Thankfully the upsurge in the use of timber in the construction industry has rejuvenated the planting of timber as a crop. This bodes well for our environment as trees make their biggest contribution to our atmosphere during the vigorous growth in the first 20 years of their life.

At Carpenter Oak & Woodland we have always taken our environmental responsibilities very seriously and we work hard to ensure that we walk the talk.

Trees in nature and construction

Timber is the most sustainable of the major structural building materials. It is widely available, often locally, and is easily replaced with only positive environmental impact. In fact, the harvesting and replanting of oak/timber could be said to be actively beneficial. 

Greenhouse effect and global warming

Trees are nature’s carbon dioxide filters, helping fight the greenhouse effect and global warming. Over the course of its life, from 50 to 100 years in the case of most of the oak Carpenter Oak & Woodland use, the tree absorbs carbon dioxide and locks it in.

Chemical treatment

Oak is full of natural tannins and oils that makes chemical treatment unnecessary.  Indeed we avoid the chemical treatment of ak/timber if at all possible – it simply isn’t good to introduce these incredibly toxic materials into our clients’ oak timber-frame homes, we don’t want our staff to handle it, and the environment at large certainly doesn’t need it.  In most cases, chemical treatment of green oak is unnecessary anyway which good detailing can avoid. If necessary, we recommend treatment of softwood timber with boron preservative (or more accurately inorganic compounds of this naturally occurring element), which has proven efficacy and safety and exists as an essential nutrient for plant and animal life. For more information visit Green Building Store 

Embodied energy

It is widely acknowledged that the use of oak/timber in construction is about as environmentally responsible as the construction industry gets! A major reason for this is that the embodied energy (the energy needed to bring that material to use) in locally sourced oak/timber is a small fraction of alternatives: steel uses 120 times more energy, and aluminium a staggering 650 times more. Furthermore, once timber is incorporated into the structure it has remarkable longevity, meaning that the environmental cost of replacement won’t need to be incurred for a very long time to come.

Another part of the equation, often overlooked, is how the building material is disposed of after the building’s life is over. Timber is both easily disposed of (provided it hasn’t had any nasty chemical treatments) and can be returned to the ground, or better still recycled into an alternative use. Oak timber frames can last many hundreds of years, and we have many examples surviving today that prove this point. We are often asked how long one of our frames will last, and given that our skill levels compare to those of those mediaeval craftsmen, and that we probably are selecting better quality timber, provided it is kept dry, the answer seems to be almost indefinitely.  

Our role

It is a core philosophy of Carpenter Oak & Woodland that business should not just be ‘environmentally aware’, but truly environmentally responsible, and to that end, we not only have an Environmental Policy, but we really mean it. 

We work very hard to run our business as responsibly as possible, reducing our impact, and using offset schemes to mitigate our energy usage and travel costs. 

As importantly, we recognise that the use of energy in the construction of the building is minimal in contrast to the energy used during its occupation.  Over the years we have amassed considerable experience in the detailing of buildings and the complementary materials that help, as well as issues such passive solar design that can make all the difference to reducing reliance on energy consumption.  

Not least of all, for every tree felled to be incorporated into our structures, we plant up to ten in its place, offering these to our clients to plant themselves, or we plant these replacements on the clients behalf.

For more information, you can download our Environmental Policy Document (PDF file: 132KB).

Further information about the environmental reasons for building with timber frames visit the TRADA library.