How to create a sustainable home: THE CASE FOR TIMBER

As we’ve discussed in previous instalments of this series, ‘sustainable’ can mean a lot of things. When it comes to materials, it can relate to the amount of carbon that is created in producing and transporting them to your home (embodied carbon), the renewability of the resources that go into making them, and the impact they will have on your home’s energy efficiency once it’s built. No matter how you look at it, the case for using sustainably produced materials in a self-build project is a good one.

Most people make a choice between brick-and-block (or blockwork) and timber-based construction methods. According to figures from the Building Research Establishment (BRE), the average UK brick-and-block house uses around 200 tonnes of materials in its construction. Of that, 164 tonnes is virgin material (never before used), 12 tonnes is material from industrial waste and 24 tonnes is recycled. Out of the virgin material, an average of 13% doesn’t end