(Credit: Pixabay)USAA Real Estate and its development partner, Seefried Industrial Properties, are near completion of an industrial warehouse development in Dallas Fort Worth that will be among the first ever using sustainable building materials that will reduce the carbon impact of its construction by more than 45%.
The warehouse, in Southfield Park 35 in south Dallas County, has been constructed with Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), a precision designed wood product that replaces the concrete tilt-wall panels of a typical industrial warehouse. Conventional construction methods are predicated on the use of concrete, which produces 8% of global carbon emissions annually. By relying on this wood product rather than steel and concrete, the carbon intensive construction process is mitigated almost by half. Each CLT panel is constructed to 132nd of an inch within specifications.
The 60-foot CLT panels of the warehouse originate from a forest in British Columbia, Canada that is closely regulated by federal authorities, who allow only 1% of available timber to be cultivated and mandate that two trees be planted for each one that is harvested.
The CLT materials, which remain exposed on the interior of the warehouse, are supplemented with MEGASLAB concrete systems, a proprietary admixture for the building's slab and site paving that relies upon reduced cement but maintains remarkable durability and strength. The warehouse is situated on 8.57 acres within the 157-acre Southfield Park 35 development.
