Timber construction as a CO2 storage technology

Mass Timber is a natural carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology. Let’s use it.

Thanks to its CO2 storage capacity, wood can make an important contribution to the decarbonization of the construction industry. In Switzerland alone, there is additional potential for around 1 million m3 of additional wood per year (without reducing the forest area and with simultaneous preservation and maintenance of our forests). This means that the additional Swiss climate potential of timber construction is 1 million tons of stored CO2 per year.

We need simple, scalable CO2 tools to incentivize builders, architects, planners, forest associations, and institutions to use more wood as a building material.

We develop CO2 storage certificates for timber buildings.

CO2 storage certificates for wood buildings create environmental and financial incentives for institutional builders to use more wood as a renewable building material.

We are developing a “Timber Carbon Removal” CO2 certificate for timber buildings under the VCM ICROA standard, to measure and monetize the long-term CO2 storage in building structures .

CO2 storage certificates in timber construction are rapidly gaining importance internationally. They are inexpensive, scalable and quick to implement (The Economist 2020) and (UNFCC Concept Note).

Illustration:

Illustration on the left: Conventional “forest approach”, i.e. CO2 storage in the forest. This temporary storage can be less and less guaranteed due to fire, beetles, etc. Illustration on the right: “Timber construction approach”, which shows the transfer of the sequestration capacity and the temporary CO2 storage in the forest to the permanent CO2 storage in multi-storey timber construction. This is a mandatory requirement for Mass Timber to be recognized as a negative emission technology for Carbon Removal Certificate emissions.

We are a partner for decarbonization in timber construction.

We are a frontrunner in the European Built by Nature network.

We are specialists in timber construction.

We are experienced in development, having completed over 4,000 successful timber construction projects. Swiss timber engineering is a world leader.

Our Team

We combine 30 years of experience in timber construction with forest and timber industry expertise, project development and CO2 expertise. You can find more information about our team here.