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UTE El Prado (Dragados S.A. y Constructora San José S.A.) Extension of the Prado Museum Leads the Way for Certified Timber in Spanish Construction
April 18, 2007
The extension of the Prado, Spain's premier art museum, is the first major Spanish building project to include significant amounts of certified sustainable timber according to international environment organization the Rainforest Alliance. The Rainforest Alliance verified the source of the timber used throughout the project and concluded that well over half came from sources certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)*. Forests certified as meeting the FSC's standards are well managed and meet comprehensive environmental and social criteria.
In 2005 the Ministry of Culture introduced new requirements for the construction including a demand for certified sustainable timber to be used. Of the timber installed since that instruction, some 70 percent came from FSC certified sources, according to the Rainforest Alliance's verification report. The new building includes exhibition rooms, an assembly hall, conference room, a drawings gallery, restoration rooms and administrative offices. Solid oak flooring throughout the building, birch plywood and yellow pine used in floors, wall paneling and ceilings, door frames made in beech come from FSC certified sources. According to the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood Regional Coordinator, David Hadley, UTE El Prado -- a temporary union of Spain's leading construction companies, Dragados S.A. and Constructora San Jose S.A., which built the extension -- has led the trend toward sustainable timber sourcing in Spain with this unique project.
A spokesperson for UTE El Prado says: "We were set the specific challenge in 2005 of sourcing certified sustainable timber for the Prado extension around the Jerónimos Cloister. It is a challenge we've worked hard to meet and we believe our efforts on this project will make it easier for future projects to source sustainably." David Hadley says: "This sends a strong signal to all major building projects in Spain, and Europe, that sourcing certified sustainable timber is not just possible it should be a basic requirement. We urge all Spanish public administrations, from national to municipal level, to introduce sustainable timber procurement policies to ensure all future public building projects require certified, sustainable timber and build on the great achievements of UTE El Prado." * The Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program worked with UTE El Prado to verify the source of timber used in the construction of the new gallery and ancillary rooms and offices. A total of 252.68m3 of timber was installed in the construction of which 58 per cent came from verified FSC certified sources (or 148.49m3). This verification was an independent third party evaluation to quantify the proportion and volume of timber coming from well managed forests, in this case FSC certified. In 2005 the Ministry of Culture introduced new requirements for the construction including a demand for certified sustainable timber to be used. Of the timber installed since that instruction some 70 percent came from FSC certified sources according to the Rainforest Alliance's verification report.
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