Low Carbon Timber for forest owners

Low Carbon Timber is not a new certification system for forest ownership, but it still supports local forest owners in several ways.

Low Carbon Timber is committed to using wood from local forests and replacing unnecessary imports that harm the climate.

If you, as a forest owner, bring your valuable logs into the Low Carbon Timber network and market them, they will stay in the region. As a result, it not only optimally retains its climate-positive CO2 storage function. It also forms an important basis for regional value creation.

Low Carbon Timber assists forest owners in establishing or converting stable mixed forests by building a network of buyers for a wide range of native wood species.

Low Carbon Timber advocates a positive image and appreciation of the management of native forests among consumers and society as a fundamental contribution to global sustainability.

The most important in a nutshell

  • Low Carbon Timber makes advantages visible

    Wood is a renewable resource, everyone knows that and everyone talks about that, but … To date, this fact has not been adequately addressed in any common environmental assessment tool, such as life cycle assessments, environmental product declarations, or building assessments and construction subsidies. HVH / LCT draws attention to this and communicates this constantly, also via supplementary tools such as the ECO Footprint. Furthermore, the importance of short distances in the processing chain is almost completely overlooked or underestimated, also in the case of wood. This also has consequences for the producers. With the certificate and its environmental communication to customers, society, business, planners and municipalities, Low Carbon Timber makes the great advantages of renewable raw materials visible, tangible and verifiable in an otherwise global raw material and product market.

  • Short distances preserve the CO2 reservoir

    In general, a CO2 storage function in wood can only be assumed if the wood comes from sustainable forestry, otherwise the wood will not grow again. It is therefore not possible to lump together wood from different origins and to use the amount of CO2 bound in the wood as a permanent reservoir. The crucial factor here is how much of the calculated CO2 storage remains after the emissions associated with the manufacture of the product via the supply chain have been deducted. Especially long distances in the upstream chains (CoC) partially or completely cancel out the “CO2 storage function in wood”. Products certified with Low Carbon Timber guarantee that the storage function of wood can really be credited due to its above-average low carbon footprint.

  • Wood from HOME forests

    Low Carbon Timber explicitly advocates the sustainable use of wood from domestic forests. Low Carbon Timber is campaigning with consumers and society, the public sector and important multipliers for the explicit use of products made from domestic woods from our sustainably managed forests instead of imported wood from uncertain origins or without a forest label. Carlowitz laid the foundation for sustainable forest management here in Germany. In other areas of the world, sustainable forest management is less entrenched. Last but not least, the use of wood from the surrounding area contributes to regional value creation and gives people in rural areas further prospects.

  • With us: protection through use

    Low Carbon Timber represents the premise of protection through use. Low Carbon Timber believes that diversity needs to be promoted in the field. Unlike in the world’s primeval forests (primary forests), however, this can only be achieved in our managed European forests if forest owners can also market a corresponding diversity of tree species in a meaningful way. This is because managed forests primarily replant and maintain what can also be marketed. For this, in turn, it is precisely the demand for products from such wood species native forests is important. This is where Low Carbon Timber comes in.

    By communicating these connections and making it clear that the use of short-distance wood from sustainably managed domestic forests guarantees optimally environmentally friendly and sustainable products from a holistic perspective, Low Carbon Timber also supports the recognition and image of domestic forestry.

  • All environmental labels are important

    Low Carbon Timber does not compete with forest certifications or other environmental labels. Each environmental label has its own focus, function and necessity. Low Carbon Timber sees itself in solidarity with other environmental labels that want to achieve a real environmental impact. For example, the recognized global labels for sustainable forest management PEFC and FSC and the oldest environmental label in the world, the Blue Angel. Today, everyone must contribute to the implementation of climate and environmental protection, resource conservation and efficiency in his or her own place and with his or her possibilities. Low Carbon Timber labels and certifies particularly climate-friendly wood products. Low Carbon Timber has not developed its own criteria for forest management. Nevertheless, proof of sustainable forest management, e.g. in the form of an FM certificate (Forest Management Certificate), is a prerequisite for logs to be included in the product certification according to Low Carbon Timber.

Web portal “Forest diversity

Unsere heimischen Wälder sind seit Jahrhunderten nachhaltig bewirtschaftet. In ihnen findet sich eine erstaunliche Artenvielfalt. Eine grundlegende Voraussetzung für die Artenvielfalt in Wäldern ist die Vielfalt an Baumarten, die dort wachsen. Zur Unterstützung von Waldbesitzern im Hinblick auf die Umsetzung einer möglichst artenreichen und gleichzeitig ökonomisch tragfähigen Zusammensetzung ihrer Wälder hat HOLZ VON HIER mit Förderung des Bundeslandwirtschaftsministeriums eine Onlineplattform entwickelt.

Diese Plattform dient einerseits der Imagebildung für bewirtschaftete heimische Wälder, indem sie verdeutlicht, welche (Baum-)artenvielfalt in solchen Wäldern verborgen sein kann. Zum anderen ermöglicht Sie Waldbesitzern potenzielle und neue Abnehmer für Sondersortimente und wenniger gängige Baumarten zu finden. Holzinteressenten haben die Möglichkeit Kontakt mit Ihnen aufzunehmen, direkt über das Forstamt, den Ansprechpartner Ihrer Kommune oder über Ihre örtliche WBV.

Im Beirat zur Entwicklung und Begleitung der Plattform waren Waldbesitzer jeder Waldbesitzform vertreten: Thüringen Forst (für den Staatsforst), der Förster von Turn & Taxis (für den Großprivatwald), Berliner Forsten (für Stadtwälder), WBV Regensburger Land (für den organisierten klein- und mittleren Privatwald), ein Vertreter des Verbandes europäischer Naturparke und ein staatlicher Forstberater mit 40 Jahren Berufserfahrung.

Sie können sich als Waldbesitzer auf dieser Plattform kostenfrei anmelden und Bestände solcher weniger gängigen Baumarten und Sortimente über einen eigenen Login-Bereich eintragen. Dabei erfolgen die Einträge hier auf Landkreisebene ohne Angabe von genauen Standorten.

The interactive map tool "Waldvielfalt.de" (forest diversity)

Information offer for forest owners in the network

For forest owners who have joined the Low Carbon Timber network, Low Carbon Timber has developed comprehensive information materials to help answer basic questions in the various relevant subject areas such as site-adapted tree species selection, management, the timber market, and more.

Information materials for forest owners