Covenant Timber Construction MRA 2021-2025

This presentation outlines the progress and challenges of the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam’s (MRA) covenant on timber construction, with a target for 20% of new housing to use timber or biobased construction by 2025. It highlights the current state of timber projects across municipalities, progress toward the target, and key barriers to scaling timber in residential developments. The initiative promotes sustainable building practices to mitigate climate impact, with an emphasis on regulatory, economic, and logistical challenges that need addressing to meet the 2025 goals.

Key Takeaways

• Current Progress: With only a small percentage of projects currently completed or under construction, significant scaling efforts are needed to meet the 20% timber construction target by 2025.
• Municipal Variance: Timber adoption varies across municipalities, and collaborative compensation strategies are encouraged to balance efforts across the region.
• Barriers to Adoption: Key barriers include high costs, lack of dimensional optimization in timber design, limited knowledge and valuation of timber, and delays due to traditional urban planning practices.

How It Can Help You

This presentation is valuable for urban planners, policymakers, and construction professionals who are:

• Interested in adopting timber in large-scale residential developments to meet environmental goals.
• Seeking to understand the economic and regulatory barriers affecting timber adoption in the Netherlands.
• Looking to develop or support policy frameworks that encourage biobased construction.

Key Learnings

1. Cost and Process Efficiency: Process costs outweigh material costs in timber construction, suggesting the need for streamlined processes and timber-specific design standards.
2. Dimensional Specifications for Timber: Timber projects require adjustments in urban planning to account for plot dimensions, height, and light considerations.
3. Collaboration Across Municipalities: By working together, municipalities can balance their timber construction contributions to collectively meet the 20% target.