Only 37 of 290 Swedish municipalities have a strategy for building more wooden structures to reduce GHG emissions, despite broad societal understanding for such initiatives, according to survey from Holmen Forest and Holmen Wood Products

In Sweden, a large proportion of newly produced buildings and their frames are built in fossil materials such as concrete and steel, which lead to large emissions of greenhouse gas. By constructing more in wood, carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced.

According to Sweden's Municipalities and Regions (SKR), municipalities need to be leaders in the work to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Despite that, only 37 of Sweden's 290 municipalities state that they have either a strategy to build more in wood or a political decision to develop such a strategy, shows a survey from Holmen Forest and Holmen Wood Products.

“Although there is a broad understanding in society that we should build more in wood, that understanding has not yet been fully reflected in the construction decisions made by many municipalities. For those municipalities, a strategy for increased wood construction would make a big difference”, says Sören Petersson, Business Area Manager Holmen Forest.

Read the full press release here (in Swedish):

37 municipalities in Sweden state that they have a strategy for wooden construction