Timber reduces carbon cost

We live in an age where the impact of extracting, refining, processing and manufacturing building materials like concrete and steel is incredibly high, accounting for more than 10% of globalannual greenhouse gas emissions. So when it comes to volume house-building, you just can't get a greener building material than timber frame. It's organic, non-toxic and naturally renewable. It's carbon neutral, even allowing for transport.

It's also worth pointing out that the UK timber frame industry plays no part in the deforestation that is such a terrible and dramatic threat to our planet. 99% of all UK timber frame homes are built using softwood from sustainably managed forests in Europe. And harvesting timber in this way is extremely beneficial for the planet because growing trees absorb so much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.The more wood we use, the more our forests grow because in Europe, we are committed to planting more trees than we harvest.

Benefits of using timber frame construction:

• The carbon dioxide emissions from a single timber frame, three bed detached home are 16.5% less than its brick and block equivalent.

• For every cubic metre of wood 0.8 tonnes of carbon are saved from the atmosphere. For a typical 100 m² two storey detached timber frame house, this translates into a carbon saving of four tonnes of CO₂ – about the amount produced by driving 14,000 miles.

• House-builders using a standard 140 mm stud timber frame system achieve U-values (коэффициент теплоусвоения) between 0.30 and 0.27 using readily available and standard insulation, and using higher performance insulation and insulating breather membranes can boost these figures even more.

LISTENING

b) Choose ten unfamiliar expressions from the text, consult the dictionary and use them in your own story about timber.