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As the global response to climate change intensifies, timber buildings will play an essential role in reducing carbon emissions from the built environment. This study provides a simulation-driven approach to estimating the environmental performance of timber buildings. In doing so, we present a case study of the UK's next generation of timber school buildings, the New Model School (NMS-timber). We perform a sensitivity analysis of the timber school building to concrete construction (NMS-concrete). The methodology involves an environmental performance estimation of the two building cases' operational energy and thermal comfort characteristics. The results show that NMS-timber has an annual energy usage intensity (EUI) of~ 132kW/m2 and~ 146kW/m2 for NMS-concrete, demonstrating a~ 9.6% more energy efficiency per square metre for the timber building. We also find that the timber school building will save~ 34.30% heating energy compared to the concrete construction while almost eliminating the cooling energy needs. We conclude that the NMS-timber can offer significantly better environmental performance to concrete buildings. When applied in early stages of the design development, the digital workflow presented promotes informed decisions during the project development stages and enhances the construction of energy-efficient structures.