AS IRELAND SEEKS to balance its housing goals with the need to decarbonise its economy, forests have never been more important. 

Every tree represents a safeguard against climate change, and Ireland’s many forests are at the heart of any vision for a sustainable future. Forests supply sustainable wood products to help build homes, provide essential habitats for wildlife and biodiversity, and offer an environment of peace and tranquillity that so many of us rely on to support our health and wellbeing.

Coillte, Ireland’s semi-state forestry company, is committed to balancing and delivering the many benefits from its forests for climate, nature, wood and people. By doing this, Coillte is bringing more focus to climate action, biodiversity and recreation, while continuing to supply material for the wood products industry, material which can be replenished. 

By the end of this decade, Coillte plans to produce 15 million cubic metres of certified Irish wood to support the delivery of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, which seeks to cut the embodied carbon emissions for materials produced and used in Ireland by at least 30 per cent.

This strategy also includes the promotion of wood products and their use in the Irish construction industry. Currently the use of timber frame in the construction of our homes is at a lowly 25%. Coillte is committed to push for the use of timber frame houses to hit 80% by 2050.

Coillte’s plan to increase forest cover across Ireland is in support of the EU’s aim to be climate-neutral by 2050, an objective at the heart of the European Green Deal and its strategy for a sustainably built environment. As things stand, the construction industry represents 38% of global energy related CO2eq (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions. This means that Ireland needs to rethink its approach to building, and challenge the sector to embrace methods that can help decarbonise the process of construction as much as possible.

Particularly as Ireland ramps up the construction of housing, it has never been more important to centre wood products in the conversation. The drive to decarbonise can be achieved by increasing the adoption of timber frames for new homes and by unlocking the market for emerging technologies such as mass timber for medium rise residential and commercial buildings.

Using timber frames for housing is a reliable and sustainable piece of the puzzle. Wood products have the lowest embodied carbon of any mainstream building materials, a fundamental point now recognised by design practitioners worldwide who are designing and building multi-storey, mass timber buildings.

Ireland stands to benefit from this progressive transition to increased timber framing, as high quality wood can be grown on our land. Softwood sourced from coniferous trees such as Sitka spruce is the most popular type of wood used for construction worldwide due to its ease to work with, coupled with the fast growth rate of the trees themselves. Whereas these spruce trees may take up to 100 years to reach maturity in continental Europe, in Ireland it can take as little as 35 years.

This natural advantage gives Ireland the opportunity to grow construction grade timber sustainably and quickly, creating a secure homegrown supply — and reducing our dependence on imported wood from old growth forests abroad. By being smart in the way we use our own wood, we can energise Ireland’s bioeconomy, and cultivate a decarbonised construction sector with sustainability at its heart. Perhaps most crucially of all, for every Coillte harvests, three trees are planted in its place.

By building with wood, Ireland can address some of the most pressing challenges facing the modern housing market. Increasing our production and use of wood will speed up delivery, deliver more sustainable homes, reduce our reliance on onsite labour, decarbonising our environment, and support Ireland’s Net Zero ambitions.