Government Investment Initiatives under the Plan of Action

PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE WOOD-BASED BUILDING MATERIALS

September 2007

Pillar 3

Description

Extending the Government’s programme to promote greater use of wood as a sustainable and climate-friendly building material by constructing two demonstration buildings to showcase the use of wood in sustainable buildings.

Background

Wood is sustainable, renewable and very energy efficient. It requires a tenth or less of the energy needed to make alternatives such as steel and concrete.

From a climate change perspective, increased use of wood can:

increase the pool of carbon stored in wood and wood products;
reduce the use of more energy-intensive materials such as steel, concrete and aluminium;
displace fossil fuels by the burning of wood waste.

Initiatives

Four initiatives make up the sustainable wood-based building materials’ programme:

two professorship positions, one each at the Universities of Auckland and Canterbury, have been established to teach and research the use of timber in building design;
a website, funded under the Forest Industry Development Agenda (FIDA)/NZWood initiative, so that engineers, architects and designers can readily access technical information on building in wood;
a new initiative funded under the Plan of Action to provide assistance for building demonstration buildings. These will showcase the construction of wooden sustainable buildings. The initiative includes partial funding to construct in wood up to two government buildings that would ordinarily be built in more greenhouse gas-intensive materials such as concrete and steel. Funding will also be available for education and research on the demonstration buildings;
a new policy requiring all government-funded building projects for buildings of up to four floors, including the ground floor, to include a build-in-wood option.