The British building industry can cut costs and help the fight against illegal logging by switching to oriented strand board (OSB) that is certified to Forestry Stewardship Council accreditation (FSC), says a new Greenpeace report.

The report, ‘Setting a new standard: alternatives to unsustainable plywood in the UK construction industry’, shows that there is no technical reason why plywood from unsustainable sources cannot be replaced with alternatives such as Norbord’s SterlingOSB.

SterlingOSB is made in Scotland from tree thinnings harvested as part of the sustainable management of local forests. It is FSC certified, and carries both the CE-mark and a BBA certificate.

According to the Greenpeace report, the UK is Europe’s largest user of plywood and is the third largest importer of illegal timber in the world. And it recommends a switch to OSB: “Environmentally-friendly alternatives to illegal plywood are of good quality and need not be more expensive. For example, FSC certified Oriented Strand Board (OSB) is an excellent option that can be used for the majority of plywood applications,” says the report.

Dave McElroy, Deputy Managing Director (Commercial) with Norbord, welcomed the report. “SterlingOSB has a much better environmental profile than plywood, is UK produced and is always available” he said. “It is also more affordable. The weakened pound, rising transport costs and unreliable supply of imported materials mean that there’s never been a better time to switch to SterlingOSB”.