Across the entire project, we have minimised the variety of types and sizes of equipment and distribution modules.

To meet increased demand for engineered timber, we need to carefully consider land availability and the impact on ecosystems..While sustainable forest management (FSC or PEFC) is the best tool available to ensure a reasonable exploitation of timber, these certifications aren’t perfect.

Natural forests are complex biodiverse ecosystems that capture carbon, not just in trees but also within soil.A ‘tree plantation’ unlike a forest, may not enhance biodiversity and may have a reduced capacity to store carbon in the soil.. One major risk related to carbon accounting and forest management is that Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) may not adequately account for the carbon released from decaying root net and from the soil when cutting trees.This can be largely underestimated for most timber products.. We must also acknowledge that sustainable foresting cannot produce enough timber to respond to global construction needs.

Engineered timber cannot substitute or offset the use of concrete and steel but its use should be prioritised in the right type of buildings.. Our response is to:.- Ensure timber specified is of a sustainable nature, by using PEFC or FSC certification schemes.. - Have a critical view about sustainable forest management and explore alternatives.. - Interrogate timber manufacturers on their root and soil carbon accounting.. Acoustic performance.

When designing with engineered timber special attention is required to reduce vibrations, noise transmission and reverberation time..

The layered nature of engineered timber can improve acoustic compartmentation and if properly designed, does not need the same mass as concrete to achieve the same airborne sound resistance.There are limitations with these carbon capture methods, however, as CCS by itself isn’t enough to bring us to the designated targets for the industry.

CCU is the better of the two methods to take meaningful steps towards carbon neutrality, as it puts the carbon to use straight away with less risk of it escaping.The issue with these methods is that there is still work to be done on the technology and estimations for using the captured carbon in directly transforming it into hydrocarbons.. A good measure to show how close a technology is to being used is the technology readiness level (TRL).

This is a scale of 1-9, where 1 is the concept and 9 is a system ready to be implemented.At the time of writing, the TRL for carbon capture is still relatively low, at 7 in the validation stage.