From Climate Performance to a Tradable Asset To comply with regulatory requirements, there are already many costly building certificates and labels. However, none of the approaches focus on proving the long-term CO2 storage of bio-based building materials or are connected to CO2 markets and their standards and participants via an AI-powered infrastructure. This is now available to the real estate industry for the first time. This gives the decarbonisation of properties an economically measurable value and transforms it from being purely a cost factor into an economically usable asset.
Automated Workflow Timber Carbon's AI-powered infrastructure automates the entire certification process: from data collection of a construction project and regionally varying CO2 calculation to independent certification, registration, issuance, sale, and ongoing monitoring of credits. At the same time, the detailed recorded components enable later reuse within the circular economy and urban mining.
Timber Carbon Removal Credits Removals from 'Timber in Construction' are internationally recognised as negative emissions (IPCC, UNFCCC). They meet the established standards for additionality, permanence, and verification and have three advantages over technical methods: they are quickly scalable, they carry no delivery risk as certification only occurs at the completed building, and they also reduce Scope 3 emissions by replacing concrete and steel. The credits are certified and registered under the international Rainbow Standard, which the ICVCM has classified as CCP-Eligible, and its recognition under the EU Regulation on Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) is expected by the end of 2026.
Decarbonisation of the Building Sector The building sector is responsible for approximately 36 percent of global CO2 emissions, a third of which come from building materials. It is one of the last weakly regulated industries. From 2028, the new EU Emissions Trading System ETS 2 will capture operational emissions in the building sector. In addition, from 2028, larger new buildings must disclose the Global Warming Potential (GWP) as part of the EPBD. France is already limiting grey emissions with the RE2020, and the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard follows the same path as the new Minergie Net Zero Building Standard in Switzerland. International assessment systems like BREEAM or LEED also provide benchmarks for the carbon intensity of buildings. In this context, bio-based building materials and especially wood from sustainable forestry, with its high climate performance, become ever more important. The monetisation of the climate performance of used wood is expected to double the share of bio-based new builds in investment properties, currently between 0.5 and 10 percent depending on the country, within ten years.
Timber Carbon In three years, Timber Carbon has built the world's largest portfolio for bio-based carbon removals in the building sector in the German-speaking region. It encompasses more than 90 buildings, which together store 72,000 tonnes of CO2. Through the replacement of concrete and steel in these projects, an additional 65,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions were avoided. Clients and business partners include Swiss Prime Site, PRIMUS, and WIEHAG. The project was supported by Built by Nature and the Migros Pioneer Fund. Additionally, in 2023, Timber Carbon was honoured by UpLink, the innovation platform of the World Economic Forum (WEF), and is well-networked as an expert on various carbon removal platforms. To finance further growth and international scaling, Timber Carbon plans its first funding round as a PropTech and Climate Tech firm for Q4 2026.