Timber Development UK (TDUK), in partnership with One Click LCA, brought together leading voices from across the built environment for a roundtable debate focused on embodied carbon in timber construction and the growing importance of having robust environmental data when designing and building new projects.
Held on Thursday 19 March 2026 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Birmingham, the Embodied Carbon Roundtable Discussion welcomed representatives from right across the timber supply chain, including manufacturers, engineers, contractors, designers and sustainability specialists, alongside the TDUK and One Click LCA teams.
The event was designed to move beyond policy discussion and explore the practical realities of meeting current and emerging requirements around whole-life carbon assessment and embodied carbon measurement. With increasing regulatory and commercial pressures coming to the industry, the session explored how we can collectively help the industry understand how to respond to changing customer demands before they become a significant commercial risk.
At the heart of the discussion was the growing role of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), as well as the need to demonstrate timber’s carbon credentials in an increasingly competitive materials landscape.
The session was chaired by Charlie Law, Sustainability Director at TDUK, with contributions from Andrew Cowan, Amy McElroy and Samuel Boswell from One Click LCA. Attendees included representatives from the Future Homes Hub, BAM UK&I, Wilmott Dixon, BSW, Glennon Brothers, Donaldson, Buckland, Lowfield, Innovare, Langley Design, Buro Happold, Steico, Oakwrights, Innovare, Price & Myers and W.Howard, reflecting a broad cross-section of views from across the industry.
Structured across two core discussion sessions, participants were split into three groups to explore key questions before feeding their conclusions back to the wider room. Topics included the impact of BREEAM Version 7 and Ska Offices 2.0 on EPD demand, the level of data required for accurate carbon assessments, gaps in timber EPDs, the effectiveness of the RICS Whole Life Carbon standard, and whether collective EPDs should be more widely accepted.
A consistent theme throughout the day was the increasing importance of whole-life carbon (WLC) assessments. Participants agreed that these assessments are becoming almost essential for achieving high ratings within schemes such as BREEAM, with EPDs likewise playing a critical role in enabling them. While not always mandated by government, these requirements are increasingly being driven by client demands.
Discussions also highlighted that data accuracy improves as projects progress, with early-stage assessments often reliant on generic data. There was broad agreement that more effort should be focused on ensuring accurate data is available for areas with the greatest carbon impact, notably substructure, superstructure, façade (including insulation) and M&E, where improved and more detailed EPD data is most needed.
The question of regulation generated significant debate, as it often does. Attendees recognised the potential impact of updated Construction Product Regulations incorporating environmental data, alongside calls for the phased introduction of mandatory whole-life carbon assessments, aligned with proposals such as Part Z. There was also a strong view from across the room that the greater use of primary data within EPDs would improve accuracy, alongside a need to assess carbon at a system level rather than focusing solely on individual materials.
In examining the gaps in current available data, participants identified a lack of EPDs for certain timber-related products, particularly for proprietary ancillary components such as metalwork brackets, brick tie channels and posi-joist systems, as well as cassette floor and wall systems. These gaps were seen as a barrier to ensuring accurate comparisons between construction approaches and to the wider adoption of timber solutions.
The RICS Professional Standard for Whole Life Carbon Assessments was recognised as a useful framework for identifying key impact areas, although there was a shared view that applying it in full detail is not always practical. A more targeted approach, focusing on high-carbon-impact elements and using default values for lower-impact components, was seen as a potentially more workable route in the short term.
Participants also discussed the role of collective EPDs, such as the recently developed UK C16 softwood EPD. There was strong support for these to be accepted alongside manufacturer-specific EPDs, particularly where they help to standardise calculations and reduce complexity for downstream users.
Collective EPDs such as the UK C16 softwood EPD are valuable as transitional datasets and category benchmarks, especially where they replace generic data and improve the accuracy of early-stage whole-life carbon assessments. However, because they are based on representative average data from multiple producers rather than a single manufacturer’s actual production system, they should not be treated as equivalent to manufacturer-specific EPDs for procurement, product differentiation, or innovation signalling. They improve the competitiveness of the product category, not the competitiveness of any one manufacturer.
Summarising the day, Charlie Law highlighted the importance of collaboration and pragmatism as the industry moves forward. While standards and methodologies continue to evolve, there was a clear consensus that progress should not be held back by the pursuit of perfect data, with one attendee noting: “Let’s not let perfection be the enemy of good.”
The roundtable concluded with widespread agreement that the timber sector must continue to work together to continue to set the bar while expanding data coverage, and ensure consistency in how embodied carbon is measured and communicated to support the adoption of robust, practical approaches to embodied carbon assessments.
