The government has set ambitious sustainability and delivery targets for the UK construction industry. They include increasing the use of British timber, reducing carbon emissions and delivering a record number of affordable, sustainable homes. At Ransfords, we’re already on it.

A big bold vision for UK timber

For 150 years, we’ve built a reputation for doing the right thing for our customers, our community – and the environment. So with the government’s new focus on building and sustainability, we’re already in-step with the ‘Timber in Construction roadmap 2025’, announced in February this year.

Launched by The Environment Minister, Mary Creagh, the roadmap outlines new ways to deliver on the government’s Plan for Change. It aims to create a low-waste, circular construction sector that will at the same time deliver 1.5 million net new homes by 2029. It will also drive further investment in domestic timber and create new, green jobs in the forestry and wood-processing supply chains.

In the Minister’s own words, “Timber will play a vital role benefitting development and nature.”

Sustainability matters more than ever

The construction industry is resource hungry and emission heavy. Of the 100 billion tonnes of minerals, metals and other materials extracted from the earth each year, construction accounts for half of it. While some of these resources are renewable, our current rate of consumption is still outpacing the Earth’s ability to replenish them. There are growing concerns that some essential building materials, such as sand, could soon be in short supply.

There’s another problem. The energy-intensive processes involved in producing commonly used building materials, like cement and steel, means the construction sector still relies heavily on fossil fuels. Steel production, for example, is one of the most significant generators of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, emitting 2 tons of CO2 for every 1 ton of steel produced.

Historically the construction industry has been wasteful too. According to sustainability-focused European asset manager Ambienta, it generates between 30% of all the world’s waste. Or up to 50% when upstream manufacturing processes are also taken into account (we’ll come back to the importance of upstream emissions and waste later).

Without the roadmap, the Government’s promise to deliver “record levels of house building” could be on a collision course with its commitments on the environment. But the roadmap suggests “By increasing the use of timber, which sequesters carbon, we can significantly reduce these emissions to achieve net-zero by 2050, while simultaneously growing our economy.”

Unlocking the potential of UK timber

Timber offers immense potential to reduce emissions and waste, create jobs and build the homes the government has promised. It’s durable, renewable and a low-carbon resource, and a suitable replacement for steel and concrete blocks in low-rise and some mid-rise buildings.

82% of the population already support use of wood in construction as a strategy to meet the UK’s Net Zero commitments. But of course, building with timber isn’t a new idea; archaeological evidence suggests we’ve been doing it for over 10,000 years.

Currently the built environment as a whole accounts for 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. These include ‘operational carbon emissions’ (produced by domestic central heating for example) and ‘embodied carbon emissions’, which come from the manufacture, maintenance and disposal of construction products.

Using timber can reduce embodied emissions in a single building by 20-60%. Yet despite this, in 2019, only 9% of English new build homes were timber-framed and 22% in Wales. This compared with up to 90% in Nordic countries and an impressive 92% just over the border in Scotland. So in England especially this presents a huge opportunity for change. As well as being eco-friendly, using UK timber is energy-efficient and speeds up construction: that’s three big green ticks against roadmap goals.

And of course, it’s not only housebuilding where sustainable timber can make a difference. Products such as fencing, cladding and landscaping timber play a vital role in ensuring that new developments (from housing estates to commercial spaces) are finished sustainably and beautifully. Acoustic noise barriers, meanwhile, are helping to protect communities from road and rail noise while reducing the reliance on steel and concrete. And highways treated timber ensures essential national infrastructure projects can meet both performance and environmental standards.

Timber harvested from sustainably managed forests also acts as a carbon store. Low-rise timber-framed homes can store 50% more carbon than those built of masonry. In larger buildings, carbon storage using engineered timber can be 400% greater than using concrete.

There are two watch-outs. As the government points out, any increased use of timber must be sustainable, avoiding deforestation and ensuring woodland resilience to climate change, pests, and extreme weather.

And it’s estimated that delivering the home-grown timber needed will require the creation of 1,400 new jobs in the nursery and forestry sectors. This works alongside wider efforts, such as the National Wood Strategy for England, to build a resilient, thriving forestry sector. Right now the uptake in these subjects at higher education has fallen so it’s hard to recruit – this could be a real future challenge for the sector and one we’ll doubtless come back to at a later date.

We’re supporting the UK’s sustainable forests

In 1876, when our business began, around 5% of the UK was covered by forests. You may be surprised to learn that today, despite the pressures of industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth, coverage has actually increased and woodland now covers 14.5% of the UK.  44% of this woodland area is certified as sustainably managed.

Despite the increase in sustainable woodland, the UK is still the world’s third largest net importer of timber and wood products – 80% of our total needs are met from overseas. Which is why the government’s roadmap calls for the increased production of sustainable, homegrown timber. It sets a target of planting more trees to increase woodland cover to 16.5% by 2050. For our own part we have already planted and are managing 2,000 acres of our own trees and are Forestry Commission and Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru (Natural Resources Wales) accredited.

But the roadmap also acknowledges that it’s not enough to just plant new woodland – we must also make the most of the trees we have. We’ve invested £30m over the last 11 years in state-of-the-art technology to ensure we optimise every single log that enters our yard. We operate a zero-waste policy, with 3D laser scanning, integrated board recovery and re-sawing lines for maximum efficiency, ensuring every part of the tree is utilised. 66%, of every tree goes to ‘square sawn’ end product, with the rest used for secondary products and purposes. We then repurpose all our bark, sawdust and woodchips as co products, such as garden supplies.

Not only that, we use the highest quality treatments (including bespoke and hybrid applications) to preserve our timber and extend its service life up to 30 years. The longer timber lasts, the less timber is needed.

And what about those ‘upstream’ factors we mentioned earlier? You won’t find them at Ransfords. By using 100% high quality British timber we’re minimising emissions and lorry miles. And we have over 4,000 solar panels generating 1.2MW of clean electricity at our yard, with plans to invest in battery storage to ensure no energy is wasted.

Working with our partners for a stronger more sustainable industry

We’re a family-run sawmill, famous for our outstanding service, product quality and commitment to the environment.  Our site in Bishop’s Castle is one of the UK’s most efficient sawmill operations, processing over 80,000 tonnes of logs every year and offering a comprehensive range of British-grown and manufactured boards, posts, rails, decking and decking joists. All expertly sawn and treated for performance, durability and visual appeal. By working closely with trade bodies, trusted suppliers and industry experts, we ensure our timber meets the highest standards of quality and sustainability. We call it ‘The Ransfords Treatment’.

There’s no doubt that timber, as a renewable, sustainable, low-carbon resource, presents a huge opportunity to meet the challenges of climate change, the housing crisis and help drive economic growth. But it must be carefully managed.

Dare we say a circular construction sector begins right here in our yard?