Australia is facing two of its biggest challenges at the same time: delivering 1.2 million new homes by 2030 while reducing national greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent. Meeting both goals will require building differently. 

A new project by the Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) Centre for Sustainable Futures aims to provide the evidence, tools and industry confidence needed to accelerate the transition to lower-carbon housing by demonstrating, with real Australian data, the environmental benefits of building with timber.

The project, titled, ‘Timber-Led Decarbonisation of Australian Housing: Evidence and Industry Translation,’ will create Australia's first integrated, material-agnostic platform capable of measuring and comparing the embodied carbon of residential buildings using data from approximately one million Australian homes built since 2019. 

Led by Mrs Rhianna Robinson, National Research and Technical Manager of the Frame & Truss Manufacturers Association of Australia (FTMA), the project responds to a growing shift in the construction industry, where embodied carbon – the emissions associated with manufacturing and constructing buildings – is becoming an increasingly important consideration alongside operational energy efficiency.

As sustainability reporting and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) requirements become mainstream, the industry is demanding reliable, transparent and comparable information to support material selection.

Yet despite timber's recognised environmental benefits, Australia currently has no centralised evidence base capable of quantifying those benefits consistently across the residential housing sector.

Still, Rhianna says this gap represents both a challenge and an opportunity for Australia's forest and wood products industry. As she states, "We can't manage what we can't measure."

"Timber is uniquely positioned to support both housing delivery and decarbonisation through its low embodied emissions and stored biogenic carbon, but the industry currently lacks a centralised, credible, and policy-aligned evidence base to quantify and communicate these benefits at scale," Rhianna says.

"This absence of transparent, comparable data presents a growing risk to market access as competing materials invest heavily in emissions reporting and decarbonisation credentials."

To address this challenge, the project will integrate detailed product-level timber data into project partner CarbonTrace's national housing database before developing a freely accessible online decision-support platform.

Co-founder of Carbontrace, Tom Petty, believes “Data is key to the decision-making around emissions reduction. But, he says, “This data needs to flow into design teams without friction and ideally in real-time.” 

This project will allow architects, builders, developers, manufacturers and policymakers to compare the embodied carbon performance of different building materials using real Australian as-built housing data, rather than theoretical estimates.

Importantly, it will align with national initiatives, helping industry streamline certification while making better-informed design and construction decisions.

Rhianna says one of the project's defining strengths is that it moves beyond modelling to validation, and that the long-term vision extends well beyond creating another carbon calculator.

"This project creates the first integrated platform capable of quantifying timber's decarbonisation at the project level, supporting material substitution, policy development and market confidence," she says. 

"The project will improve carbon literacy, compliance readiness and market transparency. Long term, it will strengthen timber's expanded adoption, support net-zero housing pathways, and secure timber as the preferred material in Australia's residential sector."

Over three years, researchers will build Australia's most comprehensive embodied carbon dataset for residential construction, develop scenario modelling comparing timber with conventional materials, create an interactive digital decision-support tool, and work with industry and government to translate the findings into practical guidance, policy recommendations and education resources.

The project has been co-designed with more than 60 industry, government and research organisations, including CarbonTrace, the Frame and Truss Manufacturers Association of Australia (FTMA), Green Building Council Australia, CSIRO, Master Builders Australia, Forest & Wood Products Australia, Timber Queensland, the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council and leading builders and manufacturers.

The collaboration is designed to ensure the tool reflects real industry needs while supporting compliance with Australia's rapidly evolving sustainability frameworks.

The project will ultimately provide an online decision-support tool, technical reports, factsheets, webinars, workshops, case studies, conference presentations and a residential decarbonisation roadmap that project partners estimate could reach more than 80,000 industry stakeholders.

Editor’s note:

Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) is a national research and innovation institute valued up to $200m, backed by a Commonwealth Government investment of $100m. AFWI includes three research centres hosted by the University of the Sunshine Coast (AFWI Centre for Sustainable Futures), the University of Tasmania, and the University of Melbourne. This project is funded through the AFWI Centre for Sustainable Futures.

Project snapshot

• Project title: Timber-Led Decarbonisation of Australian Housing: Evidence and Industry Translation
• Program: AFWI Centre for Sustainable Futures
• Project lead: Mrs Rhianna Robinson, National Research and Technical Manager, FTMA
• Project duration: Three years
• The challenge: Australia must deliver 1.2 million new homes by 2030 while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 43%. As homes become more energy efficient to operate, embodied carbon from construction materials is becoming one of the largest remaining sources of emissions.
• The opportunity: Timber is a low-carbon building material that stores biogenic carbon, but the industry currently lacks a nationally consistent, evidence-based system to quantify and communicate these benefits. This project will provide the data and tools needed to support evidence-based material selection and increase confidence in timber as a climate solution. It will be Australia's first integrated platform to measure embodied carbon in residential housing using real Australian as-built data.
• Industry impact: The project will improve carbon literacy, strengthen compliance readiness, support market transparency and provide the timber industry with robust evidence to demonstrate its role in delivering net-zero housing.
• Industry collaboration: Co-designed with 60+ industry, government and research partners, including ACT Government, Architecture Architecture, Argall, the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC), BKK Architects, CarbonTrace, CSIRO, the Frame & Truss Manufacturers Association of Australia (FTMA), Forest & Wood Products Australia (FWPA), the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), Graham Energy, Hyne Group, Jagan Alliance, Timber Queensland, Kennedy Nolan, the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), the Low Carbon Materials Hub, Master Builders Australia (MBA), the Materials & Embodied Carbon Leaders' Alliance (MECLA), MiTek Australia, Multinail Australia, and the Sustainable Builders Alliance.
• Expected reach: Through project partners, the project's education, training and engagement activities are expected to reach more than 80,000 industry stakeholders across Australia.