woodbloc uses environmental data with emidat as an advantage for qng sustainable building certification

Woodbloc is a timber construction company based in Lower Bavaria, Germany. The firm manufactures solid timber walls made from cross-layered, dowel-joined lamellae and dowel-laminated timber ceilings in a range of surface qualities. All products are produced in-house from regional wood and supplied mainly within the DACH region.
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Sustainability has always been at the core of Woodbloc’s business model. The company prioritizes local sourcing, regional production, and short transport routes. “We place great value on using regional products, buying regional raw materials, and building regionally,” explains Christoph Perl, Product Development.

Woodbloc’s engagement with life cycle assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) began with curiosity. About two years ago, a colleague had already explored the topic and researched the data required, but production had only just started, so solid data was not yet available. The motivation to take the next step came from observing the market. “Honestly, because everyone has them. We saw that competitors had EPDs, so we decided we should also get started and create EPDs for our products,” explains Mr. Christoph Perl.
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After speaking with Emidat and learning how the process works from data collection to verification, the team realized they could manage it themselves although they had not done LCAs before. “We initially started with the idea of outsourcing everything, that someone external would do the LCA including research and then submit it for verification.
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But after getting Emidat’s offer and your clear explanation of how it works and what I can do myself, we quickly realized it makes sense to do it ourselves. I have to gather the data anyway, materials and raw materials purchased in the year, energy balances, and so on, so it became clear pretty quickly: we’ll do that ourselves.”

Working with Emidat helped Woodbloc to meet market expectations and to build a deeper understanding of its environmental data. The platform guided the team through each step of the process and made data relationships visible for the first time. “The software itself is very intuitive. It doesn’t take long to understand how to enter data.“‍

Switching from external consultancy to a guided, software-based process proved both efficient and cost-effective.

Woodbloc now uses its environmental data to support QNG (Quality Seal for Sustainable Buildings) projects, linking verified product information directly to sustainable construction goals. “We’ve built all recent multi-family developments to QNG standards,“ explains Christoph Perl. He adds that the EPD will likely help improve their QNG results showing the positive environmental performance of wood as a construction material.

The biggest challenge was structuring and collecting the data required for an accurate LCA. What began as a time-consuming task soon became an opportunity to gain production insight. “The biggest hurdle was gathering the data in the first place. At first, energy use was only roughly recorded, but now we’ve implemented systems that let us track it much more precisely. By the end of 2025, or definitely by 2026, we’ll be able to see exactly how much load each machine consumes.“

This new level of precision not only supports EPD creation but also helps Woodbloc track energy performance and efficiency across production lines. Through the Emidat platform, the team has gained a clearer view of how material and energy inputs translate into environmental impact.

Woodbloc plans to extend EPD coverage to its upcoming acoustic ceiling product, designed for offices and classrooms.“Its composition is different, so we’ll probably create a separate EPD for it.”

Having access to environmental data has changed how Woodbloc approaches learning from results. Mr. Perl is now particularly interested in using Emidat’s product comparison feature to better interpret results and benchmark performance.

When asked for a recommendation to other manufacturers when creating their LCAs and EPDs, Mr. Perl says, “It definitely makes sense to gather data for the first/reference year in a way that you can repeat the process the same way in following years. Your platform lets me copy an LCA and update the values - so it’s worth doing it again the next year.”
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The company also sees potential in connecting Emidat with its existing ERP and BIM systems to streamline data management and reduce manual work in the future. “Integration makes absolute sense to move away from silo solutions. We design with software that exports to our ERP, richer interfaces beyond PDF would make a lot of sense.”