NSW Treasurer and Environment Minister Matt Kean’s announcement to include carbon stored within buildings as part of rating new major developments was a welcome development. Source: Timberbiz
According to the Australian Forest Products Association NSW this announcement means new major developments will be scored on how carbon-intensive they were to build under a planning framework being developed by the NSW government to bolster the drive towards net-zero.
Commercial buildings and apartment blocks will be rated against their neighbours on the amount of embodied carbon they contain in an expansion of a national tool that gives six-star ratings to developments based on their contribution to emissions reduction through energy use.
NSW Treasurer and Environment Minister Matt Kean said embodied carbon, the emissions created from the extraction, production and transport of building materials, was expected to become the biggest source of emissions in the building sector in the future.
“Using sustainably-sourced local timber is a great way to decarbonise buildings in the drive towards net-zero,” AFPA NSW CEO Sue Grau said.
“Timber building products are the end of a sustainable supply chain which is carbon positive,” she said.
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recognised sustainable forestry with its continual harvesting and replanting is one of the best ways to reduce carbon emissions.”
A sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit.
“The NSW forest products industry develops innovative products, such as cross laminated and glue laminated timber, which not only look great but also store carbon,” Ms Grau said.
“We have great examples in Sydney of where these innovative timber products have been used. The use of 90% timber in Lendlease’s Daramu House for example generated a 48% increase in embodied carbon in comparison with traditional construction materials.
“The recent social housing initiative to construct 1,400 homes is a great chance for the NSW Government to showcase how using more timber in smaller building projects can help everyone fight climate change,” she said.
