Timber Finance Initiative
02. Dez 2021
The "Timber Finance Initiative" focuses on wood against climate change. Timber Finance wants to become the Swiss competence center for sustainable timber investments and thus connects the timber construction and finance industries. The start-up is located in our offices in Zurich and was co-founded by Stefan Zöllig. We wish you a good start.
"Wood can contribute to combating climate change and, thanks to its CO₂ storage capacity, will be the asset of the coming years for climate-conscious investors." The Zurich Timber Finance Initiative is convinced of this: the association, founded in Zurich in March 2021, aims to promote knowledge transfer and networking between the forest and timber industry and the financial market by developing new CO₂-storage methodologies, financial products, through white papers, analyses and reports, a knowledge hub, training and consulting.
"The construction industry is responsible for about 40% of global CO₂ emissions. Sustainably grown wood will play an important role in the decarbonization of the construction industry. As a CO₂ storage and as a CO₂ negative building material. We want to enable investment opportunities of around CHF 100 million in the forest and timber industry by 2030 and thus make a significant contribution against climate change," explains Erik Reichmuth, TFI Managing Director and finance expert .
The Timber Finance Board scores with multi-company founder & VR Thomas Fedrizzi and innovator and "Timber Startup Incubator" founder Stefan Zöllig as well as experienced timber industry expert Thomas Lüthi. Currently, the Timber Finance Initiative focuses on three services and products:
Development of CO₂ -storage certificates for timber buildings
To drive the decarbonization of the construction industry, the Zurich-based Timber Finance Initiative is developing a CO₂ certificate based on international standards for carbon dioxide removals in timber construction. The certificate is intended to create ecological and financial incentives for institutional builders to use more wood as a building material and at the same time compensate for the necessary ecological forestry services. The launch of the certificate is planned for the first quarter of 2022.
Advisory & Knowledge Hub
Timber Finance advises banks, pension funds, investors and family offices on sustainable investment strategies and timber investments in Switzerland and Europe. Institutional real estate investors are supported by Timber Finance as a developer advisor on the topic of competitions, tendering, contracting, regional timber procurement and financing of timber construction projects.
The Timber Carbon Capture & Storage Index
Timber Finance has developed the first index for the modern forest and timber industry. The index includes 30 selected listed companies from Europe and North America from the most sustainable part of the timber industry. The index launch is scheduled for January 2022. "There is a knowledge and investment gap between the forest and timber industry and the financial market. We want to close this gap with sustainable financial products. After all, sustainably managed wood - from forests to timber construction - is the hidden champion in sustainable finance in our latitudes and belongs in the portfolio of every climate-conscious investor," adds Thomas Fedrizzi, VR & Timber Finance Initiative Board Member.
More information about Timber Finance is available here: www.timberfinance.ch