Photo courtesy Bondor building a greener future Keen to improve the eco-credentials of your next project? These innovative, environmentally-friendly building materials Photo courtesy EGGER will help you save time, money – and the environment. Sustainability is a buzzword that’sthrown around a lot in relation to homebuilding, but what does it really mean?A sustainable home has a low impact onre-planted, may help to offset some of our carbonemissions. Plus, harvesting timber from managedplantations helps to preserve the planet’s preciousold-growth forests and animal habitats. the environment, both during construction and EGGER’s OS’Brace and OS’Brace H2 Blue® ® once occupied. The strategies we most often talk wood-based panels are crafted from wood that about include optimising the design to reduce the comes from sustainably managed forest; so amount of energy the home’s occupants need to building with these strong pre-cut oriented strand use. However, when building sustainably, it’s just as board (OSB) panels will help improve the overall important to look at construction processes and the sustainability of your next construction project. materials the building is constructed from. These environmentally-friendly 6mm bracing THE PANELS HAVE To reduce the overall environmental impact panels complement EGGER’s existing termite- BEEN SUCCESSFULLY when building, aim to reduce waste generated protected wood construction product range for the USED ON AUSTRALIAN onsite – choose materials with less packaging, Australian construction industry. Established as an BUILDING SITES FOR measure carefully to avoid over-ordering, and recycle effective bracing solution, the panels are engineered MORE THAN 15 YEARS wherever possible. Select building materials that and tested to comply with the relevant structural are sourced from recycled product, from renewable performance requirements of the Australian National and sustainable sources, or products that can be Construction Code and have been successfully used recycled when the building is eventually demolished. on Australian building sites for more than 15 years. Fortunately, building for sustainability is becoming EGGER OS’Brace is a resin-bonded, three-® easier: as market demand for ecologically layer wood material board created from specially responsible building materials grows, more and oriented strands of wood. The majority of wood more mainstream manufacturers are developing used is debarked, fresh spruce from sustainably products that combine structural integrity with managed forest. Mixed wood variants or special environmental integrity. hardwood varieties are used where boards must meet specific demands. Sustainability in the frame EGGER says separate strand processing for the Building with timber sourced from sustainably core and surface layers, a special strand geometry, managed forests delivers double eco-points: trees and a high level of orientation of the surface strands absorb carbon dioxide as they are growing, so well- all optimise the structural performance and physical managed plantations, where harvested areas are appearance of OS’Brace. The orientation of the® MAY 2018 HOUSING 77 SUSTAINABLE SURFACES • FEATURE PROMOTION