New opportunities for timber construction with the new Construction Products Regulation (CPR)

New opportunities for timber construction with the new Construction Products Regulation (CPR)

The new Construction Products Regulation (CPR) entered into force in January 2025 to support a greener and more digital construction industry as well as to promote the circular economy. It offers many advantages for the wood construction sector. Fully in line with new regulation, the WoodStock project evaluates opportunities for underutilised wood (hardwoods, salvaged and reclaimed wood) in the construction sector as a sustainable material with carbon storage capacity.

Construction

What advantages can the new CPR bring to the wood construction sector?

  • The ambitious environmental and sustainability requirements of the new CPR encourage the use of materials with a low carbon footprint and a high degree of recyclability. Wood not only meets these two requirements but it is also capable of storing carbon throughout its service life, converting timber buildings into carbon stocks.
  • The new CPR requires manufacturers to provide information on the recyclability and reusability of construction products. This may benefit wood products, which can be more easily disassembled for reuse than conventional construction materials.
  • The implementation of digital technical and environmental information of the Digital Product Passports (DPP) into Building Information Modeling (BIM) models will not be a challenge for the timber construction sector, which is a pioneer in the construction sector in terms of CAD/CAM/BIM design and manufacturing. CAD/CAM refers to the integration of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM).

How can WoodStock support the transition to the new CPR? 

The WoodStock project addresses the demand for sustainable solutions for the construction sector, rethinking how wood is sourced and (re)used. It focuses on developing zero-waste and circular building designs for a healthy living environment from underused streams such as hardwoods, salvage wood, low-quality wood and post-consumer wood. For those products there are no standards yet. The project’s co-creation activities with stakeholders from across the wood construction value chain, and interaction with the Technical Committees will be key to ensure sustainability and safety of underutilised wood in construction.

 

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