While the wind power electricity generates has a small carbon footprint, the towers of conventional wind turbines are predominately made using carbon-intensive materials like steel. Swedish company Modvion believes it has found a greener alternative — building turbine towers from wood.
Almost two tons of carbon dioxide are emitted for every ton of steel manufactured, and a modern onshore wind turbine “contains around 120 metric tons of steel per megawatt of capacity,” according to industry group WindEurope.
Instead of steel, Modvion uses laminated veneer lumber, made from multiple layers of wood stuck together with adhesives. The LVL boards are manufactured into modules which are then transported and assembled into cylinders on site, before being stacked on top of each other, and joined with glue, to create a tower.
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📸: Paul Wennerholm/Modvion
A data-driven recalibration is reshaping sustainable construction as financial disclosure frameworks, material innovation and workforce realities redefine environmental accountability. Over 700 firms have adopted the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, extending scrutiny of nature risk into project pipelines. The move parallels global efforts to integrate biodiversity, resource efficiency in construction and whole life carbon assessment into performance reporting. The sector is beginning to treat environmental sustainability in construction as a material investment risk comparable to embodied carbon exposure.
Scottish policy direction under its revised Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan introduces a measurable framework linking local infrastructure activity to carbon footprint reduction and verified sustainability metrics. Natural England’s focus on green infrastructure and nature-based solutions embeds sustainable building practices into national economic recovery planning. This signals that sustainable building design will be evaluated through lifecycle assessment and not rhetoric, making quantified environmental impact of construction a prerequisite for market credibility.
Despite ongoing promotion of low embodied carbon materials and renewable building materials, large-scale adoption remains limited. Investors and regulators expect verified evidence of circular construction strategies and end-of-life reuse in construction to achieve true carbon neutral construction and demonstrate decarbonising the built environment in action.
The modern benchmark for industry performance combines credible governance, transparent lifecycle data and equitable workforce transition. Sustainable design is becoming inseparable from compliance, aligning low carbon building aspirations with whole life carbon performance, embodied carbon in materials auditing and BREEAM v7 standards that define the future of green construction.
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