AkzoNobel is marking World Green Building Week with the launch of ‘The case for wood in more sustainable buildings’, a new whitepaper developed in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam. The whitepaper examines how responsibly sourced and properly protected timber can support lower-carbon building choices while delivering durability, robust performance and architectural quality. It also demonstrates how material selection and protective coating systems can work together to help reduce a building’s overall lifecycle carbon footprint. The whitepaper presents findings from a comparative lifecycle assessment of panels and window frames made from wood and aluminium, steel and PVC. …The analysis found that wood-based façades and window frames had lower cradle-to-grave carbon footprints than the non-wood alternatives. The study also shows that the substrate is the primary driver of total carbon emissions, while coatings contribute a relatively small share ranging from 4% to 37% of the assessed footprint depending on the material and application.