Green Building Council Denmark (GBC DK) has become the first organisation in the world to introduce additional points into a sustainable building certification system for wood produced through continuous-cover forestry, i.e. forest management without clear-cutting.
The new criterion brings the impacts of forest management into the sustainability assessment of building materials while creating a market incentive for the use of EverCover-certified wood. For the first time, the impacts of forest management are directly reflected in the sustainability assessment of a wooden building.
A building project can now receive 15 additional points by using wood that is verified as being produced according to the principles of closer-to-nature forest management. The criteria are based on the EU’s Guidelines on Closer-to-Nature Forest Management, which aim to promote biodiversity, carbon sequestration and the adaptation of forests to climate change.
Green light from forest owners
More and more forest owners want to produce high-quality timber in an ecologically sustainable way and take pride in knowing that it will end up in long-lasting products such as buildings. According to GBC DK, EverCover is currently the only forest certification scheme that meets the organisation’s new criteria.
– Interest among forest owners in EverCover certification is growing steadily, which means we can quickly start supplying wood to interested customers. I believe the popularity of EverCover will grow rapidly in the market, says Marcus Walsh, Chair of the Board of forest company Innofor Finland Oy.
Avoid biodiversity loss and protect soil carbon stocks
Clear-cutting causes biodiversity loss and reduces soil carbon stocks, which further contributes to climate warming. These impacts can be avoided through continuous-cover forestry. Research shows that most forest owners in Finland have a positive attitude towards continuous-cover forestry and report using the method on at least part of their forests.
📞 Choose continuous-cover timber – ask for EverCover-certified raw material!
Certified timber from continuous-cover forestry is now available for construction projects. Contact us to learn more about timber products that meet EverCover certification standards.
Sign up your forest or order EverCover timber: mikael.sjovall@innofor.fi, +358 50 3820521
