Development has lengthy handled sustainability and efficiency as competing priorities. At the moment, traders, policymakers and clients more and more count on each.
With the constructed setting answerable for roughly 40 per cent of world emissions, the dialog is shifting past merely decreasing carbon within the building course of. More and more, consideration is popping to how supplies are sourced, how lengthy they final, and whether or not they can retain worth all through a number of levels of their lifecycle.
Forward of sponsoring the ESG Investor of the Yr class on the UK Inexperienced Enterprise Awards 2026, Accsys is highlighting how high-performance, round supplies are serving to to redefine what sustainable building appears like in observe.
Wooden has lengthy been recognised as a lower-carbon various to many conventional building supplies. Nevertheless, one of many key limitations to wider adoption has been efficiency. When uncovered to moisture, untreated or poorly handled wooden can warp, swell, shrink, rot or change into susceptible to bugs. These challenges have typically led specifiers in the direction of extra carbon-intensive supplies, akin to metal and concrete, or in the direction of slow-growing tropical hardwoods.
The problem has due to this fact by no means been proving that timber might be sustainable. The problem has been guaranteeing it might carry out reliably over a long time of real-world use.
This distinction issues as a result of sturdiness is more and more recognised as an essential part of sustainability. When supplies fail prematurely, they require restore, substitute, transportation and extra sources, growing each environmental and monetary prices. Supplies that stay in service for longer can assist cut back lifecycle impacts over time.
Improvements akin to acetylated wooden are serving to to deal with this problem. Via acetylation, the wooden’s molecular construction is modified to cut back its potential to soak up water, considerably enhancing dimensional stability and resistance to decay with out introducing poisonous substances.
Accsys has centered on closing this efficiency hole by means of its proprietary acetylation know-how, remodeling fast-growing, responsibly sourced FSC®-certified timber (C012330) into high-performance supplies with warranties of as much as 50 years. Its flagship product, Accoya wooden, combines the sustainability advantages of fast-growing timber with the sturdiness and stability typically related to extra resource-intensive supplies.
Accoya’s dimensional stability additionally contributes to decrease upkeep necessities, decreasing the sources, emissions and prices related to frequent upkeep cycles. This give attention to extending materials life whereas retaining worth has contributed to Accoya attaining Cradle to Cradle Licensed® Gold standing.
The affect of those efficiency traits can already be seen in main initiatives throughout the UK.
On Bristol’s SS Nice Britain, the world’s first iron-hulled, ocean-going passenger liner and now a significant heritage attraction, greater than 6,000 metres of Accoya decking have been put in as a part of an in depth conservation programme. Chosen for its resistance to shrinkage and swelling, the fabric helps defend the historic iron hull beneath whereas decreasing upkeep necessities and supporting the vessel’s long-term preservation.
In London, Accoya has additionally been specified for the façade of Google’s King’s Cross headquarters, a 300-metre-long ‘landscraper’ that includes one of many world’s largest timber-and-glass façades, fabricated utilizing round 19 truckloads of fabric. The specification aligns with the venture’s wider sustainability ambitions, together with BREEAM Excellent and LEED certification targets.
Whereas these landmark initiatives display how sturdy timber can contribute to large-scale sustainable building, the identical rules are equally related in properties and heritage buildings throughout the UK. In functions akin to home windows and doorways, improved dimensional stability can assist lengthen service life and cut back substitute cycles in contrast with standard timber options.
Nevertheless, designing merchandise to last more is barely a part of the round economic system problem. Equally essential is guaranteeing that supplies retain worth past their preliminary use.
This considering extends into Accsys’ personal operations by means of the Accoya Offcuts Programme, which has been shortlisted for Recycling Venture of the Yr on the UK Inexperienced Enterprise Awards 2026.
Working with wooden inevitably generates offcuts, smaller items which can be typically discarded, despatched to landfill or directed in the direction of low-value functions. Recognising this as each a problem and a chance, Accsys developed a programme to seize and repurpose these supplies, retaining worth from manufacturing waste throughout the worth chain.
Via the initiative, Accoya offcuts from joineries and producers are collected, high quality checked and despatched to Accsys’ companion, main MDF producer Finsa in Spain. There, the fabric is chipped and reworked into Tricoya, a high-performance wood-based panel product used throughout a spread of functions.
This closed-loop method extends the helpful lifetime of the unique materials, serving to to make sure that the carbon saved throughout the wooden stays locked in for longer whereas concurrently decreasing waste.
At the moment, greater than 40 UK joineries take part within the scheme. Contributors obtain assortment baggage for clear, uncoated materials, that are returned to Accsys’ website in Barry, Wales as soon as full. Each bit is inspected to make sure it meets strict high quality requirements, and taking part joineries are paid per kilogram collected, offering each a monetary incentive and a sensible path to decreasing waste.
Since its launch, the programme has collected greater than 1,000 cubic metres of Accoya offcuts, serving to to retain roughly 820 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent throughout the materials lifecycle.
As scrutiny of embodied carbon intensifies, circularity will more and more be measured not solely by what supplies are made out of, however by how successfully they keep worth over time. More and more, companies that may display useful resource effectivity, resilient provide chains and sensible approaches to carbon discount have gotten extra engaging to traders centered on long-term worth creation.
The way forward for sustainable building won’t be outlined by selecting between efficiency and duty. It would rely on supplies that ship each, designed not solely to last more, however to stay worthwhile all through a number of levels of their lifecycle.
For the development sector, circularity is now not a theoretical ambition. It’s more and more turning into a sensible requirement.
Accsys is the sponsor of the ESG Investor of the Yr class on the UK Inexperienced Enterprise Awards 2026
