Skip to main content
Our Route to Becoming an Industry - Leading Sustainable Manufacturer
Our commitment to sustainability is core to all levels of our business. It’s also key to our ambition to move towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 through scope 1 and 2 emissions. We are making excellent progress in this respect, but acknowledge there remains much work to do. Our longer-term aim is to become a net zero manufacturer by 2050, in line with UK, Irish and EU legislation.
Currently, 95% of energy sourced across direct operations is renewable. In 2021, we secured a guarantee of origin for green electricity which enabled us to confirm our switch to 100% green electricity.
We also intend to work with customers and the supply chain, to support them with their carbon reduction journey, in order to help reduce their emissions and our own. This collaboration will help to promote good practice within the industry, leading to a better understanding of the challenges that the industry faces and ultimately a reduction in carbon impact.
Responsibly and Sustainably Sourced Timber is Key to Our Net Zero Future
Wood is a precious, carbon negative material which can contribute to sustainable building solutions of the future, essential to meeting the 2050 zero emissions targets across the UK, Ireland and Europe. But for the true potential of wood panels to deliver net zero carbon buildings at scale, they must be sustainably, as well as responsibly sourced, and used appropriately.
The use of timber in construction is crucial to creating a low-impact built environment. As a naturally-grown resource, it typically has more low-embodied carbon than synthetically-produced materials. This refers to ‘upfront’ emissions associated with a material’s procurement, whether through mining, harvesting or the impacts involved in transforming it into a construction product. A material’s embodied carbon outcome also relates to emissions released in its transportation, installation, maintenance and its end-of-life disposal.
We have pioneered the sustainable timber industry in Europe, with each of our engineered wood panels produced from responsibly-managed forests owned by Coillte. Post-manufacture, our panels’ sustainable performance is as impressive as their responsible procurement. Timber products have one of the lowest embodied carbon of any mainstream building material. However, rather than being gradually released into the atmosphere, carbon stays locked in the panels – from the point of seeds being planted in our sustainably managed forests, through to the manufacture of the panel and throughout their lifespan.
Responsible Material
Buildings are responsible for 39% of global energy related carbon emissions: 28% from operational emissions, from energy needed to heat, cool and power them, and the remaining 11% from materials and construction.* Versatile and ideal for creating airtight, thermal bridge-free properties, as well as for building just about anything you care to turn your mind to, timber is a much valued and beloved natural resource. Building with timber is our route to reducing operational carbon emissions of our existing building stock, and the embodied CO2 emissions of the buildings we’ve yet to construct. It’s the material we need to use where possible, to work towards our net zero future in all sorts of practical and imaginative ways.