Timber City event series: Using timber as a sustainable building material
March 15, 2022
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Since 2016, Wüest Partner has organized regular events on the subject of building with wood. We organize these events on behalf of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and in collaboration with espazium – the Swiss publishing house behind construction magazines TEC21, TRACÉS and Archi.
Switzerland aims to become climate neutral by the year 2050. To achieve this, CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced to net zero by 2050. Switzerland’s building stock is currently responsible for around a quarter of the country’s total CO2 emissions. Real estate must therefore make a significant contribution to achieving this net-zero target by not only operating properties at a CO2 neutral level, but also building them in a climate-neutral way. In this context, building with wood can make a significant contribution towards sustainable development of living spaces, promoting the creation of a society based on renewable resources.
We believe that wood is a key building material of the future, allowing investors to secure a significant market advantage with the right strategy. Our Timber City event series offers first-hand insight on this. We invite Swiss and international experts to reveal successfully implemented projects and show how timber’s potential as a building material can best be exploited.
The events attract widespread interest in the construction and real estate sectors and are well attended – not least because they offer participants an excellent opportunity for personal exchanges and networking. The events, held partly in Zurich and partly in Lausanne, are aimed at both German and French-speaking audiences.
Each year, the event series are created around a different theme. This year, we will focus on the sustainable development of the construction and real estate markets within the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which seek to support the transformation of our society towards a sustainable future.
The 17 goals formulated by the UN we consider the following to be particularly relevant for the construction and real estate industry as well as for wood as a natural and sustainable building material: “Measures for Climate Protection”, “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, “Living on Land”, “Health and Wellbeing” and “Sustainable Consumption and Production”.