Timber Development UK (TDUK) has published the 2026 Embodied Carbon data for Timber Products.
This provides the average carbon data for the 11 major timber product categories.
A fully updated version of the 2025 information, the data allows designers to weigh up the carbon impacts of their material choices. The figures clearly show how selecting a particular timber product will affect the embodied carbon of a design, with many UK sourced timber products having a lower A1-A4 embodied carbon impact than their imported counterparts.
This independently verified information calculates weighted average upfront A1-A4 embodied carbon data for all of the most common timber products used in the UK – both including and excluding biogenic carbon, and also includes a stored biogenic carbon figure for the product.
The new publication now also includes end-of-life C1-C4 embodied carbon impacts. Other updates include:
- Addition of wood fibre insulation
- Increased data confidence levels, due to the increase in the number of EPDs available
- Clarification of stored biogenic carbon for product only
In the 2026 update, the average embodied carbon figures for softwood, CLT Glulam, LVL, I-joists, OSB and chipboard are all lower than they were previously. The biggest fall in embodied carbon was for UK softwood, with the publication of the new UK C16 softwood EPD showing a reduction of 69kgCO2e/m3, down from 107kgCO2e/m3 to 38kgCO2e/m3 (excluding biogenic carbon), lower than the imported weighted average. In fact, most products produced in the UK, including softwood, OSB, MDF and I-Joists, have a lower carbon footprint.
The eleven timber products covered are:
- Sawn softwoods
- CLT (cross laminated timber)
- LVL (laminated veneer lumber)
- Glulam (glue laminated timber)
- I-joists
- Softwood plywood
- Hardwood plywood
- OSB (oriented strand board)
- MDF (medium density fibreboard)
- Chipboard
- Wood fibre insulation
View and download the 2026 Embodied Carbon Data for Timber Productshere.
