SLB Recommends Officers, Sets Goals & Budget for 2022; Programs Keep Wood’s Carbon & Sustainability Advantages Front & Center in Education & Communications | SLB December 2021 Newsletter

As the use of mass timber increases, so, too, do questions about wood’s sustainability. Even among those who are supportive of wood products, there is often little understanding of which sustainable forestry practices are in place in North America and their impacts on mitigating climate change and sustaining ecosystem services. Meanwhile, retailers, including major companies like Lowe’s and Home Depot, are placing an increasingly higher value on products that are sustainably sourced, which is an important selling point for their customers.

To address this knowledge gap, Think Wood commissioned a video series, Timber Sustainability, Seedling to Sawmill to Site, spotlighting professionals who know wood’s sustainable supply chain story firsthand: the foresters, manufacturers, and building professionals whose life’s work is to nurture and harvest forests, and design and build new structures in a sustainable manner.

The newly launched series follows lumber’s journey from seedling to sawmill to site, which in this case means a stop at The Westervelt Company’s Alabama tree nursery, forest, and production site, followed by a stop at 80 M Street in Washington, D.C., which features D.C.’s first mass timber commercial overbuild, designed by Hickok Cole for developer Columbia Property Trust. Throughout the journey, the series showcases how environmental stewardship and commitments are honored and central in the development and application of wood building materials. Think Wood will continue to develop resources and assets with this messaging in 2022.

Similar to Think Wood’s top-performing Legacy video, which amassed more than 107,000 views in October and November, Think Wood anticipates that its new series will perform well on digital channels as well as during conferences and public events, and serve as a resource to build confidence in wood among architecture, engineering, and construction professionals, as evidenced by this quote:

“We’re planning to share the Think Wood Legacy video with C-suites to promote the T3 development we’re launching with Hines in Chicago.” – Jessica O’Hara, Senior Vice President | Stream Realty Partners

Watch the Timber Sustainability series here and share with your networks today.

The AWC has produced several wins for the softwood lumber industry in the 2024 International Building Code (IBC) and International Fire Code (IFC), according to the preliminary results of ICC Group A Code Development voting. Pro-wood changes include provisions to:

• Allow for fully exposed mass timber ceilings in buildings up to 12 stories, which is premised on the outcomes of AWC-led fire research and will replace provisions that allow for no more than 20% exposed mass timber ceilings in Type IV-B construction.
• Push back the application of non-combustible floor covering to a later point in the construction process, which is expected to reduce construction costs without increasing fire risk.
• Enable gypsum wallboard ceilings to contribute to fire-resistance ratings of exterior walls, which will maintain platform as a viable framing technique in multifamily construction and keep construction costs down.

The ICC Board of Directors will soon meet to confirm the voting results. The AWC is already beginning to incorporate these changes into its communications and outreach to building code officials and industry professionals to support their uptake in projects nationwide. For example, in the November issue of Structure Magazine, the AWC’s Ken Bland touched on 2024 code changes in addition to detailing common approaches to incorporating the 2021 IBC tall mass timber provisions into state and local building codes.

The AWC concluded its virtual, three-part Sustainability Series by hosting more than 400 attendees at a November webinar that explored progress in developing a Fiber Sourcing Transparency tool and an A4 Transportation tool to support the industry in creating a more complete accounting of the carbon impact of wood products and their role in mitigating carbon emissions. The development of both tools is being supported by the SLB and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. During the webinar, the National Alliance of Forest Owners also shared its Forest Carbon Data Visualization microsite, which helps to break down and interpret data related to carbon sequestration, storage, and emissions.

Market research by Think Wood has confirmed that climate change and carbon are foremost on the minds of the design and building communities. The SLB is investing in the development of fiber sourcing and transportation tools, as well as a woodshed tool, as key vehicles to improve reporting transparency and ultimately motivate increased use of wood products, thanks to their comparative climate benefits.

WoodWorks is making new and concerted efforts to promote wood’s role as a natural climate solution in its outreach and education activities and as a key differentiator compared with more carbon-intensive building materials, such as concrete and steel.

For example, at the recent 2021 Greenbuild International Conference + Expo, WoodWorks’ CEO, Jennifer Cover, and its VP of Operations, Bill Parsons, joined Cynthia West, the Director of the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory and Northern Research Station, on a panel where they discussed the benefits of wood construction and the positive impacts that strong markets have on overall forest management and health, thus enabling greater net-carbon storage.

WoodWorks staff shared similar messaging about carbon, forestry, and tall wood during a presentation to AIA California and the Southern California Sustainability Committee on Wood Products, Forestry, and Sustainability.

Though other industries’ efforts to reduce their carbon emissions are laudable, wood’s renewable nature and inherent carbon sequestration and storage abilities offer an unparalleled advantage as policy makers, the design community, and society at large prioritize more sustainable, climate-friendly building solutions.

Photo: District Office, credit: Hacker

The AWC’s Board of Directors recently elected its 2022 slate of officers—Eric Cremers, President and CEO of PotlatchDeltic, will serve as Chair; Ricky Stanley, President and CEO of TR Miller Mill Company will serve as First Vice Chair; and Sean McLaren, West Fraser’s President, Solid Wood, will serve as Second Vice Chair.

Other members of the AWC’s 2022 Board of Directors are Mike Blosser, LP Building Solutions; Marc Brinkmeyer, Idaho Forest Group; Furman Brodie, Charles Ingram Lumber Co.; George Emmerson, Sierra Pacific Industries; Jack Jordan, Jordan Lumber; Nate Jorgensen, Boise Cascade Co.; Fritz Mason, Georgia-Pacific; Kevin McKinley, Canadian Wood Council; Andrew Miller, Stimson Lumber Co.; Grady Mulbery, Roseburg Forest Products; Keith O’Rear, Weyerhaeuser Company; Joe Patton, The Westervelt Co.; Fred Stimpson, Canfor Southern Pine; and Duane Vaagen, Vaagen Brothers.

The Board also voted to amend the AWC’s bylaws to extend the Chairperson’s term from one to two years, beginning with Cremers’ term in 2022.

The AWC has welcomed Rachael Jamison as its new Vice President of Markets and Sustainability. Jamison comes to the AWC with more than 20 years of experience in environmental management, sustainability, and compliance, including extensive work in the U.S. forestry sector. She was most recently the Director of Environmental Programs at the Port of Olympia; before that, she managed corporate sustainability and carbon-emissions reporting for Weyerhaeuser as its Manager of Sustainable Forestry and served as a Senior Policy Analyst for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

In her new role, Jamison will help the AWC to better position wood as a leading solution to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment as well as provide technical advice on building codes, standards, policies, regulations, and regulations related to the use of wood. The SLB is looking forward to its continued partnership with the AWC and Jamison on these critical industry opportunities.