The building sector causes around 37 percent of global CO₂ emissions. On 28 August 2024, Moneycab reports that Timber Finance has developed a recognised methodology that lets developers and real estate investors monetise the climate performance of their timber buildings through carbon removal credits. The Migros Pioneer Fund supports the project as innovation partner.
Outlet
Moneycab
Published
August 28, 2024
A pilot phase for timber construction and forests
With the pilot phase, Timber Finance adapts the international methodology to Swiss conditions. Around 20 timber construction projects can take part, along with half a dozen Swiss forest districts. Together, these districts manage around 15,000 hectares of forest in a climate-optimised way and receive payments from the credit revenues in return. An expansion to international markets was planned for 2025.
The credits can be traded on carbon markets (offsetting) or counted by institutional developers towards their own carbon balance on the way to net zero (insetting).
The press release of 28 August 2024 announcing the pilot phase was picked up by many other outlets, including Lignum, the French-language edition of immo!nvest, Allnews, ee-news.ch, energate messenger, punkt4.info, Swisstrade, Innovation Zurich, the Bayerisches Landwirtschaftliches Wochenblatt, Immomedien and Immo Fokus Timeline in Austria, as well as Holzkurier and Holzbau Austria. In print, it appeared in Schreinerzeitung of 12 September 2024 and Holzbaumarkt Schweiz 3/2024, among others.
The revenues benefit both the construction and the forestry side, creating an incentive to build more with timber and to manage forests with the climate in mind. (Frank Vasek, Timber Finance)
The Pünt project as an example
As an example, the article cites the Pünt replacement building of the Eigengrund housing cooperative in Egg, canton of Zurich. With a main usable floor area of 7,050 m², its timber load-bearing structure accounts for 1,462 tonnes of CO₂ removed. A further 508 tonnes of CO₂ are avoided because timber replaces more emission-intensive materials.
How Timber Carbon sees it
The 2024 pilot phase was the starting point for what Timber Carbon, spun off from Timber Finance in 2026, now delivers at a larger scale. The Pünt housing estate is one of the first buildings in our portfolio. Our portfolio shows the projects that have joined since.
Topics
Source
Moneycab
Swiss online business and finance magazine
