For help in your quest to reach environmental targets, choose our SterlingOSB Zero panels

West Fraser’s SterlingOSB Zero is a favourite panel – and has been for a long time – for flooring, roofing and timber framing. Sometimes known as a substitute for ply, it’s actually better!!  And now, it is a valuable addition for any project as it helps builders and specifiers reach their all-important environmental obligations.

To start, it’s versatile, easy to use and, with high consistency and board strength, has absolutely no weak spots and West Fraser’s SterlingOSB Zero or ‘Sterling Board’, as it is often known, is now one of Europe’s most widely used and trusted structural panels.

OSB is formed of flakes or strands of timber bonded with resin adhesives in some 50 cross-directional layers. These are then mechanically pressed to create a structurally engineered really strong board. Resins used to bind the flakes of SterlingOSB Zero contain zero-added formaldehyde. With less resin and more wood, the boards are more environmentally friendly and safer while performance is unimpaired. And now, all West Fraser’s panel products are certified carbon negative.

In-depth life-cycle assessment of carbon emissions in buildings is increasingly resulting in the building sector being advised to design and build with wood. As wood naturally absorbs carbon as part of its natural life cycle, it is an ideal replacement for other materials with high levels of embodied carbon such as concrete and steel.

The UK government has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050. This target will require the UK to bring all greenhouse gas emissions down to net zero. SterlingOSB Zero products can help the construction industry comply; the net carbon negative status of the boards can be used by building designers to off-set the operational emissions of a building.

Every SterlingOSB Zero board removes more carbon from the atmosphere than is emitted during manufacture, locking it up into long term storage within the board. Per cubic metre, SterlingOSB Zero sequesters 828kg of CO2e. The wood used is homegrown, minimising carbon emissions from transport while ensuring it is always available and offers a cost-effective building solution.

West Fraser is a diversified wood products company with more than 60 facilities in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.  From responsibly sourced and sustainably managed forest resources, West Fraser produces lumber, engineered wood (OSB, LVL, MDF, plywood, particleboard), and other products including pulp, newsprint, wood chips and renewable energy.  West Fraser’s products are used in construction, repair and remodelling, industrial applications, papers, tissue and box materials.