Ireland has an opportunity to be at the “cutting edge of the next timber building revolution,” the managing director of Coillte told an Oireachtas committee today (Tuesday, May 2).
Mark Carlin from the semi-state forestry company told the Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage that Ireland’s forests “have never been more important to society”.
Carlin said that forests could help to address many of the challenges that the country currently faces including climate change and biodiversity loss but also provide “a valuable source of products and materials that will help drive sustainable living”.
He said that Coillte had recently launched a new “long-term vision” for its forest estate which included supporting “the creation of new homes” by delivering sustainable Irish wood products.
The managing director of the semi-state agency – which earlier this year signed a controversial “operational management agreement” with London-headquartered Gresham House – was keen to highlight to TDs and senators today the climate benefits of building with wood.
Carlin said:
“Ireland’s built environment currently represents 37% of overall annual greenhouse gas emissions, with 14% of this being ‘embodied carbon’, that is the carbon required to construct our buildings.
“Timber products have a dual advantage over traditional building products in that they have a lower embodied carbon, and a higher level of stored carbon.”
According to the managing director of Coillte building a new timber frame home could deliver carbon savings of up to 2.5 times compared to a traditionally built home.
But Carlin said while the benefits of building with wood “for mitigating climate change” are well understood, only 25% of housing units in Ireland are built with timber frames.
This compares poorly to Scotland’s current track record of 80% of housing units and lags even further behind countries like Scandinavia.
“There is an opportunity in Ireland to embrace timber based modern methods of construction at a meaningful scale,” he told the joint committee.
But, Carlin said this would require new policy and regulations to be introduced and an education and promotion campaign to promote a “better understanding of the benefits of building with timber”.
He also believes that the government should demonstrate the advantages of building with wood in public building programmes and social housing projects.
“We have an increasing softwood fibre resource in Ireland, so we can increase our self-sufficiency in meeting our future timber requirements.
“Accelerating the use of wood in construction is no longer a desire, it is now a climate imperative,” Carlin added.