Wood is playing an increasingly important role in construction because of its good properties and positive impact on the climate, circular economy and health. The importance of wood for a sustainable transition can be seen within VolkerWessels in various initiatives.
A number of examples are:
1. The Climate Forests Campaign. Since 2019, VolkerWessels has been contributing to making three forests in the Netherlands climate-proof, in collaboration with the Union of Forest Groups and FSC® Nederland. You can read more about the measures being taken here. VolkerWessels employees were also able to contribute to this project. VolkerWessels doubled their donation.
2. Project 'From forest to construction'. In consortium with parties from all parts of the wood chain, VolkerWessels wants to contribute to the realisation of the objective to triple the use of indigenous wood in construction by 2030. In this way, we are all contributing to achieving the climate and circular ambitions of the Netherlands. If you want to know more, read the message from the initiator of the project, De Bosgroepen, or contact Dirk van Hout (dirk.vanhout@primum.nl) or Wim Sturris (wsturris@degrootvroomshoop.nl).
3. More sustainable housing concepts. In order to build homes in the Netherlands in a more sustainable way, we are applying more and more wood in our projects; from components such as roofs, facades and storage areas at ZuiverWonen and CirculairWonen, to wood construction support structures. An example of the latter is the current M'DAM project, which will be the largest solid wood residential building in the Netherlands. Here, we tell you more about the role of wood in that project.
Sustainable wood
A condition for a sustainable transition in which wood plays a major role is that only certified wood is used. Protecting forests is then essential to meeting the increasing demand for wood sustainably. Timber from certified forests helps to prevent deforestation, which in addition to storing CO2 also helps to protect biodiversity, the soil and waterways of forests.
As a partner of FSC Netherlands, we only want to use wood that comes from sustainably certified forests. In 2020, this goal will be almost achieved, with 99% of our wood purchases consisting of certified wood.
FSC Forest Calculation Tool
Of the total 41,845 m3 of sustainable wood purchased in 2020, 61% was FSC certified and the remainder was mainly PEFC certified. The FSC Forest Calculation Tool can be used to derive how much surface area of forest is actually protected in FSC forests when filling in the volume of certified wood. For VolkerWessels, approximately 10% of the wood consists of tropical hardwood and 90% of northern wood, which brings us to approximately 6 million m2 of protected forest. That is the equivalent of approximately 835 football fields. If you want to calculate the impact of your project, click here.