Totschnig: Housing and construction package strengthens timber construction

2024-03-21 08:27:40

Vienna (OTS) – The housing and construction package approved by the federal government aims to stimulate the economy, promote long-term investments and at the same time create affordable housing. Wooden construction in particular, which is supported by the wood initiative and the CO2 bonus in the forest fund, is considered a sustainable construction method of the future.

According to Forestry Minister Norbert Totschnig, wood is an essential building block for the necessary ecological transformation in the building sector: “With the CO2 bonus from the wood initiative, we are promoting sustainable, large-volume construction projects in public areas such as kindergartens or residential buildings made of wood. In 134 funded projects to date with a funding amount of around 20.7 million euros, around 30 million kilograms of wood have been used, thus storing around 53,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents in the long term. This shows how well this initiative is being accepted by planners and communities. The federal government’s housing and construction package that has now been approved is a great opportunity to further strengthen timber construction, promote sustainable housing projects and achieve climate goals. This combines economic impulses with ecological responsibility and social reason.”

Timber construction as a contribution to climate protection
By using wood as a building material, CO2-intensive building materials can be replaced. At the same time, up to one ton of CO2 equivalents are stored long-term per cubic meter of wood. More than 10% (eight million tons of CO2) of Austria’s greenhouse gas emissions (72.8 million tons) per year are already avoided every year by substituting finite raw materials with wood products. The construction of buildings made of wood causes significantly less CO2 than the construction of buildings with conventional building materials. The example of a 6-story residential building with 53 apartments (Lorystrasse, 1110 Vienna) shows that wooden construction causes 93% less CO2.

The Austrian Wood Initiative
As part of the forest fund, the CO2 bonus promotes the use of the sustainable raw material wood in large-scale residential construction as well as in public buildings and infrastructure. With the extension and financial increase of the forest fund, a further 8 million euros are available for large-volume timber construction. Numerous other supporting activities are implemented in the Austrian Wood Initiative, such as the Austria-wide wood advisory network, the standardization coordination office, the New European Bauhaus or the European wood policy platform – woodPoP. Priorities are also set in the areas of training and further education as well as research and development.

More information: www.waldfonds.at