Metsä Wood, a Finland-based manufacturer of engineered wood products, says its sustainable, material-efficient products can store carbon for decades, helping to combat climate change.
To build its new concrete plant of 17,000 square meters, German construction specialist Brüninghoff, which makes prefabricated wooden materials, such as laminated veneer lumber, wanted to use materials that fit its sustainability strategy. So the company chose Kerto LVL—prefabricated panels and studs made by Metsä Wood—for the plant’s exterior non-load-bearing walls. The panels were attached to load-bearing concrete frames.
Metsä Wood’s Kerto LVL, a structural laminated veneer lumber, takes up less volume than other wood materials and also has an excellent strength-to-weight ratio. In addition to supporting the sustainability strategy, Kerto LVL led to optimized assembly times.
The Brüninghoff plant has a total of 239 wall elements with an area of around 5,000 square meters. It used a total of 242 cubic meters of Kerto LVL. The team used a carbon storage calculator to determine that the Kerto LVL stores 165.8 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (a unit based on global warming potential)—meaning that, compared to other construction materials, the wood in Metsä Wood’s product is “highly sustainable,” the company says.
“Through this construction, we are forcing structural change towards construction that supports circular economy. Change is needed as the construction sector is responsible for consuming huge quantities of resources. It is a question of optimizing construction methods, developing low-emission concepts, and increasingly backing recycling solutions,” Frank Steffens, managing director, Brüninghoff, said in a statement.
The building has already received pre-certification per the ecological, economic, and social criteria of the German Society for Sustainable Construction (DGNB).
Related Stories
School Construction | Oct 31, 2022
Claremont McKenna College science center will foster integrated disciplinary research
The design of the Robert Day Sciences Center at Claremont McKenna College will support “a powerful, multi-disciplinary, computational approach to the grand socio-scientific challenges and opportunities of our time—gene, brain, and climate,” says Hiram E. Chodosh, college president.
Energy Efficient Roofing | Oct 28, 2022
Rooftop mini turbines can pair with solar panels
A new type of wind turbine can pair well on roofs with solar panels, offering a double source of green energy generation for buildings.
Building Team | Oct 27, 2022
Who are you? Four archetypes shaping workspaces
The new lifestyle of work requires new thinking about the locations where people work, what their workflow looks like, and how they are performing their best work.
Codes and Standards | Oct 27, 2022
Florida’s Surfside-inspired safety law puts pressure on condo associations
A Florida law intended to prevent tragedies like the Surfside condominium collapse will place a huge financial burden on condo associations and strain architecture and engineering resources in the state.
University Buildings | Oct 27, 2022
The Collaboratory Building will expand the University of Florida’s School of Design, Construction, and Planning
Design firm Brooks + Scarpa recently broke ground on a new addition to the University of Florida’s School of Design, Construction, and Planning (DCP).
Codes and Standards | Oct 26, 2022
‘Landmark study’ offers key recommendations for design-build delivery
The ACEC Research Institute and the University of Colorado Boulder released what the White House called a “landmark study” on the design-build delivery method.
Building Team | Oct 26, 2022
The U.S. hotel construction pipeline shows positive growth year-over-year at Q3 2022 close
According to the third quarter Construction Pipeline Trend Report for the United States from Lodging Econometrics (LE), the U.S. construction pipeline stands at 5,317 projects/629,489 rooms, up 10% by projects and 6% rooms Year-Over-Year (YOY).
Data Centers | Oct 25, 2022
Virginia county moves to restrict the growth of new server farms
Loudoun County, Va., home to the largest data center cluster in the world known as Data Center Alley, recently took steps to prohibit the growth of new server farms in certain parts of the county.
Museums | Oct 25, 2022
Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion emphasizes human connection to oceans
Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion, currently under construction, features several exhibits that examine the human connection with the Earth’s oceans.
Energy-Efficient Design | Oct 24, 2022
Roadmap shows how federal buildings can reach zero embodied carbon emissions by 2050
The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has released a roadmap that it says charts a path for federal buildings projects to achieve zero embodied carbon emissions by 2050.