The oldest building material back in use?!

More than six years ago, a number of construction companies and suppliers together with FSC Netherlands established the Building and Wood Covenant. This covenant speaks out on the use of certified sustainable wood in the construction industry.

A joint ambition was formulated to purchase and quote only certified wood as soon as possible. Since then, the parties involved have made huge strides and certified wood is more the rule than the exception on construction sites in the Netherlands.

Wood naturally circular
With the government-wide program Netherlands Circular 2050, the role of the bio-based material wood, which is already 100% circular by itself, is only becoming more important. Reusing materials is a good way to eliminate scarce raw materials. Even better is to choose raw materials in the design phase that are renewable, regrowable. That's why biobased materials deserve such an important role within circular thinking. Wood first. And now for the practice. Unfortunately, circular thinking still seems to be mostly about energy conservation and recycling. It is up to us to start focusing more on wood as a sustainable alternative to other materials.

The participating parties will reconvene in early March. It is time to broaden our objectives. In addition to guaranteeing the origin of wood, more use of wood in construction in general. This year a number of new parties will participate in the covenant. This will make the covenant even more widely supported and make us stronger than ever.

Want to know more about the covenant? If so, please contact Rick Kamphorst or Ben Romein of FSC Netherlands. r.kamphorst@fsc.nl b.romein@fsc.nl    

Text and image: FSC
Featured image: Triodosbank headquarters. (Image: Rick Kamphorst)