Researchers analyse wood use in Switzerland
There is still considerable potential for sustainable wood utilisation in Switzerland. This is the conclusion of a joint analysis by researchers from various institutions.
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology(Empa) and the Birmensdorf-based Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research(WSL) have analysed the use of wood as one of the most important raw materials on the path to a climate-neutral future. According to a press release, the analysis concludes that there is still considerable potential in Switzerland when it comes to the sustainable use of wood. For example, the recycling rate for wood is just under 8 per cent, compared to around 70 per cent for paper.
“Of the five to seven million cubic metres of wood that we harvest in Switzerland every year, around 40 percent is used directly for energy – in other words, it is burned,” says the lead author of the study, Nadia Malinverno from Empa’s Technology and Society Laboratory. This is by no means ideal, as wood is used in a variety of ways, as raw wood, sawn timber, wood chips, wood fibres for the paper industry and much more.
Switzerland has set itself the goal of net zero by 2050. Wood is one of the most important raw materials on the road to a climate-neutral future. It binds CO2 from the atmosphere as it grows and offers alternatives to fossil raw materials both as a material and as an energy source, according to the press release published by Empa and WSL. Many branches of industry want to increasingly rely on wood in the future, be it in construction, in the production of textiles and even in sectors such as electronics or pharmaceuticals and chemicals, it continues.
The work was carried out as part of SCENE(Swiss Centre of Excellence on Net-Zero Emissions), an initiative of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich(ETH).