Europe to only use sustainable timber

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 20-07-2010

Sustainable office design in Europe has received a boost after the European Parliament has put through legislation banning the importation of timber from non-sustainable sources.

New Builder reported that ClientEarth - an environmental activists lawyers' group - has successfully lobbied MEPs to guide the new bill through the European Parliament and hopes that this new standard will help make future office builds greener and improve the traceability of timber within the eurozone.

Tim Grabiel, climate and forests lawyer at ClientEarth, said: "Europe's politicians have set a strong and positive example to the world by banning illegal timber from entering the European marketplace. The regulation also makes timber traceable and requires robust due diligence."

Elsewhere, BRE recently announced the implementation of new regulations to boost the energy efficiency of data centres across the UK.

An amendment to the BREEAM standards has meant that power usage at sites of this type could be reduced by up to 50 per cent in the years ahead.

Posted by Ian Johnson.