CircularWood

The building materials industry faces major challenges in terms of the energy, emissions and resource savings required to achieve the climate targets. Measures to replace fossil fuels in the resource- and energy-intensive construction sector are not enough to achieve comprehensive decarbonisation. The long-term material use of wood in buildings is a building block for achieving climate neutrality in the building sector and it has been shown that timber construction can be a measure to mitigate climate change. An increase from the current 22% to 50% wood (residential) construction (Wood Construction Share) would require an additional wood input into the construction industry of 0.5 million m3 or up to 1 million m3 per year in a scenario with high wood utilisation in order to cover the increasing demand if no measures are taken to extend the service life of buildings and increase recycling. At the same time, the amount of waste wood from deconstruction will increase in the coming decades and therefore represents a growing potential for reuse and recycling from 2050 onwards if various technical, economic and regulatory obstacles can be overcome. Current political strategies and measures in terms of climate protection reinforce the need for innovations along the entire product life cycle and the value chain in the construction sector in order to realise the potential of the recyclability of construction products. Specifically