OSB and the environment

OSB is made from wood. Wood products are the only building materials to utilise a truly renewable resource.

This gives OSB a significant environmental advantage so that it’s  up there with the most environmentally beneficial building materials anywhere in the world. Better still, all of our wood is home-grown and produced, so there's no impact on tropical rain forests - unlike some plywoods.

All of the timber used to make OSB in the UK and Ireland is carefully harvested to preserve the forest’s biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes. It comes from sustainable, fast-growing timber; specifically forest thinnings of new-growth pine and spruce from well-managed forests independently certified by the Forestry Stewartship Council. This means they fit with tough environmental, social and economic guidelines, and is one of the main reasons why OSB is being used more and more.

Producing OSB uses less energy and resources than an equivalent volume of almost any other non wood building material. And there’s more: A lot of the energy used to make OSB actually also comes from wood residues derived during the process instead of fossil fuels. This plus the fact that all of our wood is sourced locally to production which means our carbon footprint is even smaller.

And as well as helping towards a healthy environment, no added formaldehyde is used to make OSB, so our homes are healthier too. So, do yourself and the environment a favour, say bye to ply and hello OSB.