LENDLEASE PARTNERS WITH STORA ENSO TO BUILD
SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IN ITALY

GLOBAL property and infrastructure group Lendlease has built a partnership with Helsinki-based Stora Enso to develop sustainable timber construction products in a bid to slash the embedded carbon from its buildings.

The partnership will see the two companies accelerate the use of environmentally friendly construction products through collaborative research and the development of sustainable timber products.

A new studio will be built in Milan, where Lendlease has $7.9 billion in urbanisation projects under way, to develop the sustainable timber products and facilitate their rollout across the company’s European development projects, which together are worth $52 billion.

The studio, dubbed Podium MX, will be based at the company’s Milan Innovation District, which is being developed into a site for building technology projects and is to be powered by renewable energy sources.

“This global partnership between Lendlease and Stora Enso represents a natural evolution of a relationship stretching back more than a decade between our two companies,” Lendlease global CEO and managing director Tony Lombardo said.

“Stora Enso is an undisputed world leader in the development of products that have a lighter environmental footprint,” he said. “This is particularly relevant for Lendlease given we’ve set ourselves the challenge of achieving the most aggressive emissions reduction targets for the real estate sector globally – net zero carbon emissions by 2025 and absolute zero by 2040.”

The partnership follows 10 years of collaboration between the two companies on eight sustainable timber buildings, of which the 25 King office in Brisbane – the tallest and largest engineered wood office building in Australia – has been shown to reduce carbon emissions by 74% or 5000 tonnes.

Sustainable timber contains less carbon than traditional building materials such as steel and cement, according to Lendlease, and can play a key role in reducing the construction industry’s environmental footprint.

Commenting on the partnership, Lars Völkel, executive vice president of Stora Enso Wood Products division, said: “We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with Lendlease, a true frontrunner in sustainable building solutions. Together we will lead the transition towards more circular, innovative and digitalised solutions to help speed up the construction industry’s transformation.”

 

MAIN PIC: The mass timber 25 King office in Brisbane has shown to reduce carbon emissions by 74% or 5000 tonnes.