TIMBER TRADER UK NEWS
Scottish timber initiative plants seed of construction sustainability Greater use of homegrown timber in UK construction is taking a significant step forward through a new demonstrator project, which could lead to a major boost for Scotland’s economy and the industry’s environmental impact. A consortium of partners – comprising of Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC), Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) Centre for Offsite Construction and Innovative Structures (COCIS), Scottish Forestry, Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor), and SNRG – has secured funding from Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund to prove the business case for using Scottish timber to create the structural elements of buildings. The initiative will manufacture the first Scottish-sourced cross laminated timber (CLT) and nail laminated timber (NLT) housing unit – including wall, roof, and floor – using the UK’s only vacuum press at CSIC’s 35,000 sq. ft. innovation factory in Hamilton. The demonstrator project could ultimately lead to the mainstream use of home-grown timber in Scotland and the rest of the UK construction, as well as the development of the country’s first engineered timber manufacturing plant. The CLT and NLT superstructure will be showcased at the COP26 United Nations conference on climate change, set to take place in Glasgow between November 1 and 12 2021. Sam Hart, innovation manager at CSIC, said: “The project is an important milestone in the move towards more mainstream use of homegrown timber in the UK’s construction sector, the majority of which is grown in Scotland. Research has proven that, with the right treatment and processing, our timber can be used for a wide variety of higher-value purposes beyond its relatively limited set of current applications. Through its increased use in commercial construction and housebuilding, we can also reduce our reliance on imported timber. The next step from there will be to make the industry aware of this transformational potential and make it a reality. Greater use of our
and Dowel Laminated Timber. As a result, a number of UK-sourced
natural and renewable resources will deliver a range of environmental,
mass timber products have been pilot manufactured, tested, and
cost, and economic benefits for Scotland and the wider UK. COP26 is a
analysed. The latest project is a natural progression to trialling home-
once in a generation opportunity to showcase what can be achieved.”
grown timber in a live environment, demonstrating the investment
Among a range of benefits, using more homegrown timber is expected to significantly lower costs for the construction industry
case for developing a Scottish manufacturing facility that can offer an alternative to products currently imported from Europe.
– initial figures suggest a potential reduction of as much as 10%
Jason Hubert, head of business development at Scottish Forestry,
compared to imported CLT – cut carbon emissions through reduced
said: “Scottish Forestry, and the wider Scottish Government, recognises
need for transportation, and open new markets to the UK-based timber
the importance of increasing Scottish timber in construction as a
sector. Analysis has suggested that around 85% of all new homes in
means of storing carbon for the long term as well as generating green
Scotland are built using timber and recent UK Government statistics
jobs for the country. This project will provide the springboard for
show that, in 2018, the UK was the world’s second largest net importer
the sector to start manufacturing a great engineering product which
of forest products – including timber – behind only China.
can be used in large-scale buildings using homegrown timber. The
Timber grown in the UK has historically been used for non-
Scottish Government is committed to getting more Scottish timber into
structural applications, such as fencing and palettes. However, ENU
construction and aims to increase the current 2.2 million cubic metres
COCIS has led on research and development to determine the viability
to 2.6 million cubic metres each year by 2021/2022.”
of using home-grown timber for the production of mass timber More at www.cs-ic.org/innovationcentre
products and systems, such as CLT, NLT, Glue Laminated Timber (GLT),
Timber Trader UK Magazine
Winter 2020-2021
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