How switching to West Fraser’s engineered wood panels helps housebuilders lower their Scope 3 emissions

West Fraser UK, as a pioneer in the industry, has always been dedicated to producing board from sustainable sources of timber. All of the wood used in the manufacture of the company’s engineered panel ranges comes from responsibly managed forests, or from recycled material.

Read how switching to West Fraser’s engineered wood panels helps housebuilders lower their scope 3 emissions in our lifecycle assessment which you can download below.

Young, fast-growing trees are the lungs of the world, breathing in carbon dioxide and exhaling oxygen and, by replanting trees, sustainable forestry ensures that more oxygen-emitting woodlands are created every year. In addition, heat, steam, and gases that develop during the manufacturing processes are captured to provide energy for the mills. 75% of the energy used in the state-of-the-art production processes is derived from renewables which are residues. In the UK, West Fraser uses 1.5 million metric tons of biomass every year for energy which is the equivalent of about two million barrels of oil which helps reduce the company’s carbon footprint and lower Scope 3 emissions*.

The team monitors distribution networks and offers innovative and environmentally-sound alternatives to transport by road wherever possible. A substantial part of the round wood, from suppliers, reaches West Fraser’s mills via ocean and canal shipping supply lines, and, by striving to switch from road to rail we estimate, a saving of around 9,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

The 100% renewable UK-made building products from West Fraser are net carbon negative and it is the only major building material that stores carbon for its useful lifetime, being 50% carbon by weight. At West Fraser, 1.1 million tonnes of CO2e in Europe are locked in every year while the SterlingOSB Zero products achieve an A+ rating in the BRE green guide, the highest rating possible.

All of West Fraser’s UK wood panels can be recycled where wood recycling facilities are available and the circular economy, which is designed to eliminate waste and pollution and keep products and materials in use, is supported. With West Fraser, suppliers are offered a closed loop wood recycling option where board products are supplied to the marketplace and then a proportion of that material is re-used to produce more board or generate green energy.

Download our lifecycle assessment here.

For further information, call 01786 812 921 or visit https://uk.westfraser.com/

*From The Carbon Trust report “An introductory guide to Scope 3 emissions”

Scope 3 is a term defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol). The GHG Protocol provides the world’s most widely used greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting standards, which organisations and governments use to understand, quantify and manage their GHG emissions. Created to bring consistency, the GHG Protocol categorises emissions into three ‘Scopes’:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions from activities within your organisation’s control. This includes onsite fuel combustion from buildings and company vehicles as well as manufacturing and process emissions and direct emissions from agriculture.

• Scope 2: Indirect emissions from any electricity, heat or steam you purchase and use. By using the energy, you are indirectly responsible for the release of GHG emissions.

• Scope 3: Any other indirect emissions from sources outside your direct control. The

GHG Protocol’s Scope 3 Standard categorises emissions across 15 different categories covering business activities common to many organisations, such as purchased goods and services, business travel and waste in operations. It also encompasses activities like leased assets, transport and distribution, the use and disposal of sold products and the impact of any investments.

Why Scope 3 emissions matterScope 3 almost always represents the largest proportion of emissions. Across the private and public sectors, these emissions are typically responsible for 70-90% of an organisation’s carbon footprint. It makes accelerating action on reducing Scope 3 emissions all the more important if we want to keep 1.5C alive