- Client: EC - DG CLIMA
- Implementation period: September, 2020 - August, 2021 (Ongoing)
- Geographic coverage: European Union
- Theme: Climate Change
- Topic:
- Experts: Hans Bolscher, Joris Moerenhout, Oana Forestier, Andrea Finesso
How to incentivise the usage of wood in construction as a carbon sink – while ensuring that its harvest is sustainable?
Using wood timber or engineered wood as construction materials can lead to a double benefit in terms of climate change mitigation:
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it avoids the intense GHG emissions related to the production of concrete, steel or aluminium;
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provided many conditions are met regarding the sustainability of the harvest and at the end of life of the building, it can capturethe CO2 embedded in the wood, thereby playing the role of a carbon sink.
The project is led by Trinomics in collaboration with VITO, Wageningen University & Research and Ricardo. The project will run from September 2020 and will finish by August 2021.
This investigation provided the following preliminary results:
- Create a reliable measure of the CO2 being captured in a wood-based construction product;
- To design a market-based carbon credit scheme incentivising the sustainable use of wood-based construction products.