USAA Real Estate and its development partner, Seefried Industrial Properties, have announced they 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 percent, or the equivalent of a single car’s emissions over more than 2 million miles of travel.

The warehouse in Southfield Park 35, located just south of I-20 near Danieldale and Old Hickory Road 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 percent 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 1/132nd of an inch within specifications.

The 60-foot CLT panels of the warehouse originate from a vast forest in British Columbia, Canada, that is closely regulated by federal authorities, who allow only 1 percent of available timber to be cultivated and mandate that two trees be planted for each one that is harvested. “Consistent with our ambition to be more imaginative about limiting the environmental impact of our development projects, we are leveraging renewable resources harvested in a sustainable manner,” said Lange Allen, managing director at USAA Real Estate. “In addition to the dramatically reduced carbon footprint of CLT, tenants will recognize the material as aesthetically superior to the standard conventional steel and concrete design of ’tilt up’ walls, as well as the operational benefits of the related energy efficiency that CLT affords.”

“This property has the potential to set a new precedent for sustainable warehouse construction,” said Josh Hullum, USAA Real Estate’s construction management director. “Along with the market’s tremendous demand for warehouse product, tenants have an intense and growing appetite for building solutions that have these environmental attributes.”

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.

“Being part of a groundbreaking project focused strictly on using sustainably harvested timber and eco-friendly materials is monumental in our market with promising room for future growth,” said Jonathan Stites, senior vice president at Seefried Properties. “We are proud to lead construction of a project utilizing CLT and MEGASLAB systems, which ensures structural integrity, workplace wellbeing and the reduction of greenhouse gases.”