Renewable, material-efficient building solutions using EWPs are 'a proven choice' for more sustainable construction, easy to handle, and help to accelerate the circularity of the industry, says Metsä Wood

With more than half of the world’s population living in cities, the future of sustainable housing needs to be solved in the context of urban environments. Building in increasingly dense areas while meeting the sustainability demands sets new requirements for the materials we build with. We need material-efficient solutions that are not only easy to handle during construction, but also help to accelerate the circularity of the industry.

Less emissions and more living space
In addition to choosing the right materials to build with, material efficiency is one of the key strategies in transitioning towards building sustainably. Going forward, the construction industry needs to be able to build and renovate using radically less materials. Renewable and material-efficient solutions done with engineered wood products are a proven choice.

Kerto LVL^® is a compelling option to steel and concrete but outperforms also other wood-based solutions. The strength to weight ratio close to steel allows to build load-bearing structures with less material, leading to lighter elements, less emissions and more square meters for habiting the building. 

“For example, in a load-bearing exterior wall element, switching from 140 mm thick CLT to a 69 mm thick Kerto LVL Q panel with equivalent load-bearing capacity means a 51% reduction in the use of wood material, resulting in a 71 mm thinner wall element. For an apartment with 15 meter of outer wall, this reduction in thickness means 1 square meter additional floor area to sell or rent”, explains Håkan Arnebrant, Sales Development Manager from Metsä Wood.

Material efficiency throughout the lifecycle
Building industry needs to work continuously to improve the material efficiency from raw materials to manufacturing, transportation, construction, and end of life of the solutions. Metsä Wood uses wood, traceable and PEFC certified (PEFC/02-31-03) grown in Nordic forests that are managed according to regenerative forestry principles. ¹

The production respects the valuable resources and it has been engineered to be as efficient as possible: Every part of a tree is fully utilised for the most value-giving use and the amount of waste is minimised. LVL is manufactured to exact dimensions, minimizing cross cutting and sawing waste. Production is almost self-sufficient in energy and all the excess renewable energy is sold to the grid in the form of district heat to local communities. Currently up to 96% of the production side streams are utilised. ²

Building with wood means reduced emissions also during transportation and construction. Being lightweight, the wooden elements can be transported in larger quantities at once, lifted with smaller cranes and require altogether lighter foundations, reducing the need for materials like concrete. ³ 

Kerto LVL based solutions are extremely durable and allow to build buildings that last long, keeping the materials in use and by that storing carbon. At the end of a life of a building, the wooden elements can be reused elsewhere, recycled into new building products or the entire building can be relocated and repurposed. 

The material efficiency is a shared challenge—the entire industry needs to come together to rethink how to plan, design and build in a way that allows to cut the amount of raw material and ensure nature’s capacity for renewal.

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References:
1: https://www.metsagroup.com/sustainability/forests-and-wood/regenerative-forestry/
2: https://www.metsagroup.com/metsawood/sustainability/production/
3: https://www.metsagroup.com/metsawood/sustainability/why-build-with-wood/material-efficiency/