Designing with Nature

We hear the word "sustainability" a lot these days, but what does it really mean? How do we measure sustainability? This talk aims to define what is sustainability and outline data-driven methods that are used to measure environmental, economic and social sustainability of a product or service over its entire lifespan.

Wood is the most important material for the future of our buildings, our cities, and our planet. Achieving net-zero in construction demands a major shift toward timber. Engineered timber offers the first significant structural innovation since reinforced concrete 150 years ago, enabling us to build bigger and more sustainably. Concrete and steel production are responsible for significant carbon emissions, with concrete alone contributing 8% of global greenhouse gases. Instead of relying on these high-impact materials, we can grow our building materials.

The construction sector accounts for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, with embodied energy in materials representing 25% of that. Engineered timber drastically reduces this footprint, while also being faster to construct, environmentally beneficial, and highly energy-efficient in operation. Forests act as nature’s most effective carbon capture system, with each tonne of timber sequestering 1.8 tonnes of CO2.

Timber construction not only reduces emissions but also supports biodiversity and promotes a regenerative future. By embracing wood, we can align construction with natural systems, creating buildings that are better for people and the planet.

In this talk, I will tell you about research we’re doing to push the timber construction sector to make it more resource efficient. This can be achieved by shifting from a linear to a circular economy, one in which materials are used and reused for as long as possible with the aim of reducing waste and the use of new materials, while minimising the greenhouse emissions associated with the materials used in the construction sector. The concept of urban mining refers to salvaging the wood materials coming out from demolitions and finding ways to maximise their future utilisation. I will explain what we are doing to quantify the amount of wood materials accumulated in our existing buildings and what the possibilities are for reusing or recycling them.