Timber on top – new environmental sustainability tool puts pay to embodied carbon excuses

Joinery manufacturers and woodworking firms promoting their timber products within the UK construction industry can now obtain life cycle assessments via the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) to prove their environmental sustainability credentials.

The important new service for BWF members comes as a result of BWF becoming the first customer worldwide for the BRE’s new environmental products calculator LINA.

BRE LINA allows the BWF to produce life cycle assessment results for its members’ products which are then uploaded into the BRE Hub so that a third party verified BRE Global Environmental Performance Declaration (EPD) can be produced.

The results can also inform assessments for ISO 14001, EN 15804 (the European standard for the sustainability of construction products) and other environmental management systems, and can feed into BIM (Building Information Modelling).

Announcing the new service at the BWF annual dinner held at W16 this week, BWF acting president Sean Parnaby said:

“This is a major breakthrough in proving categorically timber’s superior environmental sustainability credentials. The simple approach and science behind this environmental tool unravels many of the complexity excuses made by competing materials about why embodied carbon cannot be taken into consideration.

“This is timber leading the debate once again and I have no doubt it will be pivotal in driving greater appreciation of the impact of embodied carbon in construction.”

Dr Peter Bonfield OBE, chief executive of the BRE Group, said:

“My congratulations to BWF and its members for adopting the LINA tool to measure the impacts of the products they manufacture. This is a positive and important step forward that will give their sector and their customers information that supports their quest towards sustainable product selection and use.”

Dr Shamir Ghumra, BRE’s associate director of sustainable products said:

“The BWF has shown tremendous leadership and vision by becoming the first organisation in the world to adopt LINA. The BWF has a broad membership which includes many SMEs, this initiative will allow BWF members to generate life cycle assessment results in a more efficient and cost effective manner than ever before.

“There is a growing need for better product data through verified Environmental Product Declarations. LINA is a pre-verified tool making the verification process quicker for BWF members. Other organisations will follow the trail that BWF have laid down and we very much look forward to working with BWF to further promote the use of life cycle assessment and EPDs in the sector. Better data will lead to better outcomes.”

For further information on BWF’s life cycle assessment service, email bwf@bwf.org.uk

For further information on LINA, go to www.bre.co.uk/lina

ENDS