The UK government’s pledge to ‘build back better’ rightly puts sustainable construction at the heart of the UK’s COVID-19 recovery. To meet ambitious carbon targets, there must be a greater focus on the whole life carbon impact of building materials.
Using wood sourced from sustainable forests not only means that more trees get planted than harvested, but it’s a proven way to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as trees are effectively carbon stores. The Committee on Climate Change has cited the use of sustainably sourced wood in construction as “one of the most effective ways to use limited biomass resources to mitigate climate change.”
In light of this, the Wood Window Alliance (WWA) have invested in an interactive learning platform to help promote a better understanding of use of timber in the built environment.
Interactive Wood Window and Door CPDi
Created to deliver insight into how timber and modern manufacturing methods can create spaces that promote lower carbon emissions, the WWA Wood Window and Door CPDi is broken down into bitesize chunks based on key themes, with each session standing alone to form part of a wider series.
Four modules are currently available to access free of charge, which explore the circular economy, the benefits of timber school buildings, building nature into architecture and the natural evolution of the wooden window. Providing practical guidance and support with specification, the modules offer a comprehensive overview of how high performance, quality buildings can be created with the use of timber products, with a specific focus on windows and doors.
Access the Wood Window and Door CPDi here.
Smart Window Specification To Reduce The Environmental Impact
On the WWA website you will also find guidance on how to correctly specify wood windows to ensure performance and longevity. Not all wood windows are built to the same standards and that is why the WWA exists – to ensure that standards across the entire industry are driven up.
As a trade alliance representing the wood window sector, the WWA have commissioned a number of studies on the environmental credentials of window frames to help understand how they compare with other materials. A ground-breaking study for the WWA was ‘Whole Life Analysis of Timber, Modified Timber and Aluminium-Clad Timber Windows’ by Heriot Watt University.
The study found that modern, factory finished wood window frames made to the WWA specification and from sustainably sourced timber had an expected service life between 56 to 65 years in average UK conditions. This is almost double that of PVCu window frames which were found to have an expected service life of 35 years in the same average climate conditions. Taking this expected service life into account, it was found that WWA wood window frames are carbon negative over their life cycle.
For more information visit windows.bwf.org.uk