COP26: NorDan Products Featured in Zero Carbon House Project

The 26^th annual Conference of the Parties (COP26) will be attended by the leaders of the over 190 countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreement in 1994, as well as tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, private businesses and members of the public.

Held this year in Glasgow, Scotland, the event will take place over 13 days of talks, seminars and meetings to discuss the ongoing climate emergency and agree urgent actions in the UK and across the globe.

COP26 is set to be a city-wide experience, with pop-up facilities across Glasgow joining the many venues playing host to the conference’s schedule of events. As part of this, there will also be several sites in the city centre acting as exhibition space for businesses to set up product showcases, temporary structures and more.

One such exemplar will belong to collaborative group Beyond Zero Homes, which through a partnership with several businesses including NorDan UK, will be building and showcasing the zero carbon, timber frame COP26 House.

A Showcase for Zero Carbon Living

The members of Beyond Zero Homes are joined together by a single, mutual goal that goes beyond zero carbon: to demonstrate how beautiful, affordable, health and comfortable homes can be developed with minimal impact on the environment, throughout their lifecycle.

Designed by Peter Smith, of Roderick James Architects, the COP26 House is being built close to the conference site . Its structure is entirely made of timber – including the roof – in order to harness the unrivalled carbon sequestration and additional wide-ranging benefits of wood for environmental and human health.

Upon completion, the amount of carbon stored in the house could end up exceeding the carbon emissions associated with its construction. This would result in the final project being carbon neutral or even carbon negative, which would remove the need to offset residual emissions to reach net-zero carbon for the project.

This carbon neutrality would last for several decades, or until the house is eventually demolished at the end of its life expectancy of well over 60 years – this is nicely mirrored by the life expectancy of NorDan’s Alu-clad timber windows and doors, which also have a life expectancy of at least 60 years. To further minimise carbon emissions, the house has been designed for simple disassembly, with parts and products able to be repurposed or recycled.

This ability to be dismantled is integral to the design of the house. Following the end of COP26, the house will be dismantled and rebuilt at a site near Aviemore as one of a development of 12 affordable timber homes.

Low Carbon Windows and Doors

NorDan is one of over 20 companies working with Beyond Zero Homes to deliver the finished product, providing a range of aluminium-clad timber windows and doors including HomeGuard entrance doors. We were selected as a supply partner for the project due to the excellent low embodied carbon credentials of our timber-cored products, combined with their efficient operational carbon qualities.

The combination of NorDan products’ outstanding low carbon credentials, long life expectancy and ultra-low maintenance requirements that aluminium-clad timber brings means that the low whole life costs make the product ideal for many projects and clients.

Reaching the Goal

COP26 marks 6 years since the pivotal Paris Agreement created at COP21 back in 2015. In the years since, commitments laid out in Paris have not come close to limiting global warming to the target of 1.5 degrees. The window for achieving this is closing, so COP26 brings with it a sense of urgency for world leaders to establish stricter and more radical targets in order to truly curb the human impact on the environment.

Among other goals, the main aims of this year’s conference will be to secure global net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, phase out the use of coal and encourage investment in electric vehicles and renewable energy. Reducing carbon emissions in the construction industry will also be a key talking point and projects such as the zero carbon COP26 House will be vital in demonstrating the potential offered by timber as a building material.

We are proud and excited to be involved with this project and there is truly no better showcase for the possibilities of zero-carbon living and the ease of which such buildings can be produced.

We will continue to provide updates on the project as we near the COP26 event, which runs from the 31st Oct to the 12th of November. In the meantime, you can find out more about Beyond Zero Homes on their website or read about NorDan’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint through the ecoDigital Ready initiative.

Sep 17, 2021
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