"Wood plays a major role in combating climate change... Greater use of wood products will stimulate the expansion of Europe's forests and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by substituting for fossil fuel intensive products."

European Commission's DG Enterprise, 2003

The Best Choice for
our Environment

Choosing wood reduces climate change through:

Substitution for other less environmentally friendly materials
Storage of the carbon from the tree throughout the life of the product (and beyond, through recycling)
Recovery of the stored energy at the end of the product’s life by burning as a substitute for fossil fuels
Regeneration of the forests, as timber use encourages replanting, which, in turn, sequesters more CO2 from the atmosphere.

Timber is our most environmentally sound construction material. We source all our timbers from well managed and responsible suppliers who are committed to active replantation programmes in the forests they harvest. The European timber industry, which supplies the overwhelming majority of our timber, has overseen a steady expansion of Europe's forests over the past 60 years. Between 1990 and 2000 the European forest area has grown by 30% and this growth continues, as only 65% of the annual growth is harvested.
Add to this our industrial preservative pre-treatment of the majority of our timbers, which ensures they will have the longest service life possible, protected against all forms of fungal and insect attack. The new generation of wood preservative we utilise, Tanalith E, is based on copper triazole technology. The copper is derived from recycled resources and is combined with dual biodegradable triazoles, that are commonly used to protect many of the food crops we eat.
Our general environmental policy is available from this link.