NTR Certified
wood and wood products with elevated durability is quite simply the most sustainable choice of all. NTR label is prof of qualityWhy treated wood is a good construction material
Wood is one of our most valued and environmentally-friendly construction materials – especially when it lasts for years and years. Compared to untreated wood, the service life of treated wood is almost four times longer, which naturally helps reduce the impact on the environment and the climate. In addition, using treated wood means that fewer trees need to be felled, leaving more to keep growing in the forests. NTR-certified wood products provide the lowest life-cycle costs in comparison with other construction materials. The treated wood industry also assumes production responsibility – from newly-made, treated planks to demolition and waste management – by working to promote sustainable product management throughout the life cycle.
Elevated durability is quite simply the most sustainable choice of all.
Good reasons for treated wood!
Lisen to what Malin Engström, executive director of Technical Management at Växjö Council and Niklas Bosrup, Landscape Architect at Sydväst Arkitektur och Landskap has to tell us about using wood in public architecture.
Good reasons for NTR certified wood !
Four times longer!
Leave the forest be!
Sustainable!
Safe and effective!
Economical!
Circular construction material!
Four times longer!
The service life of wood products varies according to factors such as the local climate and local micro-fauna, as well as the area of use, structure and maintenance. Wood that has been protected with modern wood treatment agents has a long service life, and this can be achieved at low cost through using a relatively small amount of effective wood treatment.
The effect is significant, in that it enables wood to be used in many more construction elements, which is a precondition for using more wood in building the societies of the future. But how great is the benefit of extending the service life?
Experience indicates that on average the service life of a product that uses treated wood is 3.8 times longer, which means that to achieve the same service life using untreated wood, it would be necessary to build the same structure almost four times instead of just once. It also means that, in addition to the actual wood used, it would be necessary to include four times instead of once the cost and environmental impact stemming from aspects such as transport, purchase and construction, tools, salaries, screws and nails, demolition, recycling and transport.
Leave the forest be!
Using wood as a construction material naturally entails the felling of areas of forest. Wood from the Nordic region is not naturally resistant to rot, so in order to use wood in places where there is a risk of rot, the wood has to be treated in one way or another. This translates into a longer service life, reducing the need to fell additional trees.
The saving in timber that is achieved by using effective wood treatment agents corresponds to approximately one-fifth of the total production of sawn and planed wood goods during a year. In other words, five years’ use of impregnated wood products saves a full year’s production and felling for construction purposes. Converted into raw material for the sawmills, the saving amounts to approximately 7.6 million cubic metres per year.
Thus, choosing NTR-certified wood goods means that three out of every four trees can remain growing in the forest.
Sustainable!
It is a question of choosing the right sort of wood to make sure that the environmental impact is minimised, when calculated over the total service life.
Wood protected with NTR class A treatment agents and used in contact with the soil – as fence posts, for example – has an expected service life of 20 years, compared to untreated wood in soil, which has a service life of just four years. This means that the service life of treated wood is five times that of untreated wood, which means that NTR-certified wood products lead to the lowest environmental impact as calculated over the entire service life.
The wood treatment agents used should provide the greatest possible durability, while generating the least possible impact on health and the environment. Our goal is to promote the continuous development of wood treatment agents with less and less environmental impact – and we are achieving this by consistently using the best technology available on the market.
Safe and effective!
NTR-certified wood products are treated with thoroughly tested, modern agents that provide effective protection against rot. Wood protected with modern treatment products has a long service life, at low cost and using a relatively small amount of effective wood treatment. Long service life, short transport distances and bio-based materials are the key parameters for superior environmental performance during the life cycle.
Our work with treated wood is to contribute to the sustainable construction practices of the future. These practices, which are constantly being developed and improved, minimise the impact on climate and the environment, and they also helps boost sustainable economic development. We also assume production responsibility – from newly-made, treated planks to demolition and waste management – by working to promote sustainable product handling throughout the life cycle.
Wood is one of our most valued and environmentally-friendly construction materials, especially when it lasts for years and years, which is precisely what the treated wood industry has to offer. NTR-certified wood goods unite tradition and the future when we build with wood that lasts an exceptionally long time. Elevated durability is quite simply the most sustainable choice of all!
Economical!
Sustainable construction means longevity, through using wood material with the longest possible life cycle. For pressure-impregnated wood, requirements for certification should be applied in accordance with the Nordiska Träskyddsrådet (NTR) regulations: the treated wood must meet the wood treatment classes NTR AB, NTR ABmod, NTR A and NTR Amod, depending on the intended area of use.
A wood product that has been prepared in accordance with the Nordiska Träskyddsrådet (NTR) regulations and which is NTR labelled has a technical service life of 25 to 30 years, depending on area of use and level of maintenance. The actual service life will almost certainly be longer than the technical service life; depending on the prevailing conditions and the structure, service lives in excess of 50 years are not uncommon.
Wood products in NTR A class (in contact with the soil – fence posts, for example) have an expected service life of 20 years, compared to the service life of untreated wood in soil, which is just four years. So, the service life of treated wood products is five times that of untreated wood. NTR-certified wood products provide the lowest life-cycle costs in comparison with other construction materials.
Circular construction material!
The timber used for our products comes from environmentally certified forestry operations in Nordic forests. While growing, the trees have assimilated and bound carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The wood is cut, planed and impregnated locally, which means short transport distances.
The wood impregnation is carried out in a closed process that is designed to eliminate the risk of the treatment agents spreading to the surroundings. Surplus impregnation fluid is recovered and reused. The active substances in the impregnation agent are copper salts. Water is used to dissolve the salts during the process in which they are pressed into the wood cells, where the salt is embedded and the water dried off. The wood treatment agent remains fixed in the wood product throughout its service life.
After use, when the impregnated wood products are demolished or discarded, the impregnated wood is recycled through the medium of energy recovery. The ash from the incineration process is not in any risk class and can therefore be used in the same way as ordinary ash – such as enriching the soil.
Goto NTR-Certified Homepage
NTR-Certified wood Homepage with facts and information about wood and wood products
Goto NWPC Homepage
NWPC is the organisation behind the NTR-system. Visit NWPC home page for professional wood producers