern solution Too often still seen as the ‘heritage choice’, timber needs to be reframed as a future-facing material that suits all homes and not just for conservation areas or luxury properties.
4. Elevate awareness of relevant accreditations and memberships
The importance of trade memberships and accreditations has been made clear. By spotlighting the robust standards required by leading schemes and associations, we reinforce the skills, quality, and accountability needed to be part of reputable industry bodies and in turn build credibility for the both the associations and its members.
A time to act
As housebuilders seek solutions that meet the latest regulations and standards, and homeowners are looking toward environmentally friendly, low-maintenance materials, timber is positioned for growth. But unless we correct the perception gap, timber will not reach its full potential.
It’s time to bust the myths, prove the performance and put timber at the heart of low-carbon homes by encouraging housebuilders and homeowners to Build It Better with Wood. The opportunity for growth is real and now we must act together to secure it. n
About the author
Helen Hewitt CEO British Woodworking Federation
(BWF) www.bwf.org.uk
Photo: Richard Kiely 2018
We are an independent family owned and run timber importer based in Goxhill, North Lincolnshire. We mainly specialise in large-section timber, irregular sizes and long lengths and are able to provide the non-standard sizes that many others cannot.
• Specialists in large section timber, irregular sizes and long lengths. Sections 600 x 600 and lengths to 15m
• British and European white wood, red wood, Douglas-fir and Oak
• Delivery nationwide. From full direct loads to small orders, or custom sawn and cross cut to exact specification
• Strength grading C16/C24 to BS 4978
• Planed, treated timber, railway sleepers, tile battens, arris rail, feather edge boards, telegraph poles, glulam and more
• Our customer base consists of timber importers and merchants as well as national chains of builders’ merchants T: 01469 532 922 E: info@longlengths.com W: www.longlengths.co.uk
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Philip O'Leary
Challenges of strength grading reclaimed timber
Phil O’Leary explores the complexities of strength grading reclaimed timber, drawing on real-world case studies and longstanding expertise to highlight both the opportunities and persistent barriers to structural reuse in modern construction.
The practice of specifying and utilising reclaimed materials has gained significant traction and appeal in recent times due to its environmental and sustainability benefits, character and historical value. Unlike new virgin timber, reclaimed wood often has an uncertain history, variable properties, and potential defects that have developed in service that can affect its structural loadbearing capacity.
There is a long history of structural appraisal of existing historic and listed buildings. The aim of these appraisals is to assess the current condition of a structure and to relate this to some defined requirement for its present or future use so that its structural adequacy can be judged to achieve a safe and desired performance. The prime considerations are strength and stability, durability and serviceability (deflection).
These ‘first principles’ are then modified to permit visual strength grading based on the measurement and assessment of the frequency and distribution of the strength-influencing characteristics against the permissible limits set out in National Standards.
An appraisal of structural timbers in an existing building includes the effects of the construction process and its subsequent life and this may include alterations, deterioration, neglect, fire, fungal and insect attack and signs of distress or overloading.
First principles and modern grading rules
The strength of timber can be predicted by the measurement or quantification of properties (timber characteristics) that are known to have an effect on strength (strength-influencing characteristics).
In general terms, strength grading rules are based on strength data reached through destructive testing of clear samples of timber and of samples of timber containing naturally occurring strength-influencing characteristics. The relationship between each characteristic and strength, which is established from the test data, may be considered as ‘first principles’.
Reclaimed timber doesn’t follow the rules
Part of the challenge for evaluating used timber is that this data is based on testing done on new timbers and may not represent mechanical properties of timber found in older buildings or timbers which have been under a load for an extended period.
Structural timber may be capable of achieving a higher strength class than those listed for the grade in question in the relevant design codes. This is more likely in timbers in older buildings. The question we often ask ourselves is are we underestimating or over estimating individual member properties.
Working with known history: an opportunity to upgrade
The visual strength grading rules usually assume that the end use and orientation of the timber in service is not known. >>
Grading timber of original size. Photo: Filros Timber Consultants
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Towards better standards and tools
There is much interest and work being carried out in Europe on the development of re-use assessment methods for structural timbers. The Norwegians have developed, on the back of a project, a draft standard prNS 3691 (Parts 1 to 3) for evaluation of recycled wood. Part 3 provides provisions for visual strength grading of rectangular cross-section recycled wood of Nordic-grown spruce and pine. While not covering everything that is needed it is a good start.
A good review of work carried out on determining the strength of reclaimed timber is Ranttila, H., Fink, G., Brandner, R., & Ridley-Ellis, D. (2025). Circulating structural timber and engineered wood products—challenges and potentials towards reliable evaluation of mechanical properties. Wood Material Science & Engineering, 1–16. www.doi.org/10.1080/17480272.2025.2517186
In practice, this means that if the end use and orientation of the timber is known, i.e. we know whether the timbers are being used as bending, tension or compression members, consideration may be given to ‘first principle’ data, to explore the possibility of increasing the strength grade for structural calculations. We have been able to successfully ‘upgrade’ timbers to avoid expensive strengthening works on a number of occasions.
However, for strength grading reclaimed timber much of the information obtained from a site assessment likely to be unavailable.
Hidden costs and practical hurdles of reuse
Extra challenges for using reclaimed structural timbers are
(i) safely taking timbers out of buildings without causing damage to the timbers;
(ii) transport logistics and costs;
(iii) storage;
(iv) inconsistent dimensions;
(v) difficulty and cost of removing any embedded metalwork, such as nails, before any re-machining;
(vi) impurity such as paint and preservative treatment;
(vii) previous loading history—cyclic loading and creep may reduce strength that is not easily detectable visually;
(viii) low ‘yield’ of visually regrading machine-graded timber if the original strength class can’t be relied on;
(ix) providing a desired service life to timbers to be used externally if the timber has already been subjected to an unknown length of time in external conditions.
Other projects are ongoing. Criteria being developed include a ‘wish list’:
(i) documentary evidence of historical use;
(ii) original strength grading documents;
(iii) source of material (what species and where the timber was grown);
(iv) what the timber function was in its previous use;
(v) orientation in use;
(vi) age of timber—what is the strength of aged wood in old construction?;
(vii) determining whether timber loses much strength with age (there is no full consensus in the literature);
(viii) whether design dimensional tolerances can be used as thresholds for detecting damage or stress-induced deformation. >>
Grading regularised timber. Photo: Filros Timber Consultants
Marine timbers used as joists. Photo: Filros Timber Consultants
Lessons from real-world reuse projects
Examples of re-using reclaimed timbers successfully include the repurposing of marine timbers (greenheart and ekki) for the Durley Chine Environmental Hub. The building includes 45 tonnes of wood reclaimed from local groynes. The timber has been used for parts of the roof structure, brise soleil, cladding and the decking.
A process of assessing structural timber before it was machined to size was undertaken to reduce the risk of machining timbers that would fail the strength grading exercise. Timber with potential was machined to size but kept to a minimum to ensure the section size was as close as possible to the original.
As these timbers had already been subjected to over 20 years’ service life in an external environment it was not possible to provide a desired service life of 50 years or more if these timbers were to be exposed externally. Therefore, decisions had to be made where timbers were used. For example, using reclaimed timber where it could be easily replaced and in areas where the wood would be protected from the weather.
Another project which highlights some of the difficulties is Gwynedd Council’s Bontnewydd School Project. Large section trusses made from very good quality slow grown timber were difficult to remove from the building. Their size made them difficult to store and to transport and it was an issue finding a company prepared to risk re-machining the timbers with embedded metal work. A possible solution was to dismantle the trusses and use them in their current size.
The road ahead: unlocking wider adoption
Is there a will to use reclaimed timber? The answer seems yes. However, will we need cost savings and regulation to drive more widespread uptake?
The challenge will be to find a practical path for removing timber, documenting and labelling (digitally tagged), storage, and robust methods for evaluating timber for reuse on visual and non-destructive methods. Visual strength grading will be a critical step for integrating into structural applications and we have plenty of experience of doing that in old buildings. n
About the author
Phil O’Leary Principal Timber Consultant Filros Timber Consultancy
Purlins taken out. Photo: Filros Timber Consultants
Part of truss. Photo: Filros Timber Consultants
Reimagining materials for circular construction
Dr Diana Waldron explores how the Bontnewydd School project in North Wales is pioneering structural timber reuse testing the limits of circular construction through careful deconstruction, glulam innovation, and collaborative design thinking.
In North Wales, the Bontnewydd School and Community Centre project is quietly rewriting the rulebook for low-carbon construction placing materials reuse at the core of its sustainability strategy. Backed by £15m from the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Schools Challenge, this ambitious development goes beyond net-zero rhetoric. It’s testing real-world solutions to one of the industry’s biggest questions: how can we build with what we already have?
At the heart of the project lies an in-depth exploration of structural timber reuse, including the challenges and potential of reusing glulam (glued laminated timber). The Bontnewydd team, lead by Cyngor Gwynedd, is pushing boundaries not only in architectural design, but in material logistics, grading, and processing systems that remain largely underdeveloped for the reuse market.
Circular design begins with deconstruction
Rather than opting for wholesale demolition, the design process began with a careful deconstruction of two local
buildings: Ysgol Glanadda (built in the late 1800s) and the 1970s-built Ysgol Bontnewydd. Each structure was treated as a ‘donor’ of potential materials. Frame Four and Baker Brown developed a detailed materials audit, creating a digital ‘bank of materials’ that could be reused in the new build.
Key materials identified included Welsh slate, Victorian bricks, solid timber beams, and several glulam elements from the 1970s building. Salvaging, testing, and reintegrating them into the new structural design is complex, but it reduces embodied carbon and extends the life of high-quality components that might otherwise be landfilled or downcycled.
Timber first: Solid sections and structural assessment
Reclaimed solid timber—particularly from the Victorian Glanadda site—has shown strong potential for reuse. Large structural-grade trusses, many with minimal surface degradation, were earmarked for reintegration. In collaboration with Woodknowledge Wales, the project team assessed the origin, moisture content, and strength to identify suitable structural applications. The size and shape of these salvaged elements directly informed the design of the new community hall, minimising processing needs and reducing the embodied carbon of reuse. This enabled full integration of reclaimed materials and underscores the importance of considering reuse from the earliest design stages to maximise sustainability and resource efficiency. This has involved close collaboration with local sawmills and timber processors to explore lowintervention refurbishment. While the reuse of solid wood presents fewer technical challenges than engineered wood, access to appropriate grading facilities, structural testing, and suitable design integration remain significant barriers to mainstream adoption. >>
Assessing old timber on site. Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
Glulam: a technically demanding reuse frontier
Among the more intriguing discoveries during the deconstruction process were several glulam beams in excellent condition. These glue-laminated components present unique challenges. While structurally efficient and lightweight, glulam is also difficult to assess for reuse due to its composite nature.
Unlike solid timber, glulam consists of bonded layers of lamellae using synthetic adhesives. The long-term integrity of these adhesives—often not designed for reuse—requires rigorous scrutiny. Factors such as delamination, adhesive ageing, and off-gassing must all be assessed before reuse in structural applications can be approved.
For this reason, the project team has opted to undertake a full structural integrity assessment of the glulam elements. Options remain open: if deemed suitable, the beams could be reintegrated as load-bearing elements. If not, alternative uses are being explored—from downscaling into secondary structures or furniture, to being milled into new components.
This process is as much about creating precedent as sourcing materials. The team has drawn on expertise from structural engineers and glulam manufacturers with experience in post-use assessment to inform their approach. The long-term aim is to contribute to developing standards and workflows that allow future projects to evaluate and reuse glulam with greater confidence.
From reuse to regeneration
In parallel with salvaging materials, the team is also investigating remanufacturing new glulam from reclaimed timber. While still at an exploratory stage, this would involve identifying suitable lamellae from reclaimed stock, machining them to tolerance, and rebonding under controlled conditions If viable, the potential resource savings could be significant.
This approach, however, is not without complexity. It requires clean de-nailing, consistent sectioning, access to glulam presses, and rigorous strength verification. Moreover, it raises questions about adhesive selection, fire performance, and regulatory compliance—all currently under-researched in a reuse context.
Nonetheless, these investigations are generating important insights into what’s possible, and what’s still missing in the UK’s timber reuse infrastructure. They expose gaps in grading protocols, insurance frameworks, and processing capacity—challenges that projects like Bontnewydd help to surface and begin to address.
More than materials: embedding knowledge
Bontnewydd is more than a construction project. It’s a testbed for circularity—a collaborative learning process that aims to normalise the reuse of complex materials like glulam within mainstream public procurement. Its success doesn’t lie only in what’s built, but in the technical groundwork and data generated for future projects.
By rethinking waste as resource—and subjecting reused materials to the same rigour as new—the project demonstrates how circular principles can coexist with quality assurance. Its explorations into glulam reuse are particularly valuable, shining a light on an area that is often neglected in sustainability discussions due to its technical complexity.
As the building progresses toward completion in 2026, the hope is that Bontnewydd becomes a case study not just in sustainable design, but in regenerative material thinking—one that inspires broader systemic change in how we source, evaluate, and reuse the materials we already have. n
About
the author
Dr Diana Waldron Built Environment, Woodknowledge Wales www.woodknowledge.wales
Read the full story
Read how the Bontnewydd School project in North Wales is pioneering structural timber reuse www.woodknowledge.wales/bontnewydd-schoolshowcases-reuse-of-materials-in-construction
Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
The reclaimed wood market in the UK: an overview
Reclaimed wood carries environmental, heritage and social value—yet its full potential remains underused. Sara Morel explores how the sector can overcome challenges to play a crucial role in building a circular, low-carbon future.
The UK’s reclaimed timber market has seen major changes over recent decades. Once a thriving sector with robust domestic stocks and usage, it has steadily lost ground to recycling and overseas processing. Despite growing awareness of climate impact, the prioritisation of reuse remains weak across policy and industry.
Market trends and historical context
Between 1998 and 2006, UK stocks of salvaged wood fell from 377,000 to 24,700 tonnes.1 This was partly due to a policy shift in the construction industry, which began to favour recycling over reuse. Simultaneously, the Wood Recyclers Association was founded, and early wood recycling social enterprises began operating.
Demolition in the UK generates around 100 million tonnes of waste annually,2 of which some is reusable wood, such as beams, flooring, mouldings, doors, and structural elements. However, the amount actually saved for reuse is significantly reduced due to logistical and economic constraints.
By the mid-1990s, up to 750,000 tonnes of timber were being reclaimed annually. Today, that figure stands at around 130,000 tonnes.1 A significant portion of high-quality wood is now downcycled into products such as biomass fuel, particle panel board, pet bedding, and mulch. Ironically, valuable UK timber is often exported, processed into furniture or
cladding abroad—especially in China—and reimported as ‘reclaimed wood furniture’ for Western markets.
In response to this decline, Salvo launched a campaign in 2006 promoting ‘Reuse Before Recycling’. This fed into the 2008 EU Waste Framework Directive3, which enshrined reuse in the waste hierarchy and became UK law in 2011. However, implementation has been weak. The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.54 focuses on waste reduction, but its metrics prioritise recycling and ignore reuse.5
Reclaimed timber in a Salvo Code member showroom. Photo: Retrouvius
Reclaimed tropical timber from Salvo Code member Ashwells Reclaimed Timber.
Photo: Salvo
Market segmentation
Salvo’s latest market description, including the findings from the EU FCRBE project, that ran from 2019 to 2023, identified six main reclaimed timber categories:
1. Salvaged timber
2. Reclaimed beams
3. Reclaimed flooring
4. Architectural woodwork
5. Doors
6. Ornamental woodwork
Categories of reclaimed timber
1. Salvaged timber
Includes modern demolition wood such as studding, staircases, mouldings, thinnings, and cheap composite furniture. This sector once supported more than 1,000 jobs in the 1990s, but much of the labour-intensive processing has moved overseas. Around 400,000 tonnes were sold annually in the 1990s, but significant volumes were also incinerated—some with energy recovery (e.g. stoves), some without. Today, exact volumes are unclear, but more material is exported than reused locally.
“Reclaimed wood is not just a material—it’s a story, a carbon store, and a path to circular construction.”
2. Reclaimed beams
These include structural elements such as joists, trusses, bressummers and railway sleepers. Typically predating the 1940s, many are made from slow-grown boreal softwoods or oak from the UK, the Baltics, France and North America. In the 1990s, half of all reclaimed beams came from UK demolition. Today, most are imported, with France a key source of reclaimed oak.
Greenheart and purpleheart—highly durable tropical hardwoods—are salvaged from UK maritime infrastructure. However, risk-averse specifiers are often hesitant to reuse timber structurally unless it has been stress-graded, despite visual grading being sufficient for many applications.
3. Reclaimed flooring
This category includes original floorboards, parquet, resawn beams, and engineered flooring (a reclaimed hardwood layer over a softwood base). In 2006, 1.73 million m² of reclaimed flooring were sold, generating £26.7 million in sales. The value of reclaimed wood flooring has increased substantially since then, with some of the most valuable being more than £100/m². Most flooring stock came from demolition (50%) or the building trade (30%), and 64% of customers were private individuals. >>
Demolition alert for timber beams on SalvoWEB
Demolition alert for a solid wood staircase on SalvoWEB
Reclaimed flooring is now often kiln-dried (71%), with 28% guaranteed for moisture content.1 Engineered reclaimed flooring makes installation easier and is compatible with modern requirements, such as underfloor heating.
4. Architectural woodwork
Comprising doors, windows, stairs, mouldings, panelling, and cladding, this sector generated £24.8 million in 2006 from 26,100 tonnes of stock. Items ranged from £1 banister spindles to £18,000 church fittings. Sourcing was relatively balanced across private sellers (37%), demolition (22%), and the building trade (20%).
The average sale was £663, with nearly 38,000 customers purchasing 700 kg each. Around 2,212 jobs were supported by this market segment, mostly in dismantling, restoration and sales.
5. Doors and windows
A 2005 survey estimated that two million wooden doors are removed in UK refurbishments each year, but only 100,000 are salvaged. Similarly, approximately 15 million wooden windows are removed annually, with wooden frames accounting for the majority. These represent a vast pool of potential reclaimed wood, much of which currently goes to waste due to a lack of collection infrastructure and market demand.
Quality control and labelling
With growing concerns over authenticity, Salvo launched the Truly Reclaimed® label in 2019 to differentiate genuine reclaimed wood from imitation products. Major UK and French dealers, including Antique Oak Flooring Company and BCA Matériaux Anciens, now use the label to offer transparency and credibility.
Aesthetics have also shifted. While some buyers still prefer ‘clean’ reclaimed wood, many now appreciate visible features like notches and aged patina that tell a story. Watch Salvo’s video about the Truly Reclaimed label linked at the end of this article.
Policy, perceptions, and industry challenges
A key issue is the blurred distinction between reuse and recycling in sustainability policies, which skews data and investment toward recycling. While social enterprises play a valuable role in the circular economy, it’s important they don’t imply they are the sole solution. Recognition should be given to the longstanding commercial sector—often unsubsidised—that has supported timber reuse for decades. Subsidised recycling risks creating an uneven playing field if it undermines the viability of reuse-focused enterprises. >>
Truly Reclaimed Antique Victorian Mahogany Back Bar for sale on SalvoWEB.
Photo: Architectural Forum
Truly Reclaimed Latch Door for sale on SalvoWEB. Photo: Architectural Forum
Structural panels
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Conclusion
The UK reclaimed timber sector stands at a critical crossroads. Despite strong heritage and environmental benefits, it remains undervalued in national policy and overshadowed by recycling and downcycling.
Reviving the industry will require:
• stronger regulatory incentives for reuse in construction,
• greater investment in deconstruction (not demolition) skills,
• transparent product labelling (like Salvo’s Truly Reclaimed label),
• recognition of commercial salvage operations alongside social enterprises,
• more accurate reporting that separates reuse from recycling.
Reclaimed wood is not just a material—it’s a story, a carbon store, and a pathway to a more circular and responsible built environment. n
About the author
Truly Reclaimed: Introducing the label for real reuse
Salvo presents the Truly Reclaimed label, which assures that a product or batch of material is genuinely antique or reclaimed. The campaign helps you distinguish Truly Reclaimed from new products that are made to resemble the old, highlighting the environmental benefit of choosing materials that really are reclaimed for reuse.
Sara Morel CEO for Salvo and writer for SalvoNEWS @Reclaimedwoman SalvoWEB.com @SalvoWEB
Watch Salvo’s video here:
References
1. Allwood J. (n.d.) Pushing reuse: Opportunities and barriers. Available at: www.library.uniteddiversity.coop/z_ unfiled_stuff/PushingReuse.pdf
2. BusinessWaste.co.uk (n.d.) How to reduce waste in construction. Available at: www.businesswaste.co.uk/ sectors/construction-waste-management/how-to-reducewaste-in-construction
3. European Parliament & Council (2008) Directive 2008/98/EC on waste and repealing certain Directives. Official Journal of the European Union. Available at: www.eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2008/98/oj/eng
4. United Nations (n.d.) Sustainable Development Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. UN Sustainable Development Goals. Available at: www.sdgs.un.org/goals/goal12
5. Salvo (2021) SDG 12.5.1 – or why do 193 countries measure recycling but ignore reuse? SalvoNEWS. Available at: www.salvoweb.com/salvonews/40789-sdg1251-orwhy-do-193-countries-measurerecycling-but-ignore-reuse
Salvaged English Ash Bench on SalvoWEB
Discover the latest developments in the timber sector at www.timberindustryservices.co.uk
Sign up for the monthly e-newsletter and keep up-to-date with news and insights from every part of the wood value chain—from foresters and sawmillers to fabricators, architects, specifiers, contractors and clients.
GHANA FORESTRY COMMISSION
Ghana to Become First in Africa and Second Globally to Issue FLEGT License — A GameChanger for Legal Timber Trade
In a landmark achievement for forest governance and global trade, Ghana is poised to become the first African country and second in the world after Indonesia to issue the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) License . This milestone, set to take effect on October 8, 2025, certifies that Ghanaian timber entering the European Union complies with strict environmental and legal standards — opening doors for trusted trade partnerships and elevating the country as a frontrunner in wood production that is legal and traceable.
For wood importers, architects, and large-scale furniture producers seeking legally sourced and environmentally responsible timber, Ghana’s FLEGT licensing represents a new standard of assurance. Backed by the Ghana Legality Assurance System (GhLAS) and its state - of-the-art Ghana Wood Tracking and Decision Support System (GWT-DSS), timber from Ghana is now traceable from forest to export. The system features real -time monitoring, automated compliance checks, and third -party oversight – ensuring only wood harvested from forests with robust management frameworks reaches global markets.
This milestone didn’t happen overnight. Since entering a Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU in 2009, Ghana has invested in robust reforms, stakeholder training, and legal frameworks. With 131 timber utilization contracts recently approved and full y ratified by Parliament, Ghana has cleared its final regulatory hurdle. The EU has since recognized Ghana as a "low -risk" country under its new Deforestation Regulation – affirming its leadership in combatting illegal logging and deforestation. Over 350 industry operators have been trained in the licensing process, ensuring smooth transactions for international buyers.
For businesses and designers who care about sourcing from robustly managed tropical forests, Ghana offers more than just high -quality tropical hardwood – it delivers credibility, traceability, and compliance with international standards. With FLEGT licensing in place, sourcing from Ghana means partnering with a nation where legality is guaranteed, forests are protected, and transparency is the rule, not the exception.
Build better with wood: UK Timber Design Conference 2025
On 3 July, over 200 built environment leaders met at Hamilton House, London, for the UK Timber Design Conference 2025, exploring how timber can accelerate low-carbon transformation through innovation, policy and practice.
Returning with support from Swedish Wood and PEFC UK, the 2025 conference brought together developers, local authorities, insurers, engineers, architects, contractors and manufacturers— showing how systemic change is possible when the whole supply chain comes together.
The agenda combined keynote presentations, high-level panels, and practical CPDs, creating a full-day forum for tackling barriers to timber and sharing solutions for scaling up. Highlights included:
• Building to scale: Investors, developers and government voices explored how new partnerships can unlock sustainable development.
• Timber-made solutions to the housing crisis: A session on the deliverability of timber housing at scale.
• Technology, innovation and British timber: Sponsored by Vastern Timber, this panel showcased the cutting-edge of home-grown solutions.
• Wood for wellbeing: A new research project from dRMM, Edinburgh Napier University and the Quality of Life Foundation examined the human as well as environmental benefits of mass timber.
Over 200 delegates joined the UK Timber Design Conference 2025 at Hamilton House, London
Expert panels tackled housing, innovation, retrofit, and policy change
Breakout CPDs and technical sessions gave delegates practical insights into timber delivery
UK Timber Design Conference 2025 was proudly supported by:
• Swedish Wood • PEFC UK
• Rothoblaas • Russwood
• Brimstone • Abodo • Vastern Timber
• Renovation, reuse and retrofit: A deep dive into timber’s role in extending building life and reducing embodied carbon.
• What has the Government achieved?: A timely discussion one year into the new administration, reflecting on planning, environment and construction policy shifts.
Breakout sessions and CPDs added handson depth, with topics ranging from moisture in large-scale timber buildings to specifying home-grown species. The event closed with a lively drinks reception, cementing connections formed during the day.
More than just a one-day gathering, the UK Timber Design Conference is a platform for accelerating the transition to a climate-smart built environment.
Stay tuned for 2026 dates and opportunities to be part of the conversation. n
Stay connected. Stay informed.
Sign up for Timber Development UK updates, technical resources, and invites to upcoming events.
The conference created space for new connections across the timber supply chain
Built environment leaders set the agenda for accelerating low-carbon transformation
Unlocking timber’s role in construction: policy signals and industry implications
Timber has long played a critical role in sustainable construction. Now, it is beginning to receive stronger recognition at the policy level, with formal government frameworks designed to expand its use across the built environment.
The UK Government has set out a clear intent to increase the use of timber in construction as part of a wider effort to reduce embodied carbon, promote sustainable materials, and support domestic forestry and manufacturing industries. This is a welcome move that aligns policy direction with what progressive parts of the construction sector have already been doing for years.
At the heart of this policy evolution is a recognition that timber—when sourced responsibly and used with technical rigour—can help meet net zero goals, support jobs in rural economies, and contribute to a more circular and regenerative construction industry.
Strategic alignment: timber in construction roadmap
A key milestone in this journey is the development of the Timber in Construction (TiC) Roadmap1, produced by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in collaboration with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), the Forestry Commission, and industry stakeholders. The Roadmap outlines governmentsupported actions to:
• Increase timber’s market share in appropriate building types
• Enhance technical guidance and performance understanding
• Build UK supply chain resilience
• Improve skills and training across the construction sector
• Align regulatory and planning processes to reflect timber’s potential
The Roadmap builds on extensive industry consultation and evidences a shift from viewing timber as niche, to seeing it as a scalable, mainstream material for modern construction1
TDUK’s role: technical foundations and advocacy
At Timber Development UK (TDUK), we have long advocated for timber’s technical credibility and environmental performance to be acknowledged in policy frameworks. Through our partnerships, we have contributed data, case studies, and analysis to support the government’s work on the Roadmap and related initiatives.
Ambitious new plans to increase the use of timber in construction were announced by Environment Minister Mary Creagh at the Timber in Construction Summit in London Photo TDUK
We continue to:
• Develop free-to-access technical resources that help specifiers, contractors, and manufacturers integrate timber safely and effectively.
• Promote education and upskilling, whether in-person CPDs, online learning on our new and improved Wood Campus, or our designTimber webinars.
• Work with regulators and policymakers to ensure timber is fairly represented in standards and guidance, especially in areas like fire safety, moisture performance, and whole-life carbon.
• Champion responsible sourcing and transparency, through our industry leading Responsible Purchasing Policy system, and supporting assurance schemes like Grown in Britain along with FSC/PEFC certification.
Our industry is ready to scale. But that growth must be built on robust understanding—not marketing hype or untested assumptions.
A time for joined-up thinking
Government support is an important step. But policy alone cannot deliver the transformation our industry needs. Timber’s increased use must be supported by:
• Better design-stage decision-making
• Open collaboration across disciplines
• Consistent supply of home-grown timber
• Investment in processing and R&D
• Transparent lifecycle analysis and specification tools
Encouragingly, we are seeing this alignment emerge—through programmes like Innovate UK’s Net Zero Built Environment Mission, the Welsh Government’s Timber Industrial Strategy, and industry-led projects such as the Whole Life Carbon Standard and Reuse Readiness frameworks.
Moving forward with clarity and care
The construction sector stands at a turning point. If we are to shift toward regenerative practices, natural materials like timber must be at the centre—not as a token gesture, but as part of an integrated, technically credible system.
Our role as an industry is to ensure that timber is not only seen as a low-carbon material—but also as a reliable, resilient, and responsibly deployed one. This means focusing on knowledge, not noise. It means working across professions,
sectors, and policy domains to ensure timber thrives in practice—not just in principle.
At TDUK, we remain committed to supporting this transition— through research, resources, and shared understanding. n
About the author
References
David Hopkins Chief Executive Officer Timber Development UK (TDUK) www.timberdevelopment.uk
1. DEFRA et al. (2025). Timber in Construction Roadmap. www.gov.uk/government/publications/timber-inconstruction-roadmap
Editor’s note:
This is an updated, evergreen version of the article “Government commits to increase the use of timber in construction” by Jennie Ward, originally published by Timber Development UK in March 2025.
The original article is available at: www.timberdevelopment.uk/ government-commits-to-increase-theuse-of-timber-in-construction
Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
Moisture measurement and its impor tance in construction
Timber performance depends heavily on managing moisture. Andy Pitman explains why understanding, measuring and controlling wood moisture content at every stage— from manufacture to installation—is essential to avoid decay, delays and design failure.
As timber consultants, much of our work relates to the effects of the interaction of wood and water. Recent conference and online seminar events, along with technical guidelines for the UK construction industry, have highlighted the importance of monitoring and controlling timber moisture during construction and in completed buildings.
It is important that the influence of wood and moisture is receiving so much attention given that wood exposed to wetting for extended periods can lead to decay and costly repairs. Drying down wet timber in situ is often challenging since pieces may not be exposed to airflow on all faces, reducing drying rates and leading to costly delays in construction programmes. The strength and performance of wood-composite sheathing / flooring and I-joists can also be reduced by wetting.
Protecting wood against wetting
Contractors and their clients are increasingly aware of the importance of protecting wood against wetting, monitoring moisture content during construction and in completed buildings. Many have invested in moisture meters and moisture monitoring devices. It is important to highlight that frequency and locations for measurement are also important, particularly for large cross-section timbers and laminated structural timbers where moisture gradients are common and where glue lines influence wetting through the thickness.
As timbers dry, humidity increases; if not reduced through ventilation or dehumidification, promotes growth of mould on wood products as their surface moisture content increases. Moulds impact the health of workers and future occupiers, and mould growth can lead to the need for specialist cleaning. This is also important where the exposed faces of timber panels provide an aesthetic function. Being able to measure wood moisture and relative humidity can enable those involved in construction to reduce the risk of mould growth.
Protecting and conditioning wood
Wood moisture often needs to be below a certain level prior to treating, coating or gluing to enable adequate uptake of preservative and prevent delamination of coatings or timber components in service. >>
“Moisture may be invisible, but its impact on timber performance—and project costs—is anything but.”
Photo: Adobe stock
TIMBER ENGINEERING EXPERTS
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Harmony Timber Solutions UK, Unit 2a, Canterbury Ind Park, Island Road, Hersden, Canterbury, Kent, CT3 4HQ
Also, conditioning wood to a ‘constant’ moisture content termed equilibrium moisture content (EMC) under environmental conditions resembling those in service, will reduce the level of dimensional change that will take place in service, or enable change in dimension to be accommodated through design and installation. Understanding the moisture content of wood, dimensions, grain orientation, species and the environmental conditions during use enables a construction professional to understand levels of shrinkage or swelling that will occur and its consequences. A chart showing moisture contents for timbers under different service conditions was presented in Desch in 19621 with values comparable with those presented in the current joinery standard2. Interestingly, the effects of not targeting wood moisture content with conditions in a building on product performance were raised in Desch 63 years ago! It highlights the importance of monitoring the moisture content of timbers at several key stages: during manufacture, during storage or acclimatisation on site, and again before installation. This is essential to ensure the timber is suitable for processing, has reached its equilibrium moisture content (EMC), and is at an appropriate level for its intended use.
Simple steps to prevent costly mistakes and ensure timbers deliver desired performance include:
• Understand the moisture content range that a timber will be exposed to in service.
• Include a moisture content in the specification and check timber moisture content at the time of delivery using appropriate sampling and measurement tools.
• Store wood under conditions that maintain this moisture content by protecting against wetting if necessary.
• For exterior joinery, understand the level of shrinkage and swelling that will occur and accommodate through design and installation.
• For interior joinery, ensure wood products are acclimatised in heated weathertight buildings with control of temperature and humidity to an EMC under these conditions prior to installation.
• Monitor moisture content of wood using the appropriate tools for the product in question.
These simple steps will ensure timber has the best start to its service life.
Find out more
Why not join our free webinars on moisture:
Moisture in Timber - 15 October 2025
Understanding and how to account for moisture in wood - 5 November 2025
These webinars are delivered as part of the Woodknowledge Wales Timber 101 webinar series. n
About the author
References
Dr Andy Pitman
Principal Timber Consultant Filros Timber Consultants www.filros.co.uk
1. Desch HE. Timber: its structure and properties. London: MacMillan and Co Ltd; 1962.
2. BS EN 942:2007 Timber in joinery – General requirements
Register now for the 2025 Timber 101 webinars
Hosted by Woodknowledge Wales, this free, CPD-friendly series explores the properties, performance, and specification of timber across the supply chain—from species selection through to durability, moisture management and material quality.
3 September 2025: Specifying and selecting timber – what’s the criteria?
17 September 2025: Trees to commercial timber species
1 October 2025: Wood material structure and properties
15 October 2025: Moisture in timber
5 November 2025: Understanding and how to account for moisture in wood
19 November 2025: Natural durability
3 December 2025: Quality of timber – perception and confusion
www.woodknowledge.wales/timber-101-free-onlinetraining-series-now-live-for-registration
Designed for built environment professionals, procurement teams, housing developers, designers, and anyone looking to deepen their understanding of timber as a modern construction material.
Timber frame and of fsite construction
Timber frame construction has moved from niche to mainstream. David Himmons explains why factory-built timber systems are vital to meeting regulatory, environmental and housing challenges—and what’s needed to scale them further.
Croft Court Welshpool Site, Mid Wales.
Photo: Dragon UAV
Timber structures
Offsite construction
“Off-site timber isn’t just sustainable— it’s precise, scalable, and ready to meet the real-world pressures of modern housebuilding.”
Timber Frame construction, often referred to as the ‘oldest construction method’ is also (in my humble opinion!) the most advanced modern construction method. Be it safety, sustainability or scalability, the timber industry has invested in the solutions, testing and data to support the housebuilding and construction industries further adoption of timber systems.
Raising standards to reflect market growth
Recent years have seen national housebuilders opening their own timber frame factories, fast becoming the mainstream solution for delivering sustainable, high-performance homes at speed and scale. In the UK, Timber Frame now accounts for nearly a third of all new housing starts. The system’s popularity lies in its proven benefits, rapid build times, enhanced thermal performance, design flexibility, and reduced site waste, all of which align closely with the UK’s push for Net Zero and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).
Timber’s role in meeting the climate challenge
The scalability and precision of Timber Frame systems make them particularly attractive in a housing market defined by urgent need, tight budgets, and rising environmental expectations. Developers are increasingly recognising that off-site timber engineered solutions support consistent quality, programme certainty, and design innovation while minimising on-site disruption. These qualities are crucial in reducing delays, enhancing safety, and improving community acceptance of new developments.
The regulatory environment is also playing a pivotal role in shaping construction methods. The Building Safety Act 2022 marks a fundamental shift in how accountability and material performance are handled, bringing with it increased scrutiny on structural integrity, fire resistance, and durability. From the design phase through to post-occupancy, the Act requires a golden thread of information, transparency, and traceability. These requirements align well with the principles of off-site timber engineering, where digital design and factory-controlled processes already enable high levels of traceability and quality assurance. >>
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The growing momentum behind developing a new part to the Building Regulations could add further regulatory impetus - Part Z, calling for whole-life carbon assessments on all new buildings, would encourage early design-stage consideration of embodied carbon. While not yet enacted, the proposal is already influencing public sector procurement and guiding developers toward low-carbon, futureproofed materials and methods. Timber frame systems, with their inherently low embodied carbon and renewability, offer a compelling solution to meet emerging sustainability regulations.
As the pressure mounts to deliver buildings that are safer, more sustainable, and energy-efficient, the demand for advanced Timber frame systems continues to grow. These systems support a fabric-first approach, delivering excellent thermal performance and airtightness that far exceed the requirements of current Building Regulations. Factory-assembled panels can incorporate high-performance insulation, service zones, membranes and airtightness detailing, ensuring consistent outcomes
on-site. For homes and buildings targeting Passivhaus or Near Zero Energy compliance, timber engineered systems can easily achieve U-values down to 0.1 W/m²K, dramatically reducing heating demand and operational energy costs. This level of performance is not only beneficial for occupants but also supports wider policy aims including the Future Homes Standard1, local energy efficiency targets, and commitments to decarbonisation.
Precision, performance and compliance
Performance, however, must be supported by evidence. With heightened scrutiny around safety and environmental performance, the use of tested, certified and data-backed timber solutions has become essential. Factory-controlled production environments ensure consistency in insulation, fixings, and airtightness, while independent testing confirms compliance with acoustic, structural, and fire performance standards. Key certifications, such as Robust Standard Details (RSD), ISO 9001 quality management systems, and verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are increasingly necessary to meet the expectations of clients, insurers, and regulators. These credentials also support environmental assessments including BREEAM, RIBA 2030, and LETI, enabling project teams to make informed decisions about materials and their life-cycle impacts. >>
Croft Court, Welshpool Site, Mid Wales. Photo: Dragon UAV
Grovesnor TimberWorks. Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
Across the UK, notable projects are demonstrating the versatility and effectiveness of Timber frame in both residential and commercial contexts. From urban infill plots to large-scale developments, timber-based systems are delivering high quality, low-carbon results with exceptional speed. In educational settings, timber has been used to create low-energy classrooms that enhance learning environments while reducing operational costs. In commercial applications, it has supported innovative structural designs that reflect modern values around wellness, biophilia, and material sustainability. These buildings often incorporate a blend of engineered timber products, including glulam and cross-laminated timber (CLT), with integrated renewables such as photovoltaics and ground source heat pumps. They show how timber is not just a sustainable material choice, but a driver of holistic, performance-led design that puts occupant wellbeing and environmental responsibility at the centre of development.
A sector ready to scale—but not without challenges
Despite the benefits, the widespread adoption of off-site timber systems is not without challenges. Design coordination must begin early, especially where airtightness, thermal bridging, and service routes are concerned. Projects that succeed with timber are those where structure, services, and finishes are resolved before manufacture begins. Logistics also require careful consideration. Large, prefabricated panels demand access planning and sequenced cranage, particularly on tight or urban sites. Moreover, while the skills shortage affects much of construction, the timber sector is particularly reliant on training in airtightness detailing, assembly sequencing, and Passivhaus construction methods. Bridging this skills gap will be vital to ensuring that timber solutions can be deployed at scale without compromising quality or compliance.
A confident future for timber frame
Looking ahead, I’m sure timber’s relevance will only increase as the construction industry transitions toward digital, low-carbon delivery. Advances in design software, robotics, and BIM integration are making timber systems more precise and adaptable, while hybrid approaches, combining structural >>
Llanbedr timber frame. Photo: Rosie Anthony
Lowfield Timber panel construction. Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
insulated panels (SIPs), glulam frames, and breathable insulations, are expanding what’s possible both architecturally and technically. As the UK moves toward Net Zero targets and embraces a circular economy mindset, timber is uniquely suited to support this shift. It is not only renewable and low in embodied carbon, but also compatible with design for disassembly, reuse and recycling. The material’s biogenic carbon storage offers a valuable buffer against carbon-intensive construction practices, while its adaptability makes it ideal for retrofitting, extensions, and densification of existing sites.
This momentum is not only being driven by regulation and environmental necessity but also by a cultural shift in the construction industry. Architects, engineers, developers, and clients are demanding use of timber both structurally and aesthetically. Timber, with its natural warmth, low toxicity, and capacity to support healthier indoor environments, is gaining favour in educational, healthcare, and residential buildings.
“The scalability and precision of timber frame systems make them particularly attractive in a housing market defined by urgent need, tight budgets, and rising environmental expectations.”
At Timber Innovations, we’ve recently moved to a larger design and manufacturing facility, invested in new manufacturing lines to allow us to double production and continue to test and develop new products such as our award-winning Larsen system for low energy / Passivhaus projects. Alongside our wider group of companies with 21 manufacturing sites across the UK, we are confident that the timber industry is well placed and on a firm trajectory of sustainable growth. The outlook is also positive given the Future Homes Standard focus on timber frame, drive to reduce planning red tape and the government’s ambition of 1.5m new homes over the next five years.
Reflecting on all the above, the timber industry is in good shape but certainly cannot rest on its laurels. n
References
David Himmons Managing Director Timber Innovations www.timberinnovations.co.uk
www.timberframe.co.uk
1. Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (2023) The Future Homes and Buildings Standards: 2023 consultation. UK Government. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-futurehomesand-buildings-standards-2023-consultation/the-futurehomes-and-buildings-standards-2023-consultation
About the author
PYC off-site construction timber panel. Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
Is your timber really green?
Reducing embodied carbon from the outset
Focusing on materials alone won’t deliver the carbon savings we need. Here, Clara Koehler explores how early-stage thinking—before design is fixed— can unlock the greatest opportunities for embodied carbon reduction.
Whilst the construction industry has been widely championing the performance of buildings and reducing carbon emissions related to the operation of buildings, the art of reducing upfront and embodied carbon is still an emerging area.
Embodied carbon is often addressed during the technical design stage by replacing traditional, extractive materials— such as concrete, steel, or masonry—with bio-based alternatives like timber. However, many clients are hesitant to take this step. They worry about higher consultancy fees, a longer and more iterative design process, and the potential for increased cost and risk when using unfamiliar materials. But are we missing a trick by focusing solely on material swaps rather than looking holistically at the design, construction and use of our environment?
Estimating embodied carbon emissions
In simple terms, embodied carbon emissions are calculated by multiplying material quantities with a specific carbon emission factor for that given material.
“We can’t reduce what we overbuild—true carbon savings start with using less stuff, not just greener stuff.”
In practice, this means that to estimate embodied carbon emissions, a degree of certainty is required regarding both the material quantities as well as their specification. However, this detailed level of information is often not available in the early design stages. Consequently, whole life carbon assessments tend to be undertaken too late in the design process - when the design is already fixed and quantities are known. At that point, the main opportunity for carbon reduction is limited to using alternative materials with a lower carbon emissions factor. >>
Figure 1 - Indicative A1-A3 upfront embodied carbon estimations for a nominal 2-storey 3B 5-Person dwelling of 92.8 m²; Calculations include building fabric and structure only and excludes all fixtures and fittings. Source: Woodknowledge Wales
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And this approach can show immediate results: Take, for example, a generic three-bedroom detached house. Replacing a traditional brick-and-block construction and PIR insulation with a standard timber frame, woodfibre insulation and brick cladding can save a significant amount of upfront embodied carbon (Figure 1). The benefits of this method go beyond carbon counting and immediate quantifiable results. Bio-based and natural materials can improve resident health and indoor environments, support local economies by increasing demand within the regional supply chain, and remove CO2 from the atmosphere by storing carbon in the building’s fabric for its lifetime.
Reducing material quantities
Often overlooked, however, is another approach to reducing carbon: by reducing material quantities. And that starts right at the beginning of a project – often before any designers or sustainability specialists are involved.
Take the same three-bedroom house. What if, instead of plotting the house as a detached home, the designers decide to arrange it as part of a terrace? This reduces the amount of external surface area, and with that both the area exposed to external temperatures through which
heat leaves the building, and the amount of insulation and cladding required. This leads to a reduction in both operational as well as embodied carbon.
As Figure 1 shows, the resulting reduction in upfront embodied carbon can be even greater than that achieved through material substitution. Results will depend on the specific assumptions and context, but this example gives an indication of the relative impact that could be achieved.
Carbon savings made in this way, from changes to the brief or adapting early concept options, are usually not accounted for because they are too difficult to quantify at that stage. They tend to fall outside the standard approaches to reducing embodied carbon but, as seen from the example above, are critical if we are to meet our climate obligations.
Embracing the principle of ‘less is more’
These alternative solutions to carbon reduction often need better communication, critical thinking and a willingness from key stakeholders—many of whom may not be carbon specialists—to challenge norms and go beyond established standards and regulatory approaches. By embracing the principle of ‘less is more’ (Figure 2), we need to challenge briefs, learn from previous experiences and re-think our positions on what we need and how we live as a society; only then can we optimise our designs by adopting strategic decisions that emphasise multifunctional use, efficiency and sufficiency. >>
Figure 2: Hierarchy of Net Zero Design. Source: Institute of Structural Engineers 2021
‘Using less stuff’ can be applied in various ways throughout design process– through reuse of existing buildings, flexible designs strategies that allow for future adaptation, clever timetabling of activities or even through challenging policy requirements like parking provision. Efficient massing, layout and building configuration not only reduce material use but also save cost whilst potentially reducing operational carbon emissions and energy bills (Figure 3).
In practice, if we are to keep to our carbon budget, we need both approaches: Reducing material quantities as well as choosing materials with the least environmental impact. But this can’t remain a separate exercise that happens adjacent to the design process. It needs to become an integral part in the development of a project and requires everyone involved to take responsibility and challenge societal norms and conveniences.
The Early Stage Embodied Carbon Tool
This is why Woodknowledge Wales has developed the Early Stage Embodied Carbon Tool (or short ESECT). Although primarily aimed at the social housing sector and low-rise housing developments, its core principles are transferrable to a wide range of projects as it introduces and explains the key concepts around embodied carbon. By acknowledging that the opportunities for carbon reduction will be unique to every project and site, rather than pointing to a specific solution, the tool functions as an illustrated case study to raise awareness and enable informed decision-making.
If you would like to be involved in further conversations around this topic, get in touch with clara.koehler@woodknowledgewales.co.uk n
About the author
Clara Koehler
Design & Architecture, Woodknowledge Wales
Email: clara.koehler@woodknowledgewales.co.uk www.woodknowledge.wales
“In practice, if we are to keep to our carbon budget, we need both approaches—reducing material quantities as well as choosing materials with the least environmental impact.”
Figure 3: Interdependencies between design efficiency, carbon and cost. Source: Woodknowledge Wales
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The UK’s timber construction sector is entering a new phase where manufacturing capability, carbon data, and design excellence align. Anna Lisa McSweeney highlights why a new national centre, new metrics, and new partnerships are driving mass timber forward.
In 2025, the UK marked a turning point for sustainable construction with the launch of the Mass Timber Centre of Excellence at the BE-ST Campus in Hamilton, Scotland.1
Backed by a £1.5 million investment from the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council, and developed in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University, the Centre aims to build national capacity for the design, prototyping and manufacture of mass timber building systems.
The facility houses the UK’s largest CNC machine for timber processing, alongside a high-powered extraction system and structural testing—delivering the infrastructure needed to accelerate production of homegrown glulam, CLT, NLT and hybrid timber systems.1 It is also now spearheading critical research into fire safety in mass timber buildings, thanks to a further £190k grant from Built by Nature.2
More than an equipment upgrade, the Centre represents a strategic shift. It places manufacturing at the heart of a whole-system approach to construction—linking research, fabrication, regulation and training. As Sam Hart, Associate Director at BEST, explains in an article for Scottish Construction Now (16 May 2025).
“The launch of the Centre is a testament to years of collaborative innovation, helping to validate mass timber as a high-value construction method,”3
The launch comes at a time when mass timber is gaining credibility across the UK’s development pipeline—not just as a material innovation, but as a performance-led solution to the climate, housing and productivity crises.
A whole life perspective: measuring what matters
Running parallel to the Centre’s manufacturing ambition is a growing focus on how we measure and evaluate timber building performance. Leading that conversation is the 2024 Measuring Mass Timber study, led by dRMM in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University, the Quality of Life Foundation, and supported by Built by Nature.4
The study examined five completed UK mass timber buildings, selected as part of the Measuring Mass Timber study, spanning uses from transport to worship, education and workplace. Each project was assessed using a bespoke framework that evaluated not only embodied carbon, but also spatial quality, adaptability, and user experience. >>
New Wave House, Brent, London. Photo: Ståle Eriksen
Key findings4 included:
• Whole life carbon emissions were on average 47% lower than comparable LETI Band E benchmarks.
• Biogenic carbon storage across the five buildings was estimated to offset the equivalent of more than 50,000 car journeys between London and Glasgow.
• Post-occupancy feedback suggested enhanced occupant wellbeing, reduced stress, improved air quality and stronger user connection to nature.
• Design details such as exposed surfaces, connection design, moisture strategy and adaptability strongly influenced long-term performance and value.
Critically, the report calls for industry-wide improvements in data collection, lifecycle tracking, and consistent carbon methodologies. Without these, it argues, timber’s environmental and social value risks being under-reported and undervalued in policy and procurement decisions.4
Built by Nature: from demonstration to transformation
As the funder of both the Measuring Mass Timber project and a project within BE-ST’s national centre, Built by Nature plays a central role in aligning innovation with systemic change.
Through our Fund, we have supported a suite of research which is changing the way the sector uses timber, including:
• The New Model Building initiative5, which combines design, engineering and insurance to create replicable, insurable mass timber housing systems.
• The development of the Mass Timber Insurance Playbook6 , providing a framework to help underwriters evaluate timberspecific fire and moisture risks.
• The Commercial Timber Guidebook, which provides industry consensus on addressing challenges – such as fire safety, durability, and insurability – that have to date hindered the broader adoption of mass timber.7
Together, these actions signal a coordinated shift: from timber as an “alternative” material to timber as a credible foundation for 21st-century construction. >>
Stockholm Wood City is a planned wooden construction project located in the Stockholm neighborhood Sickla
Mjøstårnet in Norway is the world’s tallest wooden building, standing at 280 feet tall
Evidence, collaboration and capability: strengthening the mass timber knowledge base
The growing momentum behind mass timber in the UK is not being driven by a single actor or agenda, but by a collective effort to gather evidence, test systems, and develop capabilities across the value chain.
Initiatives like the Measuring Mass Timber study offer a rare example of rigorous post-occupancy research focused specifically on mass timber buildings. Evaluating both carbon performance and occupant wellbeing, the study provides an accessible model for how to assess whole-life value in timber architecture4
In parallel, institutions such as BE-ST, through the new Mass Timber Centre of Excellence, are helping to address practical and logistical challenges—offering manufacturers and designers a shared space for testing, prototyping and training. With support from the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council, this centre aims to close the gap between innovation and implementation by anchoring R&D within an active, industry-facing campus1
Meanwhile, funding from organisations such as Built by Nature has supported projects that help bridge the knowledge gaps that still exist around insurability, biogenic carbon accounting, and lifecycle methodologies5-6. These projects—along with emerging digital tools and open-source publications—signal a shift toward shared learning and transparency.
Rather than positioning mass timber as a single solution, these collaborative efforts reflect a more nuanced and systems-based approach. They support the wider integration of timber into UK construction by making information, performance data and technical guidance more available to developers, insurers, clients and design teams alike.
While technical performance is essential, systemic enablers— like funding, insurance, and standardisation—are equally critical. Here we are seeing evidence that Built by Nature has played a catalytic role. We have heard from developers that they are using the guidebooks and tools are being used onsite to help different actors in the value chain collaborate and spot issues before they emerge. It is therefore unsurprising that the Mass Timber Insurance Playbook has been downloaded once every two hours since it was launched and was independently reprinted in the United States.
“We’re moving beyond prototypes—towards a mass timber sector defined by evidence, not exception.”
A new phase for UK timber
With its combination of manufacturing capability, evidenceled design evaluation, and mission-aligned partnerships, the UK is entering a new phase in the evolution of mass timber construction.
The BE-ST Mass Timber Centre of Excellence offers not just new tools—but new possibilities. The Measuring Mass Timber report gives us a language and framework to assess those possibilities through the lens of real performance. Meanwhile Built by Nature, Woodknowledge Wales and others are helping unlock systemic obstacles—whether around insurance, policy or procurement.
Together, we are shifting the UK’s timber conversation from novelty to necessity. From embodied savings to quality of life. From case studies to codes.
Mass timber in the UK has momentum. The next step is to deliver that momentum with precision, accountability and care n
About the author
Anna Lisa McSweeney UK Network Lead Built by Nature
References
1. BE-ST. Mass Timber Centre of Excellence Launches at BE-ST Campus. BE-ST News, 15 May 2025. Available at: www.be-st. build/news/mass-timber-centreof-excellence-launches-at-be-stcampus [Accessed 17 July 2025].
2. Built by Nature. BE-ST Receives Funding from Built by Nature Towards Mass Timber Research and Policy Roadmap in Response to UK Government Request. Built by Nature News, 30 January 2025. www.builtbn.org/news/ be-st-receives-funding-from-builtby-nature-towards-mass-timberresearch-and-policy-roadmap-inresponse-to-uk-government-request [Accessed 22 July 2025]
3. Hart, S. “It’s time to rethink what Scottish timber can do.” Scottish Construction Now, 16 May 2025. Available at: www.scottishconstructionnow.com/articles/ sam-hart-its-time-to-rethink-what-scottish-timber-can-do [Accessed 17 July 2025].
4. dRMM, Edinburgh Napier University, Quality of Life Foundation. Measuring Mass Timber: Evaluating the Whole Life Value of Mass Timber Buildings. Built by Nature, 2024. Available at: www.builtbn.org/solutions/measuring-mass-timber [Accessed 17 July 2025]. Full report.
5. Waugh Thistleton Architects, UCL Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering & Buro Happold. New Model Building: Guide, Details, and Evidence, . Built by Nature, 2023. Available at: www. builtbn.org/knowledge/resources/new-model-buildingguide-details-and-evidence [Accessed 23 July 2025].
6. ASBP (Alliance for Sustainable Building Products). Mass Timber Insurance Playbook. Built by Nature, 2023. Available at: www.builtbn.org/knowledge/ resources/mass-timber-insurance-playbook [Accessed 23 July 2025].
7. Elliott Wood, Waugh Thistleton Architects, OFR Consultants & Lignum Risk Partners. Commercial Timber Guidebook. Built by Nature, 2024. Available at: www.builtbn.org/knowledge/resources/commercialtimber-guidebook [Accessed 23 July 2025].
The Urbach Tower consists of 12 curved components made from cross-laminated timber. Photo: ICD/ITKE, University of Stuttgart
Timber innovation from Baden-Wür t temberg
Sabine Groeneveld uses Baden-Württemberg, a south-western federal state in Germany, as a case study to illustrate how to help promote the local timber industry whilst reaching out internationally.
Rammed earth meets a fully timber-built logistic warehouse: Weleda Cradle Campus, Schwäbisch
Gmünd: all interiorly used timber remains untreated.
Photo: Elias Hassos
“Our focus is on making the timber innovation potential visible and to network and initiate exchange on a medium- and long-term level between professionals and policy makers in the UK.”
Wood construction has a long and vibrant tradition in Baden-Württemberg. Since the Middle Ages, half-timbered houses with elaborately decorated wooden structures have characterised the appearance of many towns and villages in the state.
The rich forest landscape—especially the Black Forest— has always provided a natural resource that has promoted and refined the craft of carpentry. Historical construction methods such as Alemannic half-timbering demonstrate the high level of craftsmanship involved in working with wood as a building material.
Timber construction in Baden-Württemberg
Today, timber construction is experiencing a renaissance— now also as a key technology for sustainable building. In Baden-Württemberg, modern timber architecture combines tradition with innovation. Wood is used as a climate-friendly building material for schools, apartment buildings and office buildings. Modern techniques such as cross-laminated timber and computer-aided manufacturing enable new architectural freedoms. Statewide initiatives such as the ‘Kompetenzzentrum Holzbau’ (Timber Construction Competence Centre) promote the transfer of knowledge between craftsmanship, research and architecture.
Thus, timber construction in Baden-Württemberg is not only a cultural heritage, but also a driving force for sustainable, ecological construction—regionally rooted and internationally pioneering.
To anchor the goals of the timber construction initiative, not only strategically but also very specifically in the construction industry, the state focused on financial support instruments. One of the central programmes was the Holz Innovativ Programm (HIP), with which Baden-Württemberg wanted to initiate and raise awareness of exemplary timber construction projects. The targeted promotion of innovative construction methods was intended to accelerate the transfer of knowledge into practice and strengthen timber construction throughout the state. >>
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Baden-Württemberg timber construction initiative— key data and impact
The Baden-Württemberg Timber Construction Initiative was launched by the state government at the end of 2018. Its aim is to strengthen climatefriendly timber construction in the state in a sustainable manner – ecologically, economically and socially. It is part of the state’s sustainability strategy and links building culture with climate protection, innovation and securing skilled workers.
Around 37 million euros were available in the first implementation phase (2018–2023). These funds were allocated to 13 innovation packages, including the promotion of flagship projects, training and further education, research, digitalisation, building regulations and public relations.
A central component was the ‘Auf Holz bauen’ (Building on Wood) education platform, which was launched in 2020. By 2023, more than 11,000 professionals from the fields of architecture, crafts, administration and planning had
participated in training courses, webinars, congresses and specialist modules. Podcasts, film formats and digital knowledge offerings also contributed to the broad impact.
Another milestone was the introduction of the Baden-Württemberg Timber Construction Guideline in January 2023. It creates planning security and facilitates the approval of multi-storey timber buildings. At the same time, training programmes on the guideline were established, which have trained several hundred planners.
As part of the Holz Innovativ Programme (HIP), around 10.9 million euros were awarded by the end of 2023 for forward-looking construction projects using wood— from residential construction to municipal buildings. This was supplemented by CO2 bonuses in the Rural Development Programme (ELR) and other funding lines.
Around 18 million euros are available for timber construction and research projects until 2027.
The initiative will continue to have an impact beyond 2023—with the 4th specialist congress in May 2025, new research projects, the establishment of regional wood value chains and BadenWürttemberg’s nationally recognised role model function as the number one timber construction state.
Wangen/Allgäu – District sports hall: 27.5 m span width. Photo: Brigida Gonzalez, Stuttgart
Photo: APM/rendering a+r
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Baden-Württemberg has been systematically investing in supporting the business and trade exchange after Brexit with the UK and opened a London Office in 2021: its intention is to promote the automotive and mobility, digitalisation and AI industry as well as health and medicine technology industries.
For the significant field of the innovative timber industry of Baden-Württemberg, another SME supporting project is being funded from 2024 to 2027 and is seeking impulses and exchange with the UK on the practical, trade and scientific level. Our focus is on making the timber innovation potential visible and to network and initiate exchange on a medium- and long-term level between professionals and policy makers in the UK. n
About the author
Sabine Groeneveld
On behalf of the German state of Baden-Württemberg For more information please contact: s.groeneveld@timber-innovation-bw.co.uk
The Pile Dwelling Museum, Unteruhldingen, Lake Konstanz – in resemblance to the thousands years’ of heritage: there is not a single piece of wood in the structure of the newly built visitors’ centre that is identical to another. Photo: APM/Werner Huthmacher
New construction of administration building Y for Würth, Künzelsau-Gaisbach. Photo: Orange Blu building solutions
Gropyus: Timber structures in smart prefabrication with the newest robot technology –creating multi-storey timber buildings without the use of concrete. Photo: Gropyus
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Raising standards with metal web beams
Metal web beams are transforming the way designers and contractors approach floor and roof construction. Nick Boulton, Chief Executive of the Trussed Rafter Association, explains why their structural use is on the rise in both new build and retrofit.
Posi-Joist (MiTek).
Photo: Wyckham Blackwell
“Getting the design right on any part of a building is key—for floors and roofing, it’s essential.”
Metal web systems combine timber chords and pressed metal webs to form unique open-web structures—joists and beams. Their open web design allows for the installation of services such as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR), and other services to be passed through the metal webs without the need for notching or drilling.
In recent years, metal web beams have become an increasingly common feature in UK housing schemes. Manufactured offsite and delivered to site as a set of structural elements or as engineered cassette floor and roof units, they can outperform both solid timber and I-joints in terms of increased spans. They also offer greater opportunity for services to be run in the floor zone. The result is faster build programmes, speeding up not only carpentry works but carpentry works, but electrical, plumbing, and MVHR trades which follow. The ability to purchase engineered floor cassettes also lets the principal contractor reduce internal scaffolding and risks when working at height. They provide ready-made platforms from which to construct upper levels1
National standards: local service
Like many other engineered wood products the terms ‘metal web beam’ or ‘metal web joist’ are for the generic category of product and allow us to talk in broad terms about the features and benefits. In the UK market there are currently three brands and TRA is proud to have them all as members. Posi-Joist (MiTek), easi-joist (Wolf Systems), and SpaceJoist (ITW Construction Products). These system companies provide the pre-formed metal webs and the design software, each with its own performance profile. But it is our local manufacturing members who work directly with customers to create floor or roof designs and fabricate the bespoke sets of metal web joists or beams for each job. All brands are produced to a common European Technical Document allowing our manufacturing members to apply CE marking their products and giving buyers the comfort of independent third-party quality assurance in their design and manufacture. >>
Structural design and lateral restraint
Unlike solid timber joists, metal web joists are produced under factory-controlled conditions and uniquely designed to provide a holistic floor system for each construction. This ensures consistent quality, robust performance, and long-term stability with less shrinkage and potential for squeaky floors. The manufacturing process reduces the volume of material required, increasing material efficiency, and reduces waste from custom-made, precise engineered components. These products are designed and manufactured to suit each construction and can be specified in a wide range of widths and depths to meet individual project requirements. The clear-span capabilities of metal web joists can eliminate the need for load-bearing walls or steel beams, offering increased design freedom.
Building designers choosing metal-web systems receive reliable compliance with structural, thermal and fire requirements where required. Crucially, they allow designers to treat the floor and wall interface as a single engineered system—integrating metal web joists, lateral restraint in the form of strongbacks, insulation continuity for thermal and acoustic requirements and fire safety into one package.
Fire performance
Fire protection is another critical design parameter. The requirements vary with dwelling type, but metal web suppliers have worked as individual brands and in partnership to ensure a range of fully tested 30- and 60-minute floor solutions are available to meet the needs of building designers. TRA would always advocate early engagement between the building designer, metal web floor designer and the contractor as this is essential to achieving the necessary fire compliance in the most efficient way. This is especially important for party floor constructions within multi occupancy buildings where high acoustic and fire performance standards are the minimum requirements.
Roof applications
Metal web beams offer great potential in terms of roof design being easy to adapt for both pitched and flat roof applications. As an alternative to solid timber, they offer a lighter and more thermally efficient form of construction. The end-column configuration of each set of metal web beams can be designed to provide an effective connection to both the wall plate and ridge beam often reducing the need for specialist metalwork.
A metal web system by easi-joist (Wolf Systems). Photo: Wyckham Blackwell
Handling and installation
Metal web joists are lightweight and individually very easy to handle making site installation simple and straightforward. As precision-engineered components, they require careful site storage, with protection from UK weather wherever possible. TRA and its members would always encourage compliance with The Construction Design and Management Regulations which require a written construction phase plan, with fully trained and qualified operatives permitted to install structural components. All metal web floors must have adequate temporary bracing installed during construction and contractors should refer to the design limits before using floors for temporary storage of materials. As quantities increase or cassette floors form part of the floor system package the correct mechanical handling equipment becomes essential as does the planning and timing of site deliveries. Once again early engagement between the building designer, metal web floor designer and the contractor is essential.
Applications in retrofit
While most specified in new build, metal web joists and beams also have significant potential in retrofit and refurbishment projects. By creating easy access for the ever-growing range of services required within the floor zone metal web joists give designers greater flexibility of layout even for large service ducting such as MVHR. Metal web beams can also be combined with room-in-the-roof (RIR) attic trussed rafters to give
the same flexibility accelerating extensions, loft conversions and energy upgrades.
Their role in improving thermal continuity and reducing air leakage at roof junctions makes them a valuable tool in meeting retrofit standards such as PAS 2035, especially when combined with fabric-first strategies.
Why metal web beams matter
For contractors, metal-web systems offer faster, safer construction. For designers, they provide reliable structural performance and simplified compliance. For clients, they reduce programme times and help deliver energy-efficient buildings.
As the UK housing sector pursues greater offsite efficiency and low-carbon outcomes, engineered timber solutions like metal web joists and beams will only become more central to best practice. n
About the author
Nick Boulton Chief Executive Trussed
Rafter Association www.tra.org.uk
References
1. Trussed Rafter Association. Buyers’ guide to metal web joists www.tra.org.uk/download/5237
2. Trussed Rafter Association. Metal web joist installation video YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVNOuG-iAy0
Further information
To explore full technical details, download the TRA guidance and watch the installation video:
Metal web systems form unique open web structures. Photo: Wyckham Blackwell
TRA Metal web beams
TRA Metal Web Joist installation video
Timber cladding bat tens: don’t risk using the wrong type
Using the wrong battens for timber cladding can compromise durability, ventilation, and long-term performance. This guide from Janet Sycamore clarifies what to specify, why it matters, and where to find help.
When it comes to supporting external timber cladding, battens play a bigger role than many realise—and using the wrong type can undermine even the best installation.
A common misconception is that roofing battens and cladding battens are interchangeable. In reality, they face different exposure conditions. Cladding battens are regarded as external and exposed to moisture entering behind the rainscreen. Therefore, they need to be pressuretreated to Use Class 3 to withstand that environment. Roofing battens are treated to Use Class 2 designed for internal building use and so aren’t designed for such exposure and shouldn’t be used in their place.
So, are you specifying or selling the correct battens for the job—here we answer some commonly asked questions.
What makes a batten suitable for cladding?
Look for pressure-treated softwoods like pine or spruce, with a service life of 30 years or more. The product should come with a treatment certificate specifying its Use Class and intended desired service life—this should ideally align with the cladding board’s service life.
Should cladding battens be fixed vertically or horizontally to the wall?
For horizontal cladding, use vertical battens, choose 50 × 38 mm or 50 × 25 mm (if there’s no side jointing). For vertical cladding, counter battens are essential to maintain ventilation and drainage - counter battens should be at least 50 mm wide and 25 mm thick.
Should battens have a sloping top?
Some suppliers offer sloped-top battens, which may help water shed more effectively into the cavity—a cautious, belt-and-braces approach, though not backed by conclusive evidence.
What about strength grading?
Strength classes conveniently define timber’s minimum strength, stiffness and density characteristics. However, strengthgraded timber isn’t used for cladding battens. Instead, the battens are either sorted on-site to exclude large defects (big knots, splits, rot, etc.) or bought already graded in accordance with BS 5534 (the roofing batten standard)1 BS 5534 isn’t a strength-grading standard as such.
The wood species used for cladding battens are UK-grown larch, pine, and spruce or their imported equivalents, as defined in BS 5534. These species all have a minimum >>
The correct arrangement for timber battens with vertical timber cladding showing horizontal support battens and vertical counter battens. Image: TDCA
Aesthetic, resilient & timeless natural timbers
Architects & designers specify Shou Sugi Ban® for RIBA award -winning homes, Chelsea Flower Show gardens, Wood Award projects & heritage renovations.
www.shousugiban.co.uk or call us
Photo by James Brittain
“Roofing battens are not cladding battens—get it wrong, and even the best timber cladding can fail.”
mean wood density of 350 kg/m³ (at 12% moisture content), which gives adequate connection strength for cladding fasteners.
Provided the wood species used for cladding battens are specified in accordance with BS 5534 (code of practice for slating and tiling for pitched roofs and vertical cladding), it will meet the engineer’s minimum density requirements.
Supporting better outcomes
At the TDCA (Timber Decking and Cladding Association), we promote good practice and fit-for-purpose materials in external timber cladding. Time and again, we see preventable issues caused by inappropriate products or poor installation techniques. By choosing and selling battens that are truly suited for cladding applications, you’re playing a vital role in protecting the reputation of timber as a reliable, sustainable building material.
You can find practical information in The Timber Cladding Handbook, available online.
We also offer an advisory service for unanswered queries—use the Contact Us form to submit any questions.
For more detail, refer to BS 8605 External Timber Cladding Part 1 - Method of specifying, designed to help manufacturers and specifiers.2 TDCA offers a 15% discount to purchasers.
Find this information and more at www.tdca.org.uk n
About the author
References
1. British Standards Institution (n.d.) BS Project 2017-02345. www.standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/ projects/2017-02345
2. British Standards Institution (n.d.) BS Project 9022-07776. www.standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/ projects/9022-07776
3. BS 8605-1:2014 External timber cladding - Method of specifying. Available at discount through: www.tdca.org.uk/buy-bsi-standards
Further information
Janet Sycamore Director Timber Decking and Cladding Association (TDCA)
www.tdca.org.uk
Download the Timber Cladding Handbook at www.tdca.org.uk/ publications/the-timbercladding-handbook
Roofing battens – here indicated by a blue colour - are inappropriate for exterior cladding. Photo: TDCA
Brimstone is a beautiful range of durable, British-grown wood for cladding, decking and joinery.
We use thermal modification to transform locally grown wood into award winning cladding. We don’t use nasty chemicals – just heat. The result is an attractive, durable timber for outdoor use. And by using British species, we are also investing in local woodlands.
Brimstone is made in Wiltshire by the team at Vastern Timber.
SHS has the expertise in the design, production and installation of timber and steel/timber composite bridges, boardwalks, jetties and related structures.
Since our formation we have installed hundreds of structures throughout the UK and earned a formidable reputation for delivering high quality products and excellent service from concept to completion. Design and Manufacture is carried out by our engineers and skilled craftsmen in accordance with a quality system that complies with the requirements of NEN-EN-ISO9001. CAD drawings are provided with each structure together with supporting design calculations. All structures are designed in accordance with current British and Euro code standard and codes of practice appropriate to their location.
In accordance with our long-established policy and the principles established by the Forest Stewardship Council, timber used within the manufacture of SHS bridges is obtained from responsible sources under our certificate number INT-COC-005535-AV.
Hardwood structures require minimal maintenance for an extended life. The pleasing natural appearance of the timber makes it an ideal medium for construction, especially in the countryside where it blends harmoniously with its surroundings.
SHS bridges can be designed for pedestrians, cyclists, equestrians and light vehicles. We can offer a choice of bridge styles to suit any given application and will be pleased to help you select the most appropriate for your location.
We will be pleased to carry out site visits and advise on the best solution for your requirements. Full installation is carried out nationwide by our operatives who are highly skilled and suitably qualified in heavy timber construction.
Crendon
Timber Engineering Ltd
TRUSSES, GABLE PANELS
METAL WEB POSI-JOISTS
ROOF PANEL SYSTEMS
FEATURE TRUSSES
SIPS PANELS, SPANDREL PANELS
TIMBER FRAME, I-JOIST
ROOFING & FLOORING METALWORK
FLOOR CASSETTES
ATTIC TRUSS ROOM IN THE ROOF CHIPBOARD DECKING
Engineered elegance: The rise of timber bridges in modern Britain
Timber bridges are making a comeback across the UK, blending engineering reliability with environmental sensibility. This article explores how timber is reasserting itself as a serious, modern infrastructure material.
Timber bridges are far from a new idea. In fact, many of the UK’s earliest bridges were made from wood. But the current wave of timber bridge construction looks markedly different. Advances in engineered timber especially glued laminated timber (glulam)—have transformed what’s possible. These materials offer a compelling combination of lightness, strength, and architectural flexibility. And because they can be prefabricated off-site, they’re ideally suited for rapid installation in hard-to-access locations.
Contemporary craft: timber bridges in practice
Beaver Bridges, based in Shropshire, has been quietly expanding the profile of timber in small-to-medium span infrastructure. Their work spans everything from modest
pedestrian crossings to light-use vehicular bridges. A key feature of their approach is versatility—with both hardwood and softwood solutions available—matched by a commitment to rapid deployment and environmental sensitivity. Their projects have attracted interest from local authorities and contractors seeking practical alternatives to steel or concrete1
Similarly, CTS Bridges in West Yorkshire has built a strong reputation for delivering bespoke timber bridges, often tailored to fit natural settings such as parklands, historic estates, and nature reserves. Their designs, which can extend up to 30 metres in length, are typically prefabricated and delivered as ready-to-install structures. The off-site construction model not only speeds up installation but also reduces site disturbance—an advantage in protected or ecologically sensitive locations2
From science to site: the engineering leap
The increased confidence in timber as a structural material is underpinned by a growing body of research. Engineers and architects are no longer limited to historical rules of thumb—they’re working with rigorous data on timber’s behaviour under stress, humidity, and long-term wear.
A standout example is the Bridges of Laminated Timber (BoLT) initiative by Arup. Designed to show what’s possible with modular, low-carbon bridge construction, BoLT proposes that small-span road bridges could be made entirely from engineered timber >>
Gallows Bridge, Aspley Basin. Source: Sarum Hardwood Structures
Dorset timber e ngineering LtD are base D in the picturesque Dorset countrysi De. From here we De Liver quaLity bespoke timber proDucts an D structures aLL over the u nite D king Dom & channe L isL an Ds.
At Dorset Timber Engineering Ltd we guarantee to supply our clients with quality products and projects, manufactured from the best available materials. We can provide a full fabrication service and design for Glulam structures as well as being able to provide stock beams.
Feature trusses are a specialty, whatever the design required & in a variety of timber species. We can provide structural calculations to support specific design requirements.
We also specialise in Timber framed buildings & garages which are all hand made in our own workshop. These can be produced from Oak or softwood, depending on the clients preference. We also offer a full installation service including roofing.
Dorset timber engineering LtD
Sandhills Farm, Holwell, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5LE
call: 07913 230785
email: sales@dorsettimberengineering.co.uk
components. What’s more, these elements are designed with future reuse in mind. Rather than being fixed in place for decades, they can be dismantled, moved, or reconfigured—a clear nod to circular economy thinking3
Heritage meets innovation
Modern timber bridges aren’t just new—they’re part of a much longer story. In places like Barmouth, Gwynedd, the value of timber in infrastructure is written into the landscape. Barmouth Bridge, the UK’s longest timber viaduct, was recently restored using a combination of Douglas fir and greenheart hardwoods. The restoration didn’t just preserve a beloved structure—it reaffirmed timber’s place in coastal, heavy-use contexts4
Over in Cheshire, the Dutton Horse Bridge provides another reminder. Built in 1919 using a laminated greenheart timber arch, it remains a functioning, listed structure more than a century later. These heritage bridges are proof that, when chosen and maintained well, timber can offer extraordinary longevity5
The hardwood opportunity
Sarum Hardwood Structures has carved out a distinctive niche in this space. Specialising in large-span bridges crafted from hardwoods like oak and sweet chestnut, the company is known for pushing the envelope both technically and aesthetically. Their curved glulam spans and truss systems show that timber can be as elegant as it is efficient.
Importantly, these bridges also perform. Hardwoods offer increased durability and reduced maintenance over time—an attractive proposition for clients looking to balance upfront costs with long-term value. Whether installed in rural estates or public parks, these bridges offer a quiet confidence that stands the test of time6
Looking ahead
Interest in timber bridges is growing—and not just for their visual appeal. As the UK construction sector works to lower its carbon footprint, engineered timber is emerging as a practical and scalable solution. Timber bridges, in particular, offer an accessible entry point: they can be locally sourced, rapidly installed, and adapted to suit diverse landscapes.
They also invite us to think differently about infrastructure. Instead of viewing bridges as purely functional spans, timber invites a more integrated approach—one that considers environmental impact, aesthetic value, and community use in equal measure n
References
1. Beaver Bridges. Timber bridge solutions. www.beaverbridges.co.uk/bridges/timber-bridges
2. CTS Bridges. Timber footbridges. www.ctsbridges.co.uk/products/timber-footbridges
3. Arup. Bridges of Laminated Timber (BoLT). www.arup.com/insights/road-to-decarbonisation-timberpaves-way-for-more-sustainable-road-bridges
4. Network Rail. Barmouth Viaduct restoration. www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/wales/ barmouth-viaduct-restoration
5. Wikipedia. Dutton Horse Bridge. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutton_Horse_Bridge
6. Sarum Hardwood Structures. Timber bridges. www.sarumhardwood.co.uk/timber-structures/bridges
Dutton Horse Bridge. Photo: Steve Wynn
Jubilee River Footbridge. Source: pitchup.com
The Fire Safety Event: where innovation and compliance unite
From 28 to 30 April 2026, at NEC Birmingham, over 13,500 fire safety professionals will converge at the UK’s No. 1 fire safety event to explore next-generation solutions, live product demos, and expert-led CPD sessions.
The Fire Safety Event is the definitive destination for the UK’s fire safety community— bringing together manufacturers, installers, regulators, consultants, insurers, and managers under one roof. Set across three packed days at NEC Birmingham, the event blends hands-on demonstration with cutting-edge insight.
What’s on the agenda for 2026:
• CPD-accredited seminars led by industry experts—including government officials, lawyers, and manufacturers—delivering practical insights into regulation, innovation, and risk management.
• Specialist theatres including the Fire Safety Leaders Summit, FIA & ASFP Fire Convergence Theatre, Innovation Theatre, Compliance Theatre, and Warringtonfire Tech Talks—each tailored to different aspects of the fire safety ecosystem.
• Live product demos and immersive exhibitor zones showcasing over 10,000 fire safety products and solutions—from passive protection to alarm systems, extinguishers to smart detection.
• Networking zones and VIP lounges, including evening drinks and a Women in Industry networking event—creating informal spaces for collaboration and community building.
Over 350 exhibitors and live demonstrations filled NEC Birmingham
The event showcased the widest range of fire safety solutions
Live demos brought fire safety technologies to life—from smart detection to suppression systems
• Cross-industry co-location with The Security Event, The Health & Safety Event, National Cyber Security Show, Pro Integration Future Europe and The Workplace Event— adding a breadth of insight into safety, security, systems integration and workplace transformation.
“As we look ahead to The Fire Safety Event 2026, we’re building on the strongest foundation this show has ever seen. The overwhelming success of 2025, with record-breaking attendance and exhibitor engagement, proved just how vital this platform is for fire safety professionals across the UK and beyond. In 2026, we’re expanding our content, enhancing hands-on learning experiences, and bringing even more of the industry together under one roof to drive best practices, innovation, and compliance.” – Nathan Stovell, Senior Marketing Manager, The Fire Safety Event
Whether you’re launching a new solution, seeking practical guidance, or simply staying ahead of regulation, The Fire Safety Event delivers learning, visibility, and connection.
Join the conversation—and the community shaping the future of fire safety. n
Stay connected
Don’t miss the updates, insights, and access to The Fire Safety Event 2026. Scan to register your interest, receive event news, CPD updates, and early invites.
Thought-leading speakers set the tone in CPD-accredited theatres addressing regulation, innovation, and risk
Delegates connected at industry mixers and exclusive spaces like the FIA Members Lounge
A dedicated moment celebrating and empowering women in the fire safety profession
DuroGrit is a sustainable and water-soluble oil that colours and protects all exterior wood in 1 single layer The FibreGrit Technology, where added wood fibres give the oil its unique structure, provides the perfect combination between a saturating and a breathable monocoat system The product does not only have an incredible and long-lasting UV protection compared to other exterior wood finishing products, but it’s also extremely durable and wear resistant Unit 1, Purley Chase Industrial Estate, Pipers Lane, Nuneaton, CV10 0RG, +44 (0) 800 688 9661
Flame-retardant treated wood
Jennie Ward outlines the legal obligations for businesses supplying flame-retardant treated timber highlighting documentation, traceability, and manufacturing responsibilities under UK regulation, and how to stay compliant with critical fire safety standards.
As part of its role as the UK Construction Products Regulator, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is now actively reviewing how flame-retardant (FR) treated wood products—including timber cladding are placed on the market. Several timber businesses have already been contacted to verify compliance.
These products are inherently Safety-critical, and ensuring their traceability and performance claims meet the legal requirements of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) is now a top priority for regulators. A key issue that OPSS is focusing on relates to the Declaration of Performance (DoP) required to support FR treated wood products when they are placed on the market.
Key compliance requirements
1. Product performance evidence
As a business, if you are sending a wood product to a treatment plant for FR treatment so you can make an additional claim about its performance then, legally, you must take on the responsibilities as the manufacturer of that product – this includes producing a new DoP.
What does this mean for suppliers?
If you are sending wood products such as cladding to a third-party for fire-retardant treatment and then supplying it to market with an enhanced performance claim, you are legally classed as the manufacturer of that treated product.
This comes with a set of legal obligations, including:
• producing a new Declaration of Performance (DoP),
• affixing the correct CE or UKCA marking,
• maintaining a certified Factory Production Control (FPC) system.
Even if your operation is not a factory—for example, a warehouse or distribution hub—these responsibilities still apply.
Before placing FR-treated wood products on the market and in partnership with the treatment provider a valid Fire-test classification report must be obtained from a notified (EU) or approved (UK) body. This will include all of the product’s description and forms the basis of your DoP.
2. Factory Production Control (FPC)
A certified FPC system must track and trace all treated products. This includes:
• Batch IDs
• Staff training logs
• Stock documentation
• Archiving of treatment certificates
• Procedures for non-conforming materials
3. Issuing a DoP and CE/UKCA Marking
Once the treatment process and traceability system are in place, and the product has a valid fire classification report, you are required to issue a DoP in compliance with Annex III of the CPR. This document supports the CE or UKCA marking, which must then be affixed to the product. >>
Photo: Adobe stock
Fire Retardant Treatment (FireWright)
• Our fire retardant treatment is 100% natural and non toxic
• Fully CE and UKCA marked process
• Tested and certified to the highest standards: Euroclass B
• Large range of species can be treated
• Internal and external applications
Anti-Slip Decking (DeckWright)
• Transforms standard deck boards into fully tested and safe non-slip surfaces
• PTV score of 71, providing the perfect solution in high wear areas
• We can apply the anti-slip treatment to your deck boards or supply our own design anti-slip decking
• 15 year warranty
Preservative Treatment
• Accredited treatment and preservative service for UC2, 3 and 4
• High and low pressure treatments and decorative coatings
• Timber protection from all forms of insects, wood-destroying fungi and other biological decay
• Consistently improves the durability and lifespan of timber
Fire safety & protection Timber treatments
The role of the treater
The FR service treater does not own the product; they are responsible for the correct application of the treatment and play a critical subcontracting role. They must:
• Validate the product’s physical characteristics (e.g. thickness, species, moisture content).
• Ensure alignment between the supplied material, classification report, and end-user specifications.
• Apply approved FR formulations in controlled plant conditions.
• Maintain their own certified FPC system and undergo regular audits by an approved (GB)/notified (EU) body.
Any inconsistencies between the product description and the fire classification test report (e.g. wrong species, profile, or thickness), treatment should not proceed.
Support and guidance for members
To help you get this right, the Wood Protection Association (WPA)—in collaboration with TDUK—has produced a set of detailed FR guidance notes covering:
• roles and responsibilities of the Supplier and Treater,
• when and how a new DoP must be issued,
• legal obligations around traceability.
Of particular importance is Guidance Note WPA FR 91, which outlines responsibilities throughout the FR treatment supply chain – including cladding—and which references other guidance notes that are relevant.
Download WPA FR 9 and the full guidance series here: www.thewpa.org.uk/_files/ugd/65ba63_ c7f05c23195d4f979ea132b916278824.pdf
Act now to stay compliant
Fire performance in construction is under intense scrutiny, and regulators are placing more responsibility on suppliers to uphold safety standards for all the right reasons.
If you’re supplying FR-treated wood products, now is the time to ensure your procedures, documentation, and legal obligations are watertight.
For more information or support, please contact Nick Boulton, Head of Technical and Trade, Timber Development UK. n
About the author
Reference
Jennie Ward Marketing Manager Timber Development
UK (TDUK) timberdevelopment.uk
1. Wood Protection Association (WPA). (2023). Benchmark Quality Scheme for Fire Retardant Treated Wood Products: Guidance for Treaters, Specifiers and Users [PDF]. Castleford: WPA. www.thewpa.org.uk/_files/ugd/65ba63_ c7f05c23195d4f979ea132b916278824.pdf
[Accessed 17 Jul. 2025].
Originally published in: Designing Timber | Issue 08
This article was first published in Designing Timber, Timber Development UK’s flagship technical magazine.
Featured in Issue 08, the Fire & Performance edition, the article forms part of a wider exploration into timber safety, regulation, and material integrity covering topics from flame-retardant treatments to structural fire testing and the evolving role of UK regulation.
Read the full issue here: www.timberdevelopment.uk/issues/ designing-timber-issue-8
Photo: Adobe stock
FIRE COATINGS FOR TIMBER
Fire retardant coating for Internal & external timber
NEW INTUCOVER COATING
Everyone was asking what can be used on external timber to seal against the weather... not just another top coat, a real solution. We have designed a product specifically to address this issue.
• In 2016/2017
Australia and New Zealand had the same problems Nowwe sell our coating all over the world. Our product 42 (our Envirograf coating) is available clear or coloured in all these countries.
Climate Change is nowwith us and will continue. All timber will become over-heated and will scorch and burn, we have dealt with this since the 2000’s with: • China’s temples burning • In 2006 Norway& Sweden exteriorof theirschools and buildings were burning and in 2007 allthe internalwallswere getting hot.
Intumescent paint for Internal & external timber
IntuPrimer Coating is initially applied to either new timbers or existing paint. After only 10 minutes our IntuCover Coating can then be applied. It is a full intumescent giving 90 minutes fire protection
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This coating should be used on all timbers NOW for both existing and new timbers, otherwise by 2028 most roofs in England will be on fire.
EnviroEcoBuildings
With Climate Change we’ve seen fires & flooding throughout the world, and as much as we don’t want to believe it, this will inevitably be happening soon in the UK.
With this in mind we have designed EnviroEco Buildings!
These quick to build homes are built on a steel framework above ground level, ensuring any storm water will simply run underneath it and not penetrate the building. This ground-breaking innovative building system has greatly surpassed all tests undertaken by KIWA with BDA approval.
• Fully tested for thermal insulation for floors, external & internal walls, ceilings & roofs
• Surpassed the highest insulation tests, so there’s no need for central heating
• They are warm in the winter and cool in the summer
• They will never burn down
At the Warrington facility the internal walls were fire tested. The tests were finally stopped at over 90 minutes as it was pointless going on any further, they just don’t burn. The same tests at Efectis in Holland were carried out for over 90 minutes on external walls and this time even with a 4 Tonne load-bearing on top.
Safe schools for the future
Seb Laan Lomas explains how new fire research and real-world data from 17 timber schools show how a proven, low-impact design approach can deliver safe, healthy, insurable buildings—fit for people and planet.
New fire research, led by Architype Architects, and carried out with UCL, the University of Edinburgh, and IGNIS, explores the conservatism of current practice, and clarifies the benefits of a physics-based approach when creating high-performance, high-health, lowimpact schools for the future.
The benefits of a physics-based approach
This research, funded by the Forestry Commission under its Woods into Management Forestry Innovation Fund, demonstrates how timber frame construction, viewed through the lens of a simulated built case study, can be shown to have its structural integrity unaffected by internal fire scenarios. Analysis by Professor José L. Torero of UCL also demonstrates that the calculated fires in the case study’s primary school environments are significantly less onerous than furnace test conditions used for creating fire certificates. The analysis shows that no fires would develop to achieve postflashover conditions, and that the simulations did not experience fires that would threaten the building’s integrity. This compounds aspects of conservativeness within standard practice and sets
out a workflow for project teams that have experienced the severely limiting and challenging realities of fire certificates.
These forward-looking insights have been paired with monitored, in-use health and wellbeing, energy performance, and embodied carbon data of 17 completed primary schools across England, Scotland, and Wales. All of these buildings are of timber-frame construction, using a low-tech, highperformance assembly that is implementable at scale today and an ideal opportunity for meeting the Government’s ambition to increase the use of timber in construction to support the country’s decarbonisation. >>
Many of the components used in the analysed build-up can be UK-sourced, or have the potential to be. Source: Safe Schools for the Future report
How long is long enough? Scenario-specific analysis showed the building’s structure
requirements. Source: Safe Schools for the Future report
A tried and tested design approach
The tried and tested architectural design approach demonstrated within the report also delivers healthier classrooms, high-emitting, harmful materials with bio-based materials, and enjoying the fresh air benefits of an efficiently and effectively ventilated space. Recent PhD research on these buildings has shown conventional classrooms to be 1.5 times as harmful due to the materials used, and poorer airtightness and ventilation.
This holistic approach is underpinned by industry-leading quality assurance driven by an independent certification—Passivhaus in these instances. This is viewed by the project’s insurance stakeholder, Phil Callow of Rosetta Risk Management, as an invaluable contribution to demonstrating the insurability of a building.
This new open-source publication shares construction details, workflows, lessons learned, design guidance, and the collected data from these 17 case study schools, with new health and wellbeing and fire research, to support project teams to scale up the use of home-grown timber for schools that are fit for people, place, and planet.
“Physics-based analysis reveals classroom fires can be far less severe than standard tests assume—illustrating a path to lower-carbon yet safe, scalable timber schools.”
This report was launched at an event hosted by Woodknowledge Wales on Tuesday 2 September. n
Download a copy of the report at www.safeschoolsforthefuture.com
About the author
Seb Laan Lomas
Associate and Passivhaus Designer Architype Architects www.architype.co.uk
Based on Larsen truss details, C16 softwood from the UK’s forests can be used to deliver high performance schools
The impor tance of cer tified doorsets following the Building Saf et y Act
The Building Safety Act (2023) demands provable compliance, long-term accountability, and fire-tested components. Here, Ainsley Evershed explains why certified doorsets offer a reliable, efficient route to safer, regulation-ready buildings.
The Building Safety Act (2023) has fundamentally changed how construction and manufacturing are approached in the UK. It is no longer enough to follow best practice. Everyone involved in the delivery of buildings must now prove that they are following the strict regulations.
For those specifying, manufacturing, or installing doors, this marks a shift in both responsibility and expectation. It is also an opportunity to raise standards across the entire industry.
More than compliance: a new era of responsibility
One of the most important changes introduced by the Building Safety Act is the heightened focus on accountability. Responsibility now continues throughout the building’s lifecycle.
Fire safety is central to this new regime, yet a remarkable 75% of fire doors inspected in the UK fail to meet required standards, often due to gaps around the frame, smoke seal failures, and installation issues. Certified doorsets offer a tested, ready-to-install solution that greatly reduces those performance risks.
Fire safety has become a particular point of focus. Fire doors are among the most closely scrutinised elements of a building’s passive fire protection strategy. However, not all fire doors provide the same level of protection. Their performance is rated by how long they can resist the spread of fire and smoke under test conditions, typically expressed in minutes:
• FD30: Offers 30 minutes of fire resistance. Common in residential and commercial buildings, especially along escape routes.
• FD60: Provides 60 minutes of resistance. Used where evacuation may take longer or where higher fire risk is anticipated.
• FD90 and FD120: These doors offer 90 or 120 minutes of protection. They are used in highrise buildings, industrial settings, and other high-risk areas.
These ratings are not estimates. They are based on rigorous testing to BS 476 Part 22 or EN 1634-1 standards, where the complete assembly—including the leaf, frame, hardware, seals, and glazing, is exposed to a controlled fire to assess its performance.
The new rules of the game
The Building Safety Act, which came into force in October 2023, was introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the Hackitt Review. Its goal is to make buildings demonstrably safer, especially high-risk residential buildings and to ensure that safety decisions can be evidenced.
The Act places legal duties on those involved in the design, construction, and ongoing management of buildings. Duty holders must now demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent the spread of fire and avoid structural failure. Non-compliance is no longer just a matter of poor practice. It can now lead to criminal consequences.
When it comes to fire doors, performance must be proven. It cannot simply be assumed. This is one of the key reasons certified doorsets are gaining wider recognition across the industry.
The Golden Thread and the case for traceability
The Golden Thread is another central concept introduced by the Act. It refers to a digital, living record that documents safety-critical information throughout a building’s life.
This is not a tick-box exercise. It ensures transparency and accountability, especially when products such as fire doors need to be inspected, repaired, or replaced. Facilities managers and responsible persons must know exactly what was installed, how it performs, and whether any changes have occurred.
Certified doorsets support this by providing clear, verifiable documentation. Every component of the doorset—from the door leaf and frame to the hinges, seals, and hardware—is tested and supplied as part of a complete system. These systems are typically manufactured under third-party certification and are often delivered with a single warranty. This approach greatly simplifies compliance, documentation, and future maintenance.
Increasingly, doorsets are also equipped with Q-Mark identification labels or scannable QR codes. These can be read using a standard smartphone. The digital tags provide instant access to essential information such as test certification, manufacturer details, and the date of the most recent inspection. This functionality helps maintain the Golden Thread in a practical and accessible way. It ensures that fire doors can be monitored and maintained with confidence throughout their service life.
Doorset vs. door assembly: what’s the difference?
Let’s take a closer look at the difference between a doorset and a door assembly
A door assembly is built on site using separate components such as the frame, door leaf, and hardware. While these parts may be individually certified, they are not necessarily tested together as a system.
A doorset, on the other hand, is a complete, factoryassembled product. It is tested, certified, and supplied as a single unit, ready for installation.
Door assemblies carry a significantly higher risk of underperformance. Even when individual components are technically compliant, performance can be compromised if the wrong combinations are used or if installation is inconsistent. In fact, nearly 31% of fire door failures are linked directly to installation issues—many of which occur with site-built assemblies. Certified doorsets eliminate much of this uncertainty by offering a controlled, factory-tested solution. Supplied as a complete unit, they provide consistent performance and greatly reduce the risk of failure on site.
In today’s fast-paced construction environments, that consistency is essential. Specifications change frequently, product substitutions occur, and mistakes can easily happen. Certified doorsets help mitigate these risks from the start.
Building regulations, as outlined in Appendix C, mandate that fire doorsets must be tested to standards such as BS 476-22 or BS EN 13501-2 (including BS EN 1634-1, 1634-2, and BS EN 1634-3). Test evidence should adequately demonstrate compliance and apply to the complete installed assembly. >>
Factory-tested doors and components are manufactured for compliance. Source: Dorplan
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Dorplan is one of the UK’s leading specialist doorset providers, offering a single source solution for your fire, security and acoustic doorsets, and combining this with a wide range of architectural ironmongery – with 30 years of expertise behind it. When your project matters, you can rely on Dorplan.
Certified doorsets. Delivering assurance.
To discuss your next project and how we can add extra value contact us on enquiries@dorplan.co.uk
To discuss your next project and how we can add extra value contact us on 01366 386800, email enquiries@dorplan.co.uk or visit www.dorplan.co.uk
For compliance with PAS24:2022, purchasing as components would not suffice, as doorsets must be supplied complete (prehung in frame with complete ironmongery) and independently tested by a certified accreditation organisation such as UKCAS.
Approved Document Q imposes strict requirements on features like locks, hinges, and glazing for external doors in dwellings to enhance security. Compliance with standards such as PAS 24, STS 201, LPS1175, STS 202, LPS 2081, or equivalents is necessary. Q1 of Approved Document Q mandates reasonable provision to resist unauthorised access, with standards detailed in Appendix B.
Why certified doorsets just make sense
Choosing a certified doorset is more than a matter of convenience or box-ticking. It is a practical, forward-looking decision that supports safety and long-term compliance. The benefits include:
• Reliable performance: Tested and certified as a complete system for both fire and acoustic integrity.
• Simplified compliance: A single supplier means one set of documentation and a clear chain of responsibility.
• Faster, safer installation: Factory-assembled units remove uncertainty and reduce time on site.
• Easier maintenance: With a single point of origin, future inspections, replacements, and updates are more straightforward.
At Dorplan, we are seeing a growing demand for certified doorsets from architects, contractors, and building owners. These stakeholders value not only the product performance but also the clarity and assurance it brings. A doorset is more than just a product. It is a long-term investment in building safety and regulatory confidence.
Designing for safety, not just checking boxes
The construction industry is moving beyond minimum compliance. Safety, traceability, and quality assurance are now built-in legal requirements that must be considered from design through to occupation.
Specifying a certified doorset is not just a technical choice. It reflects a commitment to getting things right, across the supply chain and throughout the building’s life.
Ultimately, that commitment protects not only the people who use the building but also those responsible for creating it. n
About the
author
Ainsley Evershed Sales Director Dorplan dorplan.co.uk
Building standards
The following references provide access to official building regulation guidance across the UK, including Approved Documents and technical handbooks for England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
England (UK Government – Approved Documents)
1. Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Building regulations: approved documents. GOV.UK. Updated 2024 [cited 2025 Jul 31]. Available from: www.gov.uk/government/collections/approved-documents
2. HM Government. Building regulations guidance (England). GOV.UK. [cited 2025 Jul 31]. Available from: www.gov.uk/government/collections/approved-documents
Wales (Welsh Government – Approved Documents)
3. Welsh Government. Building regulations: approved documents (Wales). GOV.WALES. Updated 2023 [cited 2025 Jul 31]. Available from: www.gov.wales/buildingregulations-approved-documents
4. Building Regulations Wales. Guidance and approved documents. Welsh Government. [cited 2025 Jul 31]. Available from: www.gov.wales/building-regulations
Scotland (Scottish Government – Building Standards)
5. Scottish Government. Building standards guidance and regulations. GOV.SCOT. Updated 2024 [cited 2025 Jul 31]. Available from: www.gov.scot/policies/building-standards
6. Scottish Government. Technical Handbooks and building standards. GOV.SCOT. [cited 2025 Jul 31]. Available from: www.gov.scot/publications/building-standards-technicalhandbooks
Northern Ireland (Building Control NI)
7. Department of Finance. Building regulations: Northern Ireland. Building Control NI. Updated 2024 [cited 2025 Jul 31]. Available from: www.buildingcontrol-ni.com/regulations
8. Building Control Northern Ireland. Building regulations guidance documents. [cited 2025 Jul 31]. Available from: www.buildingcontrol-ni.com
The Golden Thread: digital data conduits vs data silos
Philip Duckworth explains why moving from fragmented data silos to integrated digital conduits is essential for managing critical fire safety data, ensuring compliance, improving accountability, and ultimately helping to save lives.
One of the main problems for manufacturers of passive fire products, such as fire doors, doorsets, fire screens, fire barriers, partitions and walls has been ensuring the delivery of the products specification and technical data along the supply chain, making sure the right information is available and easily accessible, at the point-of-need, for every stage of a products lifecycle.
Specification and Technical data, such as:
Product sourcing and specification - certification of legal sourcing and sustainability from the forest of origin, evidencing responsible management and chain of custody.
Third-party test evidence and certification – UKAS approved and independently third-party audited and approved data for fire, security, smoke and acoustics.
Installation guidance - from detailed specifications, dimensions and technical drawings through to training and ‘how to’ documents and videos.
Maintenance guidance & permissible repairs - On-site remediation and adjustment guidance and standards
This information, much of which is ‘critical fire safety data’ not only has to be understood, used and implemented by everyone in the ‘chain of responsibility’ from main contractors, sub-contractors and installation teams through to fire safety inspectors and building safety regulators, but also has to be collated and stored within the buildings O&M and Fire Safety Manual in line with BS 9999:2017-Section 9, Annex H, to meet the latest legislative compliance standards.
Managing data in line with ‘Golden Thread’ principles
Information and data also need to be managed in line with the ‘Golden Thread’ principles as per the following guidance:
Single source of truth: Gathering all information into a single location that is continuously updated throughout its lifecycle.
Culture change: Facilitate a culture change by increasing the requirement for competence, information management and process optimisation.
Accurate and trusted: To enable effective management, maintenance, inspection, competency and compliance data needs to be accurate, trustworthy and relevant.
Peace of mind for occupiers:
Relevant information must be made available to occupants, as well as construction and maintenance teams. Empowering stakeholders to hold building safety managers to account.
Data security: Data needs to be secure to maintain its accuracy and must comply with GDPR legislation.
Easy to access: Information must be stored in a structured way that is easy to locate, update and effectively manage. >>
Accountability: Detailed ‘time- and date-stamped’ record of changes will drive greater accountability. It also sets out clear duties for the ongoing maintenance and inspection regimes.
Relevance: The information and data should be continuously updated and must be relevant and unambiguous.
Longevity: Needs to conform with the principle of ‘interoperability’, whereby it can be easily handed over through a building’s operations, as the roles of responsible individuals change
Consistency: The Golden Thread will include information from various sources, organisations, professions and individuals, so maintaining consistency is key to ensure the data can be utilised effectively.
Storage and maintenance of electronic data must evolve
With the digital revolution hurtling into the ‘AI’ era, the current established protocol of supplying electronic data via email and through download portals in CSV and PDF format is today commonplace, but how these files are then stored, updated, managed, accessed and shared needs to evolve further.
One of the main problems are ‘data silos’, where organisations and individuals store data on stand-alone servers and drives. Data Silos restrict visibility and access, can increase inefficiencies and costs, and can hinder effective management.
Data Silos are a problem. They can harm an organisation and can include the following:
Incomplete data sets - when data can’t be accessed by all users, business strategies can be affected, as decisions aren’t being made on all the available data.
Inconsistent data - silos often aren’t consistent with other data sources, this can create accuracy and integrity issues that can affect end-users in both operational and analytical roles.
Data security & regulatory compliance issues - silos can increase data security and privacy risks and complicate efforts to comply with data privacy and protection laws
Duplicate data platforms and processes - silos can add to IT costs by requiring additional hardware, and in many cases are managed by separate departments rather than the data
management team, which further increases duplication costs, and reduces efficiencies.
Reduced collaboration - isolated data sources reduce data sharing and collaboration opportunities making it harder for teams to work together effectively.
A siloed culture - is often behind siloed data, where vertical divisions work independently and rarely share information or knowledge.
All these points affect businesses organisation-wide but are particularly pertinent in relation to the critical fire safety data of passive fire products.
Moving away from siloed data helps organisations manage and use data more effectively, but this needs to start with cultural and behavioural change.
Re-evaluating moral duties and embracing accountability
Organisations will need to ‘think differently’ including re-evaluating moral duties and embracing accountability. Adjust working practices to adopt digital data management and change from data silos to centralised data sharing. Sharing best practice knowledge, will in turn drive-up competencies.
Again, in line with the Golden Thread principles, this entails:
Data integration: Implementing systems that allow seamless data sharing and integration across different departments and stakeholders. This can be achieved using centralised databases using cloud-based platforms that provide realtime access to information.
Standardisation: Establishing common standards for data entry, storage, and retrieval to ensure consistency and accuracy. This includes using standardised formats and protocols for data exchange.
Collaboration tools: Utilising collaboration tools and platforms that facilitate communication and teamwork among stakeholders. These tools can help break down barriers and encourage the sharing of information.
Training and competency: Providing training and resources to ensure that all stakeholders are competent in using the information management systems and understand the importance of data sharing.
Transparency and accountability: Promoting a culture of transparency and accountability where data is accessible to those who need it, and there is a clear audit trail of data usage and modifications.
Regular audits and reviews: Conducting regular audits and reviews of information management practices to identify and address any issues related to data silos.
We believe information and data should be available and managed through a ‘digital data conduit’ a cloud-based data structure, that is live, accessible, always up-to-date, as well as secure, fast and responsive for today’s mobile technology culture that allows critical data to be delivered immediately ‘straight to the point of need’, while on-the-go, or on-site, with or without WI-FI connection.
Passive fire product tracking and the management of critical fire safety data through a digital conduit not only saves time and cost, but also helps maintain critical fire safety requirements, competency standards and meets regulatory compliance, but ultimately can help to save lives. n
About the author
Philip Duckworth Chairman Fire DNA Ltd www.fire-dna.com
Half a century of expertise in high performance door sets & joinery
At Hazlin, we’ve spent half a century manufacturing fire doors that combine uncompromising safety with exceptional style. As a leading UK manufacturer, we specialise in high-quality, bespoke door sets and frames tailored to the specific needs of each project.
Every product is crafted to the highest standards, backed by advanced technology, skilled craftsmanship, and a deep understanding of industry requirements.
Our full BM TRADA Q-Mark certification covers FD30 to FD120 ratings, giving you complete confidence in a fully compliant, project-ready solution.
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A manufacturer’s perspective on the changes to timber fire doors
Upcoming changes to Approved Document B mark a major shift in fire door testing. In this article, Tomos Jones reflects on what the transition may mean for timber door manufacturers across the UK.
On 2 September 2024 the UK Government announced changes to Approved Document B coming into effect from 2029, introducing notable implications for timber fire doors.
The main changes are:
• The removal of BS 476 Part 22 as a fire resistance testing standard
• The adoption of the EU classification system as outlined in EN 13501
Under these new terms, for an item to be classified it must have a classification report which can either be produced from a single test or multiple tests. If a limited expansion of scope is required a single test can have the DIAP rules applied from EN 1634. If multiple tests are required to expand the scope, then the EXAP rules are needed from EN 15269-3 (for timber hinged doors).
The purpose of EXAPs is to provide an open system that manufacturers can use to reduce the amount of testing that is
needed. The intention is to get a good expansion of scope on their products as well as give confidence to necessary individuals that the goods they are receiving are backed by the appropriate level of confidence. The EXAP rules were written collaboratively by the CEN committee based on expert judgement and experience across Europe. Additionally, as this standard is applicable throughout Europe it opens opportunity beyond the UK. Significantly, these rules are not backed by reference to applicable tabled test evidence (intended to be addressed by the Commission).
The EXAPs, in theory, allow a more transparent system with a clear, understandable path to the desired results. These rules enable certain variations—such as size, glazing, and finish— within defined parameters. However, as door and test complexity increases, applying the EXAPs can become more challenging, and certain limitations have emerged in practice. The EXAPs also struggle to cover all design variations, particularly in cases where there is no specified rule. Subsequently these cases must be tested.
Photo: Hazlin
Photo: Hazlin
Since these rules are written by the CEN committee it is difficult for the UK to change these to better reflect the rules that are more relevant for our industry. As these are an EU standard it requires revision and consent on a scale that would take years for even only minor changes to be made if at all.
While the EXAP rules were intended to be accessible without specialist interpretation, in practice they often require expert input due to their technical complexity. Additionally certain aspects of the EXAP rules can be open to interpretation this means that there could be differences between EXAP reports from different approved bodies.
The EXAPs struggle when combining the rules of smoke and fire. This leads to contradicting rules that require expert interpretation between the documents. Other significant properties, such as acoustic performance, are given scant attention.
They also struggle to reduce the testing required for specialist doors. In fact, they require multiple tests to ensure that the products are covered by the necessary rules. In doing so, they increase the complexity of the document leading to high costs and longer lead times. This long lead time means that new and innovative products may find themselves taking years to come through to market as the cost and time to review these documents will hold them back.
At Hazlin we have spent the past 12 months developing a testing strategy and over that time have encountered some significant problems that will need to be overcome:
• The knowledge and understanding to produce, understand and interpret these reports.
• The timescale to transition from the current BS 476 system to using the proposed European system (EN 13501).
• Navigating the overlap of the BS 476 and EN 13501 systems, ensuring that Field of Application Reports are updated as necessary until the ultimate takeover of the EN 13501 system in 2029.
Before the Approved Document B changes, there was already a problem in the number of sufficiently qualified individuals who could write relevant reports for timber fire doors. Transitioning to the new standards will require time and investment in training—both for the current workforce and new entrants to the industry. As such, the market may struggle to meet the demand for the increase in testing and report writing required. It’s apparent that the magnitude of the task before the approved assessing bodies is a major one.
Third Party Product and Process Certification (TPPPC) has been an important aspect of the timber fire door industry. It has taken many years, but this is now a vital aspect to ensure that there is confidence in the industry. With the changes, coming through questions remain about how TPPPC schemes will evolve to fit the new classification framework, and which ones will evolve to handle classification. Additionally, the schemes that have worked well thus far are based on the current BS 476-22 fire resistance test which would need to be updated to correlate to the proposed EN 13501 system.
We are now four years away from the 2029 transition date and I believe these changes present a tight timeline for full industry preparedness, particularly with concurrent revisions to other standards. Especially with multiple other standards being reviewed concurrently which will have profound consequences for the industry.
The Architectural Specialist Door Manufacturers Association (ASDMA) has been working with relevant parties to highlight these problems and ensure that the specialist door industry’s concerns are heard. Recently they have proposed a UK Assessment Framework standard BS 8623, based upon the defunct Passive Fire Protection Forum (PFPF) rules. This is a positive way forward for the specialist door industry as it enables the flexibility needed in the sector. But time is pressing on, and there is little time for the market to be sufficiently prepared for the 2029 deadline. n
About the author
Tomos Jones Business Manager Hazlin of Ludlow www.hazlin.co.uk
Photo: Hazlin
IHL Projects I s a PrI ncIPaL contractI ng and retaIL /commercIaL fIt out sPecIaLIst.
We manage and deliver all aspects of interior works, including joinery, fixtures and fittings, ceilings and partitions, wall finishes, floor finishes, MEP, security, fire safety and refrigeration.
sHoPfIttIng and fIxture management
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PrIncIPLe contractor
Project & commercIaL management
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We all expect the best for our homes. The finest materials and craftsmanship. Styles that suit your taste, and your budget. Support and service you can rely on. Design that does exactly what you want to do.
That’s exactly what you can expect at LPD Doors - the UK’s leading door supplier since 1981.
sales@lpddoors.co.uk 0113 271 5151 lpddoors.co.uk
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FIRE DOOR SPECIALISTS
Design & manufacture of fully fire & building regulation compliant fire doors, door sets and door solutions, for a diverse range of private and public sector projects across the UK.
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• Ready-to-fit on site; Q-Mark certified Silver Plug available ready for Gold Plug level at installation
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Advancing panelled fire door pe r formance
Mike Rooney presents a case study demonstrating that EN 1634-1 testing shows panelled fire doors can achieve certified fire performance without compromising architectural detail or design.
Arecent series of fire resistance tests carried out in accordance with EN 1634-1 has demonstrated promising performance characteristics in a new range of panelled internal doors. The project, the culmination of an 18-month research and development programme, focused on achieving both integrity (E) and insulation (I2) criteria under EN 13501-2. The doors were tested in configurations that presented known challenges to fire resistance, including thin decorative panel designs and complex hardware arrangements. This article outlines the methodology, technical challenges, and key outcomes of the testing process.
While flush-faced fire doors are commonplace in commercial and residential environments, the growing demand for architecturally detailed internal doors has prompted renewed attention on the fire performance of panelled designs. Historically, complex door faces—such as those with deep rebates or thin decorative panels—pose potential challenges to fire integrity and thermal insulation performance.
This article presents a case study from a UK-based manufacturer that recently undertook a comprehensive development and testing programme aimed at validating a new range of panelled doors. The project culminated in EN 1634-1 fire resistance testing performed at Warrington Fire, High Wycombe, in early 2025.
Project background and objectives
The initiative began in Q4 2023 and was driven by the need to combine visual complexity with certified fire performance. The primary goals were:
• To create internal doors with thin panel detailing that maintain structural integrity under fire exposure.
• To meet or exceed EI2 classification according to EN 13501-2.
• To evaluate performance in more challenging test configurations, such as large leaf sizes and unlatched, double-door arrangements.
The project was conducted under the supervision of a third-party certification body. This included initial design review, sampling oversight during manufacture, and postassembly verification.
Technical approach
The doors were constructed using new technologies and novel manufacturing methods with multiple decorative face treatments. Some panel sections measured as little as 22 mm in thickness—an aspect known to raise concerns over insulation continuity and ignition risk.
Test samples were manufactured at the company’s production facility and converted into fully assembled doorsets with associated frames, seals, and ironmongery. Configurations selected for testing included:
• Unlatched, single-acting single and double door arrangements
• Both flat and raised and fielded panel designs
• Decorative vertical inserts rebated into the door faces
• Use of cost-effective framing materials
• Extensive hardware options
• Oversized leaf dimensions >>
Deanta – Bury oak, half-glazed, 30-minute fire door. Photo: Deanta
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All samples underwent verification by the thirdparty certification body to ensure conformance with scheme requirements.
Fire testing results
EN 1634-1 fire resistance tests were performed with a target duration of 30 minutes. The doors achieved the required integrity (E) and insulation (I2) criteria with notable overrun.
• Integrity (E): all samples achieved the first benchmark of 30 minutes integrity providing a barrier to smoke and flame.
• Insulation (I2): unexposed face temperatures remaining below 140°C average and 180°C maximum.
The performance of the doors, particularly in panelled areas, was viewed as significant. The panelled sections remained structurally stable and contributed positively to overall system performance, despite their reduced thickness and increased surface area exposure.
Certification and scope expansion
Following testing, the new door constructions will be included in updated certification scopes, including both Certifire and Q-Mark schemes. Relevant field of application documents and classification reports will also be amended to reflect the inclusion of:
• Thin panel designs covering both flat and raised and fielded panels
• A wide variety of door configurations including double doors
• Extended sizes, hardware variations and fire rated glazing
The tests demonstrate that aesthetic complexity does not inherently compromise fire safety performance, provided designs are engineered and tested with appropriate materials and detailing.
Implications and future work
The results have broader implications for door manufacturers, specifiers, and fire safety professionals. The ability to integrate architectural features—such as panelled surfaces or non-standard ironmongery—without compromising fire resistance opens pathways for more flexible fire door design in residential and commercial environments.
Further research is ongoing into other performance criteria, including:
• Smoke leakage (EN 1634-3)
• Acoustic performance to EN 10140-2 & EN 10140-1 Annex B
Comprehensive performance assessment across multiple criteria is increasingly important as fire doors are expected to meet not only regulatory compliance but also functional and aesthetic expectations from end users and design professionals.
Conclusion
This case study confirms that it is possible to achieve highperformance fire resistance in panelled door constructions without compromise to design. Through careful engineering, third-party oversight, and full-scale testing, panelled internal doors can meet stringent EN 1634-1 standards—even in demanding configurations.
As the industry seeks to align form with function, the results offer a useful reference point for manufacturers and specifiers alike, highlighting the importance of rigorous testing in the development of next-generation fire protection products. n
About the author
Mike Rooney Testing and Certification Manager
Deanta – Coventry white, 30-minute fire door. Photo: Deanta
WoodBUILD: where timber meets transformation
A gathering for change-makers, WoodBUILD 2025 fused systems thinking with practical action across forestry and construction. WoodBUILD 2026 is now open for sponsorship and exhibitor enquiries. Don’t miss your opportunity to participate!
Hosted in Llandudno on 3–4 July, this year’s event brought together foresters, designers, developers, engineers, policymakers and manufacturers—proving that cross-sector collaboration isn’t just possible, it’s essential.
The conference began with off-site visits to local woodlands and manufacturing facilities, giving attendees a real-world view of the supply chain in action—from seed to site. While this year’s visits were held the day before the main programme they remain an integral part of WoodBUILD’s wholesystem approach and are usually woven into the two-day programme.
Inside the conference, the buzz was tangible. From Timber 101 science sessions and multi-perspective design workshops to policy roundtables and innovation showcases, each moment was curated to bridge the forestry–construction divide and fast-track solutions to complex challenges. A standout: the co-curated ‘Myth Busting: Designing and Building with Timber’ session by RIBA, CIBSE and IStructE, which tackled head-on the most persistent misconceptions about timber performance and safety.
Across both days, the exhibition thrived as a meeting ground for industry and ideas. From advanced timber products to data-led forestry innovations, exhibitors demonstrated the scale of transformation already underway. Connections were
WoodBUILD 2025: A meeting place for collaboration and systems change
Exhibitors from across the timber value chain demonstrated scalable, low-carbon solutions
WoodBUILD 2025 was proudly supported by:
• SO Modular • Timber Innovation from Baden-Württemberg
• Bronwin & Abbey • FSC UK • PEFC UK • Saint-Gobain Off-site Solutions • Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF)
WoodBUILD is also part-funded by Welsh Government
forged, projects sparked, and knowledge shared—exactly the kind of catalytic energy WoodBUILD is known for.
The conference theme, ‘Connecting Knowledge to Action’, echoed through every keynote, roundtable and breakout session. The urgency of climate adaptation and the promise of regenerative materials shaped conversations—from the Cabinet Secretary’s opening address to Professor Calvin Jones’ closing synthesis.
WoodBUILD is more than a conference. It’s where change takes root.
If you’re building for a better future— from forest to home—subscribe to the Woodknowledge Wales newsletter to be the first to hear about WoodBUILD 2026 updates, partnership opportunities, and early access invites.
All photos were taken by SDG Productions on behalf of Woodknowledge Wales. n
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Interactive workshops tackled real-world barriers across forestry and construction
Leading voices in policy, research and industry shaped the narrative for climate-positive transformation
Day-one off-site visits grounded conversations in the landscapes and industries that matter
Working together for a low carbon timber future
At Woodknowledge Wales, a small team works with its members to connect forests, housing and communities through applied research, collaboration and practical tools supporting the shift towards a more sustainable, home-grown built environment.
From sustainable forestry to housing design, and from carbon accounting to circular economy innovation, positive change is taking root—guided by a small team at Woodknowledge Wales and shaped through the insight and involvement of our growing membership.
As a not-for-profit, mission-led organisation we exist to build a better future using timber as a catalyst for systemic change. Through cross-sector partnerships, applied research, capacitybuilding, and policy influence, WKW helps turn Welsh trees into community value—socially, environmentally, and economically. While still rooted in Wales, we are now branching out to support joined-up progress in timber policy, practice and innovation more widely across the UK.
At the heart of this work is a team whose expertise spans the entire wood value chain—from ecosystem services and forest planning, through production, manufacturing, design, skills and construction, to placemaking, performance evaluation and policy development.
Here, we introduce the team shaping this forest-to-home transition and the strategic programmes making it real.
Forests as a foundation for regeneration
Thomas Henderson, a researcher based at Bangor University, leads WKW’s internal forestry work. His focus on life-cycle carbon modelling and timber ecosystem services helps shape the organisation’s evidence base for resilient land use and supply chain design. He works closely with Anna Dauksta, who manages forestry engagement and coordinates external partnerships, helping connect forest stakeholders to construction, manufacturing and housing outcomes.
Supporting their work are seasoned advisors Chris Jones, a forester with 35+ years of experience in woodland resilience, and Dainis Dauksta, a wood scientist and sawmiller whose technical insight into species performance and future timber supply brings long-term thinking to the fore.
Together, this group informs WKW’s cross-sector engagement— from horizon scans and woodland carbon valuation to stakeholder workshops on climate-adapted forestry.
Thomas Henderson and Heddwyn Bye, both carried out research at Bangor University. Their focus includes life-cycle analysis and farm woodland valuation, and use of LiDAR technology to quantify timber and carbon potential. Read more about this research in the articles; Reimagining Timber for a Decarbonised Wales and Seeing the Wood for the Trees.
As Wales increases its ambition to build with home-grown materials, attention must turn to skills, processing infrastructure, and supply chain coordination. James Moxey leads WKW’s work in this area—driving skills innovation, funding applications, and cross-sector research programmes. He helps design the Timber 101 webinar series, alongside Phil O’Leary, now a WKW board member. Together, they’ve supported the upskilling of sawmillers, contractors and housing professionals across Wales.
Register for Timber 101 – scan the QR code for free CPD sessions on timber specification, supply, and performance.
Home-Grown Homes: from low-carbon to long-term value
David Hedges leads WKW’s flagship collaboration with Welsh Government: the Home-Grown Homes (HGH) project. This body of work connects policy, housing design, materials, carbon and supply chains through a suite of practical tools and thought leadership reports.
Recent Home-Grown Home outputs include:
• The Early Stage Embodied Carbon Tool (ESECT)
• A report on Greenhouse Gas Removal through timber construction
• Case studies on home-grown housing projects
• Technical guidance and carbon measurement frameworks
• Films, webinars and public engagement tools
Alongside earlier work, these outputs are designed to make timber housing delivery easier, smarter and more impactful— helping social landlords and local authorities build better with what Wales grows.
Explore Home-Grown Homes outputs – scan the QR code for reports, tools, and videos. >>
The Woodknowledge Wales team. Source: WKW
Architecture, carbon and placemaking
Dr Diana Waldron leads WKW’s work on Building Performance Evaluation (BPE)—a cornerstone of our mission to close the performance gap between design and real-world outcomes. Through detailed in-use testing of new timber buildings, Diana’s work is helping to redefine what high-performing, low-carbon housing truly looks like in Wales. Read more about Diana’s work in the article; Reimagining Materials for Circular Construction.
Clara Koehler, a technical architect with deep knowledge of sustainable design, works closely with Diana to integrate performance-led thinking into housing and architectural practice. Clara also played a lead role in developing the Early Stage Embodied Carbon Tool (ESECT) and authored guidance on placemaking. Her work provides actionable tools for housing professionals and design teams navigating Wales’ low carbon aspirations. Read about Clara’s work in the Reducing embodied carbon from the outset article.
Supporting both is Toby Maclean, a structural engineer and regenerative design expert whose practical innovations demonstrate what’s possible when we rethink construction from first principles. Toby’s input to placemaking guidance, carbon modelling and the design of exemplar timber buildings— including his award-winning concrete-free ‘Secret Campsite’ structure—has shaped a growing narrative around regenerative practice in Welsh architecture.
Register your interest in becoming a building performance service partner – explore our BPE service or scan the QR code to get in touch.
Use the ESECT tool to reduce upfront carbon in your next project.
“It’s about finding better ways to use what we already have—our trees, our skills, our knowledge.”
Rooting a new materials economy
The Regenerative First Materials project—soon to be relaunched as ROOT—is led by Louise Townsend, a nationally recognised leader in social value and circular procurement. ROOT reimagines how materials are valued, sourced, and verified—not just for carbon, but for their wider contribution to community, health and ecosystem resilience.
Find out more about the Regenerative Materials First project (soon to be Root).
Networks, communities and events
None of this work happens in isolation. WKW convenes Communities of Practice (CoPs) for contractors, joiners, sawmillers, housing providers and designers through the leadership of Rachel Cook, who manages our membership and stakeholder networks. These CoPs act as shared learning environments— where problems are solved, ideas tested, and relationships built.
Sarah Lawton leads Communications, editing this yearbook and creating high-impact storytelling, press engagement, digital resources and strategic campaigns. Dr Liz Walder runs WKW’s event programme both on- and offline, including the annual WoodBUILD conference, which brings together leaders from
Source: WKW
forestry, housing, manufacturing, policy and academia to plan and facilitate collaboration across traditional industry silos.
Christiane Lellig, a sociologist who has deep experience in European sustainable construction markets, brings critical facilitation and international expertise to WKW’s collaboration design, helping connect Welsh innovation to global conversations.
Explore our Communities of Practice, join our member network, or subscribe to our newsletter. Scan the QR codes to take part.
A mission-led team driving systemic change
At the helm is Gary Newman, WKW’s Chief Executive, who offers strategic oversight, political engagement, and missionled drive. With decades of experience in engineering and sustainable construction, Gary ensures that every project is grounded in system-level thinking and long-term public value. Gary recently published the key report on Using Wood in Construction as a significant Greenhouse Gas Removal Mechanism. Read about the potential impact of this report here in the article: Timber construction as climate infrastructure.
Backed by a dedicated, voluntary Board of Directors and a growing network of advisors, the WKW team is working to reimagine how forests, buildings and people thrive together.
Get involved
Whatever your sector, if you work within or have links to the wood value chain WKW exists to support your journey to a more regenerative, locally rooted construction future. Our work is only possible through the support of our members and partners—thank you for being part of the journey.
Scan the QR codes or visit the website to find out more: www.woodknowledge.wales n
Woodknowledge Wales Members September 2025. Source: WKW
TDUK’s Tech Toolbox: a curated guide to timber technical insights
David Hopkins explores the most influential and technically robust outputs from Timber Development UK’s ever-expanding knowledge base tools that continue to shape and inform the way Britain builds with timber.
When we founded Timber Development UK (TDUK), we envisioned a central hub for timber knowledge—accessible, credible, and most importantly, technically useful. Today, our mission remains the same: support an industry that designs and builds with confidence in wood.
While our database now houses hundreds of resources, from standard details to carbon assessments, some works have proven particularly influential among designers, engineers, and specifiers. This article brings together a selection of the most read, most referenced, and most technically instructive resources in our library—a toolbox for those who build with understanding.
The case study archive: a window into real-world timber performance
With over 170 detailed case studies now freely available1, TDUK offers unparalleled access to real-world applications of timber design—from low-carbon schools and highperformance retrofit projects to complex engineered structures. These are not marketing stories; they are technical narratives—complete with architectural drawings, material specs, lessons learned, and performance insights.
Standouts include:
• The Old Mill Retrofit – Rebuilt after a fire, this exemplar of craft and safety provides a rare, honest look at fire-resilient detailing in mass timber retrofits2
• National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) – Featuring hybrid glulam-steel portal frames and offsite DfMA strategies, NMIS provides a lesson in timber’s industrial-scale application3
These case studies are TDUK’s most visited resources—and serve as a living library of best practice.
Timber Typologies: a route map for low-carbon design
Published as part of our collaboration with Waugh Thistleton Architects and the Built by Nature network, Timber Typologies is a visual and technical guide to low-carbon, scalable housing systems4. It breaks down timber structure types—from panelised to volumetric—and offers comparative data, ideal applications, and procurement strategies.
Architects and housing associations have told us it’s become a de facto briefing tool when approaching low-rise residential schemes. It balances simplicity with technical clarity—and importantly, helps early-stage project teams ask the right questions.
Designing Timber magazine: engineering nuance meets design narrative
Designing Timber is our flagship long-form technical magazine. The most downloaded issue to date, “Engineered for Reuse,” focuses on the circular future of timber and the engineering practices enabling it5
This edition dives into:
• Moisture risk frameworks for reusable timber
• Probabilistic durability modelling
• Adaptive structural detailing for demountable buildings
• Case studies featuring hybrid materials and design-fordisassembly strategies
The 2025 designTimber webinar series builds directly on these themes, bringing engineers and designers together to share live project learning6
Timber and carbon: technical clarity in a noisy field
Much of the conversation around timber’s role in carbon reduction is polarised. At TDUK, we’ve tried to cut through by publishing precise, evidence-led materials for professionals.
“Technical knowledge builds trust—and trust builds timber.”
Our 2024 briefing on carbon storage in timber buildings helped clarify the role of biogenic carbon in lifecycle assessments7. Meanwhile, our CPD materials and webinars continue to inform debates on what responsible sourcing, carbon accounting, and sequestration really mean in practice.
More recently, we’ve contributed to emerging frameworks for reuse readiness, helping quantify the likelihood that timber components can be safely reclaimed and reused at end-of-life8
Detail libraries and performance guidance: quiet essentials
While not flashy, our growing catalogue of standard details, fire guidance, and moisture management tools9 is among our most downloaded content.
• Our moisture technical papers are widely cited in industry CPDs and architecture studios.
• We’ve recently launched new fire performance guidance with partners like Structural Timber Association.
• Detail sets—including fixings, junctions, and insulation strategies—are now being embedded into BIM workflows by practices across the UK.
Closing thought
Timber’s renaissance depends not on style, but on substance. The projects, primers, and papers above don’t simply promote timber—they strengthen the case for it. Whether you’re designing a home, managing risk, or advising clients, we hope this toolbox of resources brings confidence to your work. n
About the author
David Hopkins Chief Executive Timber Development UK (TDUK) www.timberdevelopment.uk
References
1. TDUK. (2024). Free Access to 170+ Technical Case Studies. Retrieved from www.timberdevelopment.uk/tdukreleases-more-than-170-technical-case-studies-for-free
2. TDUK. (2024). An Old Mill Rises from the Ashes. Retrieved from www.timberdevelopment.uk/an-old-mill-rises-from-the-ashes
3. TDUK Case Study Archive. National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS). Retrieved from www.timberdevelopment. uk/case-study-national-manufacturing-institute-scotland
4. TDUK. (2023). Timber Typologies. Retrieved from www.timberdevelopment.uk/resources/timber-typologies
5. TDUK. (2023). Designing Timber: Engineered for Reuse. Retrieved from www.timberdevelopment.uk/resources/ designing-timber-engineered-for-reuse
6. TDUK. (2025). designTimber 2025: Live Project Webinar Series. Retrieved from www.timberdevelopment.uk/ designtimber-2025-new-project-talks-by-leading-architectsengineers-and-timber-specialists
7. TDUK. (2024). Carbon Storage in Timber Buildings. Technical Briefing.
8. TDUK / CIRIA. (2025). Reuse Readiness Levels: A Probabilistic Approach for Timber. (Draft in development).
9. TDUK Resources. (Ongoing). Fire, Moisture, Detail Libraries. Retrieved from www.timberdevelopment.uk/resources
Photo: TDUK
Woodland wellbeing
Woodlands are becoming spaces for healing, not just recreation. Wellbeing programmes are helping people reconnect, recover, and rebuild. Ian Baker explores why woodland settings work—and what’s needed next.
A summer walk in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire.
Photo: © FSC UK / Max More
“Intuitively we know that time spent in the woods is good for us, it is one of the reasons so many are drawn to woodlands for leisure and recreation.”
Across Wales, something is stirring in the woods. It is the growing realisation that time spent in nature doesn’t just feel good but can be directed to the greater benefit of people with specific needs and conditions. Intuitively we know that time spent in the woods is good for us, it is one of the reasons so many are drawn to woodlands for leisure and recreation.
Something is however developing in the woods, and it is founded on the fact that woods don’t just feel good, but they do us good as well. Over the past two to three decades there has been a significant growth in woodland wellbeing activity in Wales, delivered by several practitioners, but led in large part by Coed Lleol/Small Woods. This article draws on the Coed Lleol/Small Woods experience.
This strand of woodland wellbeing work started with Small Woods in the 1990s in Shropshire and Herefordshire with small scale projects that started to test the idea that woodland settings could provide a significant therapeutic bonus over the alternatives. Buoyed by the successes of those early initiatives, the organisation started to develop more ambitious programmes which by the early 2010s were working on an all-Wales basis, targeted on the areas of greatest socio-economic need.
Readers will be most interested however in what works and why. In summary, it is about matching the activity to the needs of the client group and then constructing a participant-centred programme that takes them on a ‘journey’ (using the jargon of the sector) within which they can show progression.
Case study – Build a Bench
An example is the Build a Bench programme that now operates at sites in England and Wales. Build a Bench is a 12-week programme, operating one day a week with groups of six to ten participants. Participants are generally not able to work, they will not be eligible for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), due to health or related reasons, mostly mental health. Before the beginning of the programme participants are pre-assessed for their suitability for the programme; it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, particularly in the winter months.
The first session is generally very quiet, as the participants are often shy, unused to social situations, and have been at home for a long time, both isolated and anxious. During their first >>
sessions they are taught basic skills, such as the use of a spoke shave, and simple construction techniques and in the first few weeks progress from making a spatula to a milking stool. But Week six is where the magic starts to happen. At this point, they are challenged as a group to work together to design and build their own bench and, most importantly, to decide to whom they will give the bench.
Having witnessed these sessions, this is when pennies drop, lightbulbs switch on, and these formerly quiet and isolated people engage, collaborate, and start to build. The energy that comes from that session then fires them through the final six weeks, with some giving far more time than the programme intended to produce their final pieces.
Two sets of very different skills are required to undertake this work. Firstly, a skilled and empathetic tutor to lead the sessions and to work alongside the group as they progress through the programme. Secondly, and just as important, is the engagement and progression worker who works with participants before, during and after. The person in role aims
to understand each individual’s needs and ensure that each is on a personalised path of progression.
The programme has demonstrated its benefits in working with some of the hardest to reach individuals who are furthest from the labour market, getting them back on their feet, and in some cases getting them back to work. This is a huge step for them. In most cases participants move forward significantly, onto other groups or activities that are appropriate to their capabilities at that point.
A growing sector
Woodland wellbeing activities are becoming more diverse and more bespoke. Spanning woodland crafts, ‘bushcraft’, heritage crafts, green wood construction, coppice and woodland management, mindfulness, forest bathing, exercise and physical rehabilitation and foraging.
The characteristic that distinguishes these activities when they are carried out within a woodland wellbeing context is that they are shaped around the needs of the client group. It isn’t a case of one size fits all, but that woodland wellbeing design starts with the needs of the participants and then fits the design of the activities around them.
Who, how, and what
The breadth of groups that benefit from woodland wellbeing is also growing, with educationally disengaged children, military veterans and domestic abuse survivors among the groups for whom specific programmes have been devised. Examples include:
Young people who are “not in education, employment or Training (NEETs) – specific activities to support re-engagement in education.
Mental health and employment disengaged – confidence-building and encouraging socialisation amongst those who have suffered episodes and crises in their lives which have led to disengagement and mental health issues. Programmes that move people towards greater self-sufficiency and eventually employment.
Military veterans – including those suffering from PTSD. Providing activities and environments which support veterans to gain skills in a new “new band of brothers or sisters”. Programmes include the families of veterans, who often face particular issues.
Domestic abuse survivors – creating a closed safe space, with planned appropriate activities, informed by participant preferences.
Amongst many other groups.
Hafren Forest, Powys. Photo: © FSC UK
Why it works
Experience tells us that there are a few reasons why it works and that are the ingredients for success. These include:
Fitting the activity to the participant group. What works with military veterans will not necessarily work with NEETs and vice versa. In many cases, it is the combination of appropriately designed woodland location, carefully managed, but casual socialisation and developing confidence through manual skills. This combination is a powerful engagement tool and the case studies (including the one cited here) demonstrate this.
Skilled facilitators – there is a developing body of evidence and established practice which is increasingly informing woodland wellbeing. Ensuring that facilitators (both the tutors and those working on engagement) are well versed and skilled in these practices is key.
Mindfulness - slowing down in a woodland setting enables participants to be more mindful and to quieten the buzzing in their heads that modern life produces.
Appropriate locations – woodland wellbeing activity needs to be delivered in the right environment. The location should be welcoming, feel safe, be private and have a minimum level of facilities, e.g., shelter and compost toilet.
Proving it works
With a developing area, such as woodland wellbeing, there is a need to ensure evidence is collected and proofs gained wherever possible. With the Coed Lleol / Small Woods work, the main evidence collection has been done using the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. The scale uses a two-week recall, self-report, and wellbeing indication using a five-point scale on fourteen set well-being indicators. Wider research across the UK using this method has found that the average well-being score for adults is 51 points (out of a possible 70 points). A point-score change of three or above is considered a ‘meaningful change’ in wellbeing. The Participants complete a Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) test before starting the programme and then complete the same test once the programme had finished. In the most recent large-scale test, the two-year average for mental wellbeing improvement was experienced by 74% of over 400 participants.1
Looking further afield, the Japanese state forest service has researched the benefits of forest bathing and demonstrated that the volatile organic chemicals emitted by trees (terpenes, etc.) provide health benefits, stimulating, for example white blood cell formation.
What next
Having invested a great deal in demonstrating the concrete benefits delivered by woodland wellbeing, it should be possible for the practices to be ‘mainstreamed’. For this to work, the following needs to happen:
• Bring research and researchers together, so that the body of evidence and practice is put on a sound footing;
• Stabilise funding;
• Create more woodland hubs, where woodland wellbeing activities can be delivered close to where people live;
• Better define effective systems and what needs to be in place for those systems to operate in a sustainable way; and
• Engage NHS and other health bodies.
The vicissitudes of funding mean that these programmes have waxed and waned over the years but, happily, the programmes continue to this day. Currently, they are increasingly patchy, as funding is not so readily available as it was from European programmes. It is hoped that the health sector reforms will create more space for this sort of work. n
About the author
Ian Baker Trustee of the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) UK and Director of Catalys www.uk.fsc.org
Reference
1. www.smallwoods.org.uk/en/coedlleol/what-we-do/research/ project-evaluation/enraw-evaluation-report-22-23
Download the Coed Lleol (Small Woods) report
A training roadmap for UK low carbon buildings
Over the past five years, Trish Andrews and her team have developed e-learning courses on retrofit and low energy buildings to upskill the construction sector and support the shift towards energy efficiency, reduced demand, and healthier buildings.
The challenge for the UK construction industry is to collectively redefine and change our mindset of ‘business as usual’. We are in a climate and energy emergency, and we must all take a stand on evoking change. We already know many of the existing ways to mitigate and adapt for climate change specifically for buildings. Developing long-lasting energy efficiency for new and existing homes and to retrofit is key, as 80-85% of our existing buildings will still be around by 2050.
The recent report on Retrofitting Homes for Net Zero1 by the House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero committee, found that there is a need for a rapid transformation of the construction industry and a retrofit skills plan.
We all have agency
A lack of concerted political will on behalf of the past and current UK Government is the major hindrance. Having stop–start initiatives and short-term incentives deters investment and support for rapid change within the industry.
However, despite this we all have a role and an agency in ensuring that we move away from the destructive practices widely used in construction towards more regenerative methods, and this includes retrofit front and centre. From the ground up every homeowner, community, local authority, construction professional and business, can take hold of the reins and focus on implementing real low-carbon rationales for themselves within their homes, projects and business practices.
This agency includes addressing:
• Sufficiency - asking if it is really needed, if there are any strategic alternatives, or can we retrofit instead?
• Simplicity - designing as simply as possible and to allow for reuse
• Circular economy - exploring circular design approaches including materiality
• Efficiency - only using what is necessary to deliver energy efficient solutions
By employing these criteria, it can allow us to collectively improve our lives, projects and buildings while also reaching low carbon targets.
The training and net zero training roadmap
I believe that low carbon building skills are essential in moving the UK construction sector and our economies towards a zero-carbon future. Through collaboration and partnerships with academic institutions, training bodies and other networks, we can be part of the acceleration towards upskilling the construction industry with the competencies needed for faster transition.
Partnerships are important for scaling up training. One of the ambitions of the AECB is to be seen as a well-respected contributor, facilitator and partner in delivering best practice construction skills to massively increase the uptake of delivering
“The low energy retrofit of buildings is one of the most underappreciated opportunities for the UK to help tackle climate change.”
My professional journey
I qualified as an Architect in 1999, but my passion and moral compass led me on the road to sustainable building long beforehand. The mid 1980’s was a decade that started with a new oil crisis and ended with the international community reaching an agreement for combating the environmental emergency. As a result, the term ‘sustainable development’ became the pivotal phrase that influenced my degree trajectory.
My final degree project was an upcycling community centre which involved retrofitting a disused industrial building. The term ‘retrofit’ wasn’t a clearly defined concept at that time and my tutors thought that to repurpose an existing building, let alone reuse construction materials, was not in fact, ‘architecture’. So, upon completing my degree, I wondered whether architecture really was the profession for me.
That all changed in 1990 when, during my year out, I began working at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) an environmental visitor centre, in mid Wales. I worked with a team designing and building two timber framed cliff railway stations for a water balanced cliff railway. I had the immense pleasure to work alongside two great sustainable architects—the late David Lea and Patrick Borer. Both were experienced in low-energy construction and had an interest in the radical reinterpretation of using traditional and natural materials. The experience was transformational and ignited my passion for gaining hands-on building experience and vastly increased my knowledge of the use of sustainable building materials and their impacts. I became determined to design sustainable building projects moving forward.
For example the AECB CarbonLite™ Retrofit foundation course2, was cited in the UK Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy 20213 as an example of training needed for upskilling the industry. The course is part of the AECB’s net zero training roadmap, which extols the AECB’s low energy building standards4 supported by the rigorous use of the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP)5 and the AECB’s PHribbon software6 by calculating embodied, operational and lifetime carbon. We believe in providing training that allows transition solutions for the industry.
I was fortunate enough later, still under their guidance, to work on the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (WISE) 2010. A RIBA national award winner in 2011. It was the one of the most sustainable buildings, as well as the largest glulam timber framed hempcrete nondomestic building, at that time
The WISE building houses the Graduate School for the Environment (GSE) and there I helped to develop and run the UK’s first wholly sustainably focussed Part II Masters in Sustainable Architecture in the UK. We taught hands-on building and material practicals and made sure every student’s final design included a sizeable retrofit element combined with a very detailed technical analysis on how the building should perform. This included the rigorous testing of all its potential impacts. >>
Two timber framed cliff railway stations for a water balanced cliff railway
healthy, ultra-low energy efficient buildings and effective retrofit processes and targets within the construction industry.
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The training roadmap and the road to timber in Wales
The imperative to create affordable and accessible e-learning training solutions on retrofit, rather than new build, led me to join the AECB in 2020. Here, I have developed – and continuously try to improve on - a range of training programmes under the overarching banner of the AECB CarbonLite™ Training Centre. The e-learning training material is designed to be scalable across the UK with uptake easily accessible from the householder to construction professionals who want to address the urgent need to improve the performance of UK housing stock in the face of the energy and cost of living crisis and climate change impacts.
A recent opportunity to be involved in the wonderful Tai Ar Y Cyd project7 has been inspiring. This project aims to standardise sustainable timber-based affordable homes across Wales. It sets the AECB new build standard8 as a baseline target. The project has potential to change the way we use timber in low energy social housing across Wales.
Ultimately, the most rewarding aspect of my current role is being involved in a business that is working cooperatively towards change and knowing that every course participant and partner we work with, gains the best practice knowledge and skills to then allow them to use their own agency to change business as usual scenario within the construction industry. n
About the author
Trish Andrews AECB CarbonLite Training Centre Manager Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB)
References
1. UK Parliament (2023) Energy efficiency of existing homes: Sixth Report of Session 2022–23. House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. Available at: www.committees.parliament.uk/publications/48054/ documents/251274/default
2. Association for Environment Conscious Building (n.d.) CarbonLite Retrofit Foundation course. Available at: www.aecb.net/product/carbonlite-retrofit-foundation-course
3. Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (2021) Heat and buildings strategy. UK Government. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/heatand-buildings-strategy
4. Association for Environment Conscious Building (n.d.) The AECB CarbonLite standards. Available at: www.aecb.net/the-aecb-carbonlite-standards
5. Passive House Institute (n.d.) PHPP: Passive House Planning Package. Available at: www.passivehouse. com/04_phpp/04_phpp.htm
6. Association for Environment Conscious Building (n.d.) AECB PHribbon package (includes first year’s subscription). Available at: www.aecb.net/phribbon-carboncalculation
7. Tai ar y Cyd (n.d.) Tai ar y Cyd – Homes Together. Available at: www.taiarycyd.cymru
8. Association for Environment Conscious Building (n.d.) AECB CarbonLite New Build Standard. Available at: www.aecb.net/aecb-carbonlite-new-build-standard
Further information
For more information visit: www.aecb.net
The Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (WISE 2010). A RIBA national award winner in 2011. Photo: Tim Soar
Growing skills, growing futures
As the Institute of Chartered Foresters celebrates its centenary, it is investing in the future through skills, inclusion, and innovation. Caroline Harrison announces new initiatives to open doors across the UK and inspire a new generation of professionals.
Photo: Adobe stock
“We’re not just marking 100 years— we’re building the next 100.”
As we move into the second half of 2025, the Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) reflects on a vibrant and industrious start to the year and looks ahead with confidence and purpose. The first two quarters were marked by progress, celebration, and a renewed sense of vision, all of which reaffirm our shared commitment to the future of arboriculture and forestry. There is much more to come, and we’re excited to bring our members along for the journey.
For those unfamiliar, the ICF is the UK’s only professional body for foresters and arboriculturists, conferring the respected titles of Chartered Arboriculturist and Chartered Forester. This year is particularly special as we celebrate our centenary—100 years of advancing professional standards, advocating for trees and woodlands, and shaping policy at every level. To mark the milestone, we hosted a sold-out National Conference in Edinburgh, which welcomed over 300 delegates. The event was both a tribute to our legacy and a platform for defining our path forward. It also served as a powerful reminder of the energy, diversity, and unity within our profession.
Among the many takeaways from the conference, one message stood out—the urgent need for more compelling and consistent storytelling across the sector. Forestry and arboriculture have a powerful narrative, and the ICF is committed to empowering members with the tools and confidence to share that story effectively.
Historically, like many membership organisations, the ICF has occasionally been viewed as insular or exclusive. But today’s Institute is a very different place. We are a dynamic, inclusive, and collaborative network of professionals who are eager to learn, share knowledge, form new relationships, and drive change. As a result, the forestry sector is becoming stronger, more resilient, more diverse, and a genuinely rewarding place to build a career.
As we welcome our new President, Andrew Sowerby FICFor, we reaffirm our mission to lead the profession confidently into the second quarter of the 21st century. From arboriculture and urban forestry to timber innovation, our work shapes landscapes, influences policy, and builds public trust. That trust is earned every day—through professionalism, transparency, and unwavering standards, whether in local communities or nationally-focused. >>
To ensure our profession thrives for generations to come, we must invest in training and mentorship, inspiring new arboriculturists and foresters across the UK to take up the mantle. That means working proactively to open doors, remove barriers, and welcome more people into our world.
Investing in the next generation
Ensuring a thriving future means investing in the next generation. That’s why we’ve launched Sustainable Careers in Forestry, the sector’s first virtual work experience programme, in partnership with Springpod and funded by the Forestry Commission. Since its launch in March, the interactive, self-paced programme has enabled young people to explore careers in forestry in an engaging, accessible way. Early results are encouraging: more than 250 participants have already enrolled, and notably, 57% of users identify as female—a strong swing in what is traditionally a male-dominated field. This trend could mark a lasting shift toward gender balance in forestry.
What’s more, the Woodland Trust has provided additional funding towards a TikTok campaign to increase our reach with the younger generation. If funding allows, we hope to expand the offering, and add additional features and spotlights (watch this space!). We’d love industry to help us spread the word about our virtual work experience programme on Springpod. If you reached out to #JustOneSchool—think of the impact it would have! A simple action from each of us, could inspire a whole new generation.
Technical membership
But that is not all. We have also developed further initiatives such as Technical membership, a mark of practical experience and professional credibility. This further allows the Institute to be inclusive across the sector, expanding our reach to support and recognise an underrepresented cohort of skilled arboriculturists and foresters who may not have had prior experience in the sector or ‘traditional’ qualifications. It ensures that members are recognised as professionals in any future roles that they may undertake.
Forest-based education
Another new addition is our training programme, Silvestor, the forest-based education platform which hosts, among other things, the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) e-learning programme, the ICF Knowledge Hub, and the Centre for Forest Protection education and training programme. Silvestor is open to all, and we are currently in a period of expansion where we will be expanding our course library and partnering with other forestry organisations to bring you more great content.
These initiatives are critical in bridging the skills gap and reinforcing the value of lifelong learning in our profession.
Photo: Woodknowledge Wales
Photo: Adobe stock
Emerging Leaders Programme
We hope to be able to secure funding for a third round of our Emerging Leaders Programme. Developed in partnership with Clore Social Leadership, the Emerging Leaders Programme offered a fantastic opportunity for those who work and volunteer in any role across the arboriculture and forestry sector to develop their skills. It guided members to develop inspirational, empowering, courageous, focused, passionate, and generous leadership capabilities – qualities essential to any effective leader. We continue to see the ripple effects of previous cohorts who are now taking on key leadership roles and driving change across the UK.
Educational & Scientific Trust
We have also reinvigorated our Educational & Scientific Trust. Established in 1984 as a charity that aims to advance education across all aspects of arboriculture and forestry, the Trust has awarded ICF members a range of grants—from event bursaries to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) support and specialist training courses that expand individual skills and professional reach. The refresh will provide successful awardees with new and exciting opportunities to develop their knowledge and broaden their horizons.
Young Professional Foresters’ Exchange Programme
Finally, we have our Young Professional Foresters’ Exchange Programme. First run in 2025, it is an international knowledge exchange programme for young professionals working in the forestry sector within participating countries: Australia,
Canada, New Zealand, and the UK. Participants have undertaken a three-month paid international work placement in one of the participating partner countries, gaining a broad range of interdisciplinary forestry experience in policy, planning, and fieldwork. This programme connects future forestry leaders with all the resources required for success— providing unique experiences and opportunities, and empowering participants, while significantly contributing to employers and host countries alike. It is an inspiring example of how global collaboration and training opportunities can elevate our profession and foster a shared vision for the future.
As we look to the future, our ambition is clear: to grow a more connected, inclusive, and forward-looking profession. One that not only adapts to change but leads it. n
About the author
Caroline Harrison MICFor Technical Policy Manager Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) www.charteredforesters.org
Further information
Investigate the Silvestor education platform: www.silvestor.org.uk/silvestor/ukfs-online
Photo: Adobe stock
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Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB)
aecb.net
The AECB is a not-for-profit membership organisation championing sustainable building practices across the UK. It promotes low-energy, low-carbon construction through its CarbonLite Standards and expert-led training. Members benefit from technical resources, webinars, software discounts, and local networking. With a vision for a healthier built environment, the AECB fosters knowledge exchange across the construction sector, supporting individuals and organisations in adopting environmentally responsible practices.
Association of Fencing Industries (AFI)
afiorg.uk
AFI is the UK’s only trade association dedicated to the fencing industry, representing contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers. It influences British Standards and certification schemes, and is a TrustMark Scheme Provider. AFI offers members technical support, regulatory insight, and skillsfocused events like FenceX and Best Practice Days. Strategic alliances with CSCS, CHAS, and Build UK ensure sector visibility. AFI champions safety, innovation, and high standards across all areas of fencing.
Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP)
asbp.org.uk
ASBP is a not-for-profit membership organisation uniting construction stakeholders to advance a low-carbon, healthy built environment. Known for initiatives like the Mass Timber Insurance Playbook and IMPACTT project, ASBP also promotes natural fibre insulation and reuse. It delivers research, advocacy, and resources across biobased and circular construction. ASBP supported the Home-Grown Homes 2 programme in Wales, contributing tools and guidance to reduce embodied carbon in housing.
Built by Nature (BbN)
builtbn.org
Built by Nature is a non-profit network accelerating a naturepositive built environment through grants and crosssector collaboration. Based in Amsterdam, BbN funds innovation in biobased construction, particularly timber, and supports policy, insurance, and design solutions that enable climate-resilient buildings. Its flagship prize celebrates high-performance timber projects. BbN promotes regenerative practices, biodiversity, and local economies by transforming how buildings are made.
Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers (ASHS)
ashs.co.uk
ASHS is a Scottish-based co-operative representing small to medium-sized sawmills supplying locally sourced hardwoods and softwoods. Members range from oak framers to furniture makers and tree surgeons. ASHS supports silvicultural education through initiatives like Working Woods Scotland and promotes the benefits of local sourcing. Services span the timber supply chain, including harvesting, kiln drying, cladding, and framing. ASHS fosters economic, environmental, and community value.
British Woodworking Federation (BWF)
bwf.org.uk
BWF is the trade association for the UK’s woodworking and joinery manufacturing industry, with over 500 members including manufacturers of timber doors, staircases, windows, and architectural joinery. It promotes quality, safety, sustainability, and professionalism through its audited Code of Conduct. BWF supports members with technical guidance, training, and industry representation, while championing wood as a material of choice for new builds, renovations, and conservation projects across the UK.
Certification and Timber Grading Ltd (CATG)
catg.co.uk
CATG is a UK-based certification and testing body supporting timber and construction sectors across the UK, Ireland, and beyond. It offers third-party certification for timber frame and SIP manufacturers, trussed rafter companies, and engineered wood products. Services include grading, CE/UKCA marking, FSC and PEFC certification, and ISO management systems. With practical expertise and UKAS accreditation, CATG helps manufacturers meet regulatory requirements and demonstrate consistent quality and compliance.
Construction Industry Training Board (CITB)
citb.co.uk
CITB is the skills body for construction in Great Britain, supporting employers in building a competent, inclusive, and future-ready workforce. Funded by the CITB Levy, it invests in training standards, career pathways, and employer support. Key initiatives include the Go Construct platform, the Skills and Training Fund, and the Construction Training Register. CITB helps employers identify skills needs, recruit apprentices, and access training that supports innovation, digital growth, and sustainability.
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC UK)
uk.fsc.org
FSC is a global non-profit promoting responsible forest management. Its trusted “tick-tree” logo certifies that forest products are sourced sustainably. FSC UK sets national forest management standards, provides training, and raises awareness of the social and environmental value of certified forestry. Covering over 160 million hectares globally, FSC certification supports ethical sourcing and climate goals. It enables businesses and consumers to choose materials that support sustainable forestry worldwide.
Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)
ciob.org
CIOB is the world’s largest professional body for construction management and leadership, with over 50,000 members in 100 countries. It advances education, standards, and ethics in the built environment sector. Members benefit from chartered accreditation, CPD, training, and global networking. CIOB influences policy on sustainability, building safety, and modern construction methods, ensuring the industry delivers safe, ethical, and people-centred outcomes across the built environment.
confor.org.uk
Confor is a not-for-profit membership organisation promoting sustainable forestry and wood-using businesses across the UK. It represents the entire timber supply chain—from nurseries and growers to processors and woodfuel suppliers. Confor works to improve policy, market conditions, research, and training. It supports member competitiveness and public awareness of forestry’s environmental and economic value. Its website includes career information and resources for those interested in joining the forest-based sector.
Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF)
charteredforesters.org
ICF is the UK’s only professional body for foresters and arboriculturists, granting Chartered Forester and Chartered Arboriculturist status. With over 2,300 members, it promotes high standards, CPD, and sector leadership. ICF influences forestry policy, supports technical learning, and raises public understanding of sustainable land and tree management. Members benefit from resources, events, and access to training platforms like Silvestor and UKFS elearning— helping professionals meet complex environmental and policy challenges.
Institute of Carpenters (IOC)
instituteofcarpenters.com
IOC is the UK’s professional body for carpenters and joiners, promoting craftsmanship, training, and sector leadership since 1890. Members include students, tradespeople, and master craftspeople. The Institute offers graded membership, technical resources, industry news, and networking opportunities. It works with colleges and employers to improve carpentry education and apprenticeships. IOC champions both heritage and modern timber construction, upholding traditional skills while supporting new generations entering the woodworking professions.
PEFC UK
pefc.co.uk
PEFC UK is the national body of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification—the world’s largest forest certification system. PEFC promotes sustainable forest management and enables full traceability through Chain of Custody certification. Its standards are recognised by government and industry, supporting compliance with timber regulations like UKTR and EUDR. PEFC helps landowners, merchants, and specifiers adopt sustainable sourcing practices that protect forests, biodiversity, and climate resilience.
Confor
Passivhaus Trust
passivhaustrust.org.uk
The Passivhaus Trust is an independent non-profit promoting the adoption of the Passivhaus standard in the UK. Known for delivering buildings with exceptional energy efficiency and occupant comfort, Passivhaus supports low-carbon design in new-build and retrofit projects. The Trust provides technical guidance, training, events, and policy advocacy. Its members—architects, engineers, developers, and local authorities—are united by a commitment to highperformance, sustainable building that meets future climate and health challenges.
Tai ar y Cyd
taiarycyd.cymru
Tai ar y Cyd is a Welsh Government-led innovation programme for transforming social housing in Wales. It brings together housing providers, architects, and engineers to develop homes that prioritise community, climate, and affordability. The programme promotes timber construction, offsite manufacturing, and wholelife carbon analysis. It has produced tools, pattern books, and design guidance to support low-carbon housing. Tai ar y Cyd enables practical innovation and shared learning across the sector.
SalvoWEB
salvoweb.com
SalvoWEB is a global reuse platform connecting designers, builders, and consumers with salvaged and reclaimed building materials. Born from a campaign to prevent demolition waste in the 1970s, it promotes circularity in construction. The Truly Reclaimed® standard highlights heritage and environmental benefits of genuine reuse. Salvo supports DIYers and professionals in sourcing materials with character and provenance— reducing carbon, celebrating history, and accelerating the reuse economy across the built environment.
Timber Decking and Cladding Association (TDCA)
tdca.org.uk
TDCA is the UK’s independent advisory body for timber decking and cladding. It supports product quality, installation standards, and technical excellence. The association manages certification schemes like DeckMark® and CladMark® and provides training, design guidance, and testing support. TDCA collaborates with manufacturers and specifiers to ensure timber products are fit for purpose. Its work is key to promoting timber in sustainable building envelope design and external architecture.
Timber Development UK (TDUK)
timberdevelopment.uk
TDUK is the UK’s largest membership organisation for the timber supply chain. Formed from the merger of TTF and TRADA, it brings technical expertise, CPD, and policy engagement under one umbrella. TDUK provides tools, case studies, and industry guidance to promote sustainable, high-performance timber in construction. It partners with Woodknowledge Wales on reciprocal membership and knowledge sharing— amplifying efforts to decarbonise construction through timber innovation, advocacy, and specification support.
Trussed Rafter Association (TRA)
tra.org.uk
TRA is the trade body for manufacturers and professionals in the trussed rafter and metal web joist industry across the UK and Ireland. It promotes high standards in offsite timber construction, offering technical support, training, and thirdparty assessed factory control schemes. TRA members deliver structural roof, floor, and panelised timber solutions for housing and commercial projects. The association champions innovation, safety, and quality across modern structural timber design.
Wood
Protection Association (WPA) thewpa.org.uk
WPA is the UK’s authority on wood preservation, fire retardant treatments, and modified wood. It supports manufacturers, specifiers, and regulators by promoting best practice in timber durability and safety. The WPA Benchmark scheme certifies treatment processes that meet rigorous performance criteria. WPA provides technical guidance, training, and policy input to advance the use of treated wood in sustainable, high-performance construction. Its work ensures that timber remains safe, durable, and fit for modern applications
Woodknowledge Wales (WKW)
woodknowledge.wales
WKW is a for-public-good organisation promoting the transformation of Wales into a high-value, low-carbon forest nation. It champions the use of home-grown timber in construction, supports industry innovation, and delivers policy-shaping research and guidance. WKW works across forestry, manufacturing, housing, and education, delivering impact through events, publications, tools, and technical networks. Its mission is to connect the timber value chain and enable climate-smart built environment change.
