THE CONSTRUCTION sector is undergoing a period of rapid change. Who, ten years ago, would have predicted that Greenpeace and building contractors would have stood side by side on a social housing project and commended it for its sustainability? But on Hollybrook Home’s Ilford Wharf project last month they did just that.

The contractor has built the £11m scheme to an Ecohomes rating of “good”, and met its standards for thermal insulation through use of materials and building design. But Hollybrook has taken the project a step further with its groundbreaking procurement methods that have earned it certification under a Greenpeace-endorsed timber scheme, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Meeting tighter standards

Social housing providers demand high specifications from their contractors. Buildings now need to meet tight standards for energy efficiency to comply with building regulations and to keep down costs for often cash poor residents.

Hollybrook used a panellised timber frame system to build the five-storey scheme for social housing firm Tower Homes, which site manager Jim McKenna says suited the client’s requirements for energy efficiency, and was quick to build with.

“It’s probably the best timber frame erection we have seen go up,” he says. “There were five people onsite who were timber frame erectors. Tolerances were very good and we had no issues with cavities for the five floors.” To achieve energy efficiency, Hollybrook insulated the building’s roof with expanded polystyrene, and used cavity wall  insulation between the timber frame. To help pass air tests, the windows are insulated with an EPDM tape.

However, Hollybrook decided to take things a step further and got the project certified under a scheme developed by the FSC and BM Trada Certification. The FSC scheme tracks the timber used in the construction back to the forests it was grown in and verifies that it is sustainably grown and legally obtained.

McKenna says timber frame supplier Glenalmond Timber approached Hollybrook with the idea. “Fraser Steele of Glenalmond originally came to us and we spoke about using FSC-certified timber,” he says. “He said Trada was working with FSC to develop a standard for a construction project, and we agreed we would make this a pilot scheme to develop a draft standard.”

Setting the standard

Ilford Wharf was the first project to become FSC-certified, although Balfour Beatty and Bovis Lend Lease are now trialling similar schemes. Whereas in the past, timber certification has only applied to specific products, the new scheme enables contractors to gain certification for a one-off construction project. Full certification requires contractors to use at least 50% FSC-certified timber, with the rest coming from sources approved by the certification scheme.

Just because Hollybrook built the scheme to high environmental standards, says McKenna, it still had to meet a strict budget. “The key to this building is commercial building first, environmental building second,” he says. “The strength in the development of sustainable buildings is to get it commercially viable because then the construction industry will buy into it. Until it realises that we can build sustainably and to cost, it won’t change its ways.”

Getting it right onsite

Trada products and timber business manager Alasdair McGregor says the key to making sure all the timber is certified is through strict management. “One of the reasons this was a successful project was it was managed well onsite,” he says. “Jim [McKenna] laid down the law and told the suppliers exactly what he was looking for. The communication was so good that the suppliers were under no illusions at all about what his expectations were.”
McKenna says the company’s existing relationships with its subcontractors helped to keep a good level of communication during the project.

“A big advantage that Hollybrook had was that we have had the same subcontractors for 20 years,” he says. “Our philosophy is once they’re onsite, they become a part of Hollybrook. They know what we want and they deliver it. They also know it would be a hanging offence if we did not to pay them on time. That’s how we achieved a good regular standard.”

McKenna says he set up the scheme as a question and answer document, which Hollybrook sent to its suppliers. After that, the company met with them to discuss what it wanted from them. He says one thing Hollybrook had to keep a close eye out for was contractors bringing on timber certified under other schemes. “There’s a huge amount to learn,” he says. “What a lot of people try to do is to use timber from the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC). We were trying to go for FSC all the time, which meant we had to keep a careful eye on things.” Although the project did use PEFC wood in the orientated strand board flooring, the company gave preference to FSC timber.

Timber arrived onsite with an accompanying document to show it was certified under the FSC, or another approved scheme. Hollybrook set out guidelines about what to do if the documentation was unclear, explains McGregor. “When the vehicle arrived onsite any one of five people could check to see if the timber was the right sort, so the risk of the wrong type of timber getting in was extremely low,” he says. “This was a relatively straight forward process, and there were no great issues about identifying the timber onsite.”

Certification in the future

McKenna says Hollybrook is going to roll the scheme out in its next project. However, the project might contain less timber as the company is planning a taller building. “We’re looking for six stories next time,” McKenna says, “so that might involve more steel.” He says the company will take what it has learnt building Ilford Wharf to create greener schemes in the future. “Because we’re the developer and contractor and we employ the designers, it means we can cover every aspect of the construction work,” he says.

“We take photographs while we’re building, which helps us plan for the next scheme.” Adding FSC certification onto a building’s already tight standards for energy efficiency creates another dimension of sustainability in construction. When a contractor hands over a finished building to a client, it comes with guarantees on thermal performance and air tightness. The FSC certification adds the guarantee that the timber materials used in the construction will not damage the environment and protect forest communities.

The construction industry is under increasing pressure to build sustainable homes with high demands from clients on the thermal performance of the building over its lifespan. It is important to remember the reasoning behind the drive for energy efficiency in buildings to reduce UK CO2 emissions and to meet the levels set under the Kyoto Protocol. The pioneering Ilford Wharf scheme has taken sustainability a great leap further and has brought the contractor, Hollybrook, into the supply chain, so the company can provide its client with documentation to prove forests haven’t been irreparably damaged to provide the materials used during construction. In these rapidly changing times it is nice to see the construction sector involved in preserving the world as it is.