The tender package contains important documents for municipalities that they need for a tender with HOLZ VON HIER (HVH) resp. LOW CARBON TIMBER (LCT).  These include: (1) general information about HVH, (2) recognition, distribution and listings, (3) instructions for tenders with HVH/LCT, (4) example of existing municipal funding programs with HVH/LCT as Best Parks examples, (5) expert opinion on tendering eligibility from HVH/LCT, (6) practical examples and (7) statements on HVH/LCT.

Under the following link you will find all providers on a map that can in principle offer products with an HVH certificate. But keep in mind that the logo is not the proof, the proof is only the HVH/LCT certificate with the product-specific ID. Always have an HVH/LCT certificate presented for your procurement. HVH/LCT products are available for construction timber such as solid wood, KVH, BSH, CLT solid wood walls, for components such as windows, doors and  Stairs, exterior wood, interior finishes, floors, office furniture, office supplies such as paper, energy wood and more. An HVH/LCT certificate can also identify all wooden building materials for a wooden building that are verifiably certified with HVH/LCT. This means that several items of wood products can be included on the certificate issued for a specific building. The new link opens in a new window on the provider map on the website www.holz-von-hier.eu /www.low-carbon-timber.eu.

Municipal buildings are as diverse as their users. High-rise buildings, office and administration buildings, kindergartens, schools, senior citizens' residences, hospitals, meeting places, sports facilities, halls, libraries, dormitories and much more, right down to the smallest buildings such as pavilions, bus shelters or terraced landscapes. Building with timber is generally regarded as the ultimate contribution to climate protection. The reason given for this is the CO2 storage function due to the binding of CO2 in the wood compared to other building materials such as concrete, steel or stone. However, the upstream chains of the building materials and especially the transports in the material flow of the chain of custody are decisive for the climate balance. The following link will take you to best practice examples that have already been built in public areas using climate- and environmentally friendly wood over short distances, with a HVH/LCT certificate. 

​In timber construction, constructive woods such as classic solid wood, KVH (solid structural timber), BSH (glued laminated timber), CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) and solid wood walls are used. Construction boards are usually added to the planking of classic wooden constructions. This constructive shell of load-bearing exterior, Interior walls and the roof truss are insulated on the outside and provided with a facade. Inside, the interior is finished with floors, as well as wall and ceiling coverings. There are also structural components such as windows, doors, stairs or elevator shafts. All these elements can be built with wood, also with HVH/LCT certificate. You can find out more about the topic at the following link. 

Building elements such as windows, doors, stairs and others play an important role not only in new construction but also in renovation and refurbishment. The following information shows how wooden windows and wood-aluminium windows stand out from PVC, PVC-aluminium and aluminum windows in terms of climate and environmental friendliness. But there are still significant opportunities for improvement in climate protection in the wooden window sector. It is therefore also shown that woods such as meranti from Malaysia, eucalyptus from Brazil and Siberian larch are still often used in Europe. Wooden windows and wood-aluminium windows with HVH/LCT certificate made of spruce, pine, larch and oak have unbeatable climate and environmental advantages

Insulation materials made of natural fibers have so far only had a small market share, and mineral insulation materials and plastic insulation materials also predominate in public construction. However, in terms of their environmental aspects and the type of reusability, these are rated significantly worse than natural fiber insulating materials. 

Various types of wood are used in the interior design, including tropical wood. It is therefore important here in particular to know the origin and upstream chains of the building materials used and  products in the procurement considerations at an important point. Interior fittings are interior walls, ceilings, wall coverings, loft conversions, stair constructions, partitions, built-in furniture elements and much more. 

Make a statement for climate protection and for the region with wooden floors with HVH/LCT certificate! Wooden floors such as planks, parquet, ready-made parquet, laminate, cork, linoleum, sisal, coconut fiber and wool compete primarily with plastic floors such as PVC, vinyl and chemical textiles, which account for 50% of the market. Wooden floors are still rare in public buildings, but would be a very good option due to the representativeness and the good cost-benefit ratio and their many advantages. But of course wooden floors are a statement for every visitor. Wooden floors are something special that has rarely been seen in public buildings. Therefore, precisely because of this statement, the origin and ecology of the floors are very important. 

The procurement of furniture in municipalities can affect many areas, from representative furniture in the entrance areas of town halls and district offices, to office furniture, to facilities for canteens, dormitories, youth facilities, retirement homes, schools or daycare centers. In a broader sense, outdoor furniture could also be included, such as park benches or the like. Chipboard furniture or plywood furniture made from tropical woods is often procured here. HVH/LCT shows how good and economically comparable alternatives can be found here in furniture made from local wood. Read more here.... 

Exterior wood is facades, terraces, wood for the landscape area but also bridges, children's playgrounds, park benches and more. Short distance wooden facades are often unbeatable in terms of climate and environmental balance, but also in terms of costs. Larch is mainly used for wooden facades. Today, most of this comes from Russia or even mostly from Siberia. And that although there is enough larch in the forest in Central Europe and enough sawmills for facade blanks  can produce. Today, thermally treated domestic beech, pine, poplar, ash or fir also offer an extended variety of colors and shapes for facade design. Especially in the area of terraces, either wood-plastic composites or tropical woods are often used today. Larch, pine, Douglas fir, fir, oak, robinia or domestic thermal wood such as thermal beech, thermal poplar, thermal oak, thermal ash is just as durable as, for example, the tropical woods commonly used here, such as Bongossi, Bubinga, Merbau or Akoja.

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Printing your brochures and flyers, your stationery and your office documents with paper of the shortest possible routes ... that earns you enormous climate protection points. Especially with paper, cardboard, books, flyers, business documents, it is very important to pay attention to proof of short distances, i.e. whether printing was done with paper that can show a HVH/LCT certificate, because the material flows with paper are usually international. Paper mills such as the company SAPPI in Stockstatt, which is offering paper with a HVH/LCT certificate for the first time, can save enormous amounts of energy and resources in their upstream chains. The shortening of material flows in the upstream chains not only saves energy and is therefore very climate-friendly, but the comparatively short distances also have significantly lower environmental risks, for example a low risk of biodiversity loss.

The more energy-saving modern heating technology becomes, the more important the upstream chains of the fuels become for the overall climate balance of heating. Since the transports in the entire upstream chains and the origin of the raw materials are not visible to fuels either, proofs such as HVH/LCT are becoming increasingly important, especially with energy wood. Especially with energy wood products, it is important to pay attention to the origin and the transport, because here the transport routes often have more influence on the climate balance than the production itself. HVH/LCT and partners support municipalities in the procurement of biomass over short distances and in the establishment of regional heating networks that are operated with raw materials from short distances and in the climate and environmentally friendly implementation of RED II/III.