An equity index for the timber construction industry

From pulp to the timber construction chain

From 2007, financial products emerged whose investment universe was dominated by pulp for paper and packaging. Since 2020, the climate debate has put the timber construction chain in the spotlight. The index includes companies from the US, Canada and Europe, from lumber and engineered wood such as particleboard and CLT to large timberland owners, forest machinery makers and timber builders. This sets it apart from other timber indices with greater exposure to pulp, paper and packaging. Its constituents are reviewed every six months and equally weighted, so that smaller companies also shape performance.

The index tracks leading listed timber construction companies.

Two examples from practice

Since 2023, an actively managed certificate based on the index universe, the Timber Finance Forest-based Construction Basket, has been listed on the Swiss stock exchange SIX. The article also cites US building materials distributor Builders FirstSource: from its IPO in 2005 to the end of the third quarter of 2024, the stock returned 14.3 percent a year, compared with 10.6 percent for the US equity market. The article notes that this is not a recommendation to buy.

How Timber Carbon sees it

The index makes the timber construction chain visible to investors. Timber Carbon, launched in 2026 as a spin-off of Timber Finance, works at the level of the individual building: we quantify, certify and monetise the carbon removed in mass timber buildings as carbon removal credits on the voluntary carbon market. We follow the index's performance in articles such as Rebalancing in the first quarter of 2025.