Ukraine Unbroken: wooden rehabilitation centre and renewed team

Rebuilding is essential in Ukraine. Damaged housing, hospitals, schools. The country has no choice. But it can choose what to build with. For FSC Ukraine the answer starts in the forests of the Lviv region.

The country has 4.8 million hectares of forests under FSC Forest Management certification. In the Lviv region alone, more than 70 FSC-certified enterprises are processing and exporting timber. At the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Centre – a facility supporting Ukrainians living with war-related injuries and disabilities in Lviv – the upper floors of one reconstructed building have been completed in FSC-certified CLT.

The structure is lighter than concrete, puts less load on existing foundations, and continues to store the carbon that formed the wood while it grew as a tree. A certified forest, a traceable supply chain, faster building, lower embodied carbon: the Unbroken Centre exemplifies the value of a responsible construction chain.

Another building on the grounds of the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Centre is made entirely of CLT panels and even has a small garden inside. It makes artificial limbs for amputees.

“It's really hard to find such an ergonomic workshop – we go through the entire production cycle in one building; we don't run between floors and rooms, and the quality of the surfaces allows them to last a long time. Such comfort and energy efficiency are very important, as our 12 specialists have manufactured over a thousand prostheses since the start of the full-scale invasion. Last year alone, we doubled our production volume. Each product is unique. On average, it takes a week to make one product, but complex cases – amputations of two, three, or even four limbs – require up to six months of work. We had a patient who had lost all four limbs. Now he drives a car and goes skiing on his own. When you see something like that, you understand why we do what we do,” said Vladislav Sikhivskiy, head of the Unbroken Prosthetics and Orthotics Centre.

Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) is made by stacking layers of solid lumber at right angles and glueing them under pressure. The panels are both solid and light, capable of replacing concrete and steel in many applications (walls, floors, and other load-bearing structures). Quick and easy to assemble, CLT significantly reduces construction time.

The climate case is also well established. Buildings and construction account for 34% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, with embodied carbon (emissions produced in manufacturing and processing) from materials like cement and steel responsible for 18% of that figure. Wood-based materials like CLT are the opposite. Trees absorb carbon as they grow, and when that wood is used in construction, the carbon stays locked in the structure for the building’s lifetime. A review of studies cited by MIT’s Climate Portal found that CLT can reduce a large building’s carbon footprint by roughly 40% compared to conventional materials.

However, a particular condition must be met. Forests supplying timber for CLT need to be responsibly managed. Without regeneration, safeguards, and standards, the carbon equation risks failure.

Beyond certified forests and increasingly innovative construction, in November 2025, FSC Ukraine formally registered as a legal entity. It is now a stronger institution of greater relevance for government bodies.

“This is a unique situation where a legal entity is being established in wartime, and it is nothing less than an investment in ensuring the FSC's mission in Ukraine,” says Pavlo Kravets, Director of FSC Ukraine LLC. “Certificate holders, the whole forest industry, and civil society get a clear message that they can rely on our organization's strong foundation to deliver responsible forest management under extraordinary conditions.”

A growing team is driving FSC Ukraine’s work forward. Oksana Pavlishchuk and Yevhenii Khan continue to lead on forest management, chain of custody, and integrity. Yaroslav Demianenko has joined for communications, and Nadiia Irodovska for EU integration and compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation. Pavlo Kravets has been a team leader for 10 years, dedicating himself to sustainable forestry for the entire 25 years since FSC’s presence in his country was established.

Standing strong in the middle of turmoil, the team is committed to rebuilding Ukraine in a way that makes it even more resilient and sustainable.