Building Sustainability: The board that never felled a tree
In a factory in the UAE, pruned palm fronds that would once have been burned or buried are being transformed into something the construction industry has never seen before: a structural building material made entirely without cutting down a single tree. Every year, millions of fronds are pruned across the UAE to keep the country's 40 million palm trees healthy. Traditionally, the cuttings were…
In a factory in the UAE, palm fronds that would have been burned or buried are now being transformed into a structural building material known as Palm Strand Board (PSB). The material is made entirely without cutting down a single tree. Traditionally, the fronds were burned or buried, releasing CO2 or methane, but now they are chipped, washed, pressed, and turned into a fire-rated, termite-resistant board produced by DesertBoard, a UAE manufacturer.
DesertBoard's production capacity is equivalent to 5,200 containers a year, enough to fit out more than 200 Burj Khalifa towers. Each cubic metre of PSB stores up to 401kg of carbon, sequestering roughly 34 million kilograms of CO2 equivalent through use on the Select Group's Peninsula project in Business Bay alone. The material is also fire-rated, termite-resistant, and improves indoor air quality by reducing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) linked to cancer risk.
Despite UAE's green building codes, enforcement remains a challenge. However, Traboulsi is optimistic that sustainability will become mandatory in the near future. DesertBoard is already specified in several major UAE developments, including Dubai Creek Harbour, Business Bay, and Abu Dhabi projects. The company is also working on securing its supply chain by offering a local solution instead of imports.
Traboulsi envisions a future where sustainability becomes the default standard in the built environment.
Written by urgent.news from Gulf News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
