Ireland needs to move away from using carbon-intensive materials and move towards more sustainable materials, such as timber, to address the climate and housing crisis, according to international experts, policymakers and key industry players.
That was the clear message today (Wednesday, October 4) at a major conference held in the heart of Avondale Forest Park in Co. Wicklow.
The ‘Build with Wood’ conference – organised by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and Coillte – examined how to increase the use of timber in construction and determined that Ireland must aim to be self-sufficient for timber production for building purposes.
At the conference delegates were urged to “leverage and learn from approaches” that other countries have adopted to encourage the use of timber in construction.
The celebrity architect, Dermot Bannon, hosted the conference and highlighted some of the key examples where people have embraced timber in construction.
He spoke of one house that he had visited on the island of Inisturk, off the coast of Co. Mayo, that was replicating modern bungalows being built on the mainland, as opposed to the houses already found on the island that were built with stone and materials already found on the island.
Bannon used this as an example to highlight how materials produced in Ireland can be used sustainably, as opposed to materials that are damaging to the environment.
He also outlined that “timber products have the lowest embodied carbon of any mainstream building material”.
However, he added that “Ireland’s use of timber in the construction industry is extremely low compared to other European countries”.
“Without increasing its use in the building environment, it’s going to be really difficult for Ireland to meet its embodied carbon reduction targets,” he said.
“Construction is responsible for 35% of carbon emissions, and this is needless.”
Imelda Hurley, chief executive of Coillte, also said that Ireland should aim to be as “self-sufficient as possible”.
By producing the materials for building in Ireland, Hurley said it will improve Ireland’s sustainability targets, and increase the speed of delivering homes to people, as materials will be available quicker.
Farmers in forestry
Meanwhile, Minister of State for land use and biodiversity, Pippa Hackett, said: “Irish timber should be the building material of the future.
“Forestry has been through challenging times in recent years. There’s no way we can achieve our targets without commercial forestry.”
She also referenced Ireland’s new €1.3 billion Forestry Programme and said that it “is designed to encourage more farmers into farm forestry”.
“Farmers receive 20 years of tax-free premiums”, while non-farmers will receive 15 years, she highlighted.
Incentives for timber use
One key theme at today’s conference was around the need to accelerate housing construction but without the use of carbon-intensive materials.
According to Des O’Toole of Forestry Industry Ireland, “it is clear that our net-zero targets will not be achieved through operational efficiencies alone, and the focus needs to switch to embodied carbon”.
“What will also help to unlock the potential to use more homegrown timber… is to support demonstration projects to validate conformance and compliance with the building regulations.
“We’re suggesting that a fund is ring-fenced to incentivise early adoption.
“Introducing some sort of financial supports to demonstrate these new forms of construction will then stimulate and drive demand, thereby allowing the forestry industry to invest and build capacity,” he added.