If you thought timber was the only construction material that could play the sustainability marketing card, think again. They’re all at it. A central plank of the concrete manufacturers’ £6m-a-year “Concrete Thinking” campaign is concrete’s environmental performance. The steel industry is taking a similar tack in its advertising and also holding a conference in November entitled “Sustainability, steel and the environment”. Meanwhile, the uPVC sector doesn’t so much talk up its environmental record as knock timber’s.
All this was flagged up at wood. for good‘s “The Big Challenge” conference at the Building Research Establishment last week. The aim of the event was to highlight the openings for timber created by the UK’s move toward “sustainable construction”. The government forecasts that we’ll need hundreds of thousands of extra homes in the next couple of decades and, to meet its targets on tackling climate change, it is insisting they are increasingly eco-friendly in construction and use.
The basic message of “The Big Challenge” was inspirational; the timber sector has the products and technology to capitalise on the sustainable construction crusade.
But it was also made clear that, with well-funded rival material industries after their share of the business, the timber sector must also continue to promote itself heavily and act in concert on a range of areas to make the most of the opportunities. In the wood. for good campaign and the Confederation of Forest Industries‘ embryonic “Naturally Wood” sustainable development strategy, the industry has the tools but, to be really effective, everyone needs to buy into them.
Debate during “The Big Challenge” on the relative merits of the various eco-certification schemes also emphasised that this issue needs to be resolved rapidly if competitor industries are not to steal a march on wood.
Dr Peter Bonfield of the BRE stressed the urgency of the situation. The figure pushing the sustainable construction bandwagon forward, he said, is deputy prime minister John Prescott and he is a “man on a mission”. “He wants more homes, more quickly. He wants change and he wants it now “.
