Scottish Timber Plants Seed of Sustainability

A greater use of home-grown timber within UK construction is taking a significant step forward on a new demonstrator project, which could see a boost for the Scottish economy and the industry’s environmental impact.

A consortium of partners, which is made up of the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC), Edinburgh Napier University (ENU), Centre for Offsite Construction and Innovative Structures (COCIS), Scottish Forestry, Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor) and SNRG, has secured funding from Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund to prove the business case for using Scottish timber to create structural elements of buildings.

This initiative will aim to manufacture the first Scottish-sourced cross-laminated timber (CLT) and nail-laminated timber (NLT) housing unit, including wall, roof and floor, using the country’s only vacuum press at CSIC’s 35,000 sq ft innovation factory in Hamilton.

This project could lead to the mainstream use of home-grown timber in Scotland and the rest of UK construction, as well as the development of the country’s first ever engineered timber manufacturing plant.

The project is set to complete at the end of 2020, and the CLT and NLT superstructure will be showcased at next year’s COP26 United Nations conference on climate change, set to take place in Glasgow between 1^st and 12^th November 2021.

Sam Hart, Innovation Manager at CSIC, said: “The project is an important milestone in the move towards more mainstream use of home-grown timber in the UK’s construction sector, the majority of which is grown in Scotland. Research has proven that, with the right treatment and processing, our timber can be used for a wide variety of higher-value purposes beyond its relatively limited set of current applications. Through its increased use in commercial construction and housebuilding, we can also reduce our reliance on imported timber.

“The next step from there will be to make the industry aware of this transformational potential and make it a reality. Greater use of our natural and renewable resources will deliver a range of environmental, cost, and economic benefits for Scotland and the wider UK. COP26 is a once in a generation opportunity to showcase what can be achieved.”

Jason Hubert, Head of Business Development at Scottish Forestry, said: “Scottish Forestry, and the wider Scottish Government, recognises the importance of increasing Scottish timber in construction as a means of storing carbon for the long term as well as generating green jobs for the country. This project will provide the springboard for the sector to start manufacturing a great engineering product which can be used in large-scale buildings using home-gown timber.

“The Scottish Government is committed to getting more Scottish timber into construction and aims to increase the current 2.2 million cubic metres to 2.6 million cubic metres each year by 2021/2022.”

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