As part of an initiative of the Creative Industries Top Sector, a number of companies and organisations that are active in the chain of building with wood have carried out an exploration of the effects if more construction is done with wood in the Netherlands and what is needed to boost this. A number of important social advantages have been identified to initiate a transition to more use of wood in construction. As a building material, wood stores a lot of CO2 and with new techniques lends itself well for reuse. This is in contrast to the production of traditional building materials where a lot of CO2 is released.

Build with wood
Building with wood appears to have a surprisingly large amount of positive effects. The construction sector, which is still very much focused on relatively traditional construction methods, can benefit greatly from a transformation to a circular construction method with wood as the basic building material. But society also benefits from building more with wood.

‘Instead of a lot of CO2 emissions from traditional construction methods, building with wood actually stores a lot of CO2’

Nitrogen emissions on construction sites are greatly reduced because there are fewer and lighter logistical movements; significantly less CO2 is emitted. It perfectly suits the ambition for a circular economy, because it is reusable, can provide an impulse for new landscape design and, finally, also offers many new economic opportunities.

Circular construction
The trend towards more circular construction also receives an enormous impulse with building with wood, because wood can be reused as a building material through new techniques such as CLT (cross laminated timber). However, this does require an increase in capacity and innovation throughout the chain. In short, a transition to build much more with wood offers major social benefits and lays the foundation for a new innovative economic sector that fits in a circular economy.