Forest Products Industry

Leading low-carbon developers called on the next Government to ‘kickstart a timber revolution’ at the UK Timber Design Conference in London held recently. More than 200 developers, local authorities, insurers, engineers, architects, contractors and manufacturers gathered at Timber Development UK’s (TDUK) inaugural UK Timber Design Conference to hear from industry leaders. Source: Timberbiz Opening the event, Richard Walker OBE, executive chairman of Iceland Foods and innovative developer Bywater Properties said timber’s critical role in decarbonizing construction must be recognised and accelerated with the support of the next Government. “The need for us all in property to do more and at pace to tackle the climate emergency is urgent. But we can’t do it without the help of government: the next government must kickstart the timber revolution that’ll be absolutely critical in delivering carbon reductions.” In particular, Mr Walker highlighted the need for a new Government to take bold action to unlock sustainable development with a planning system which supports rather than inhibits those choosing to build the low-carbon, efficient buildings we need today. Mr Walker said businesses have a critical part to play in creating a positive impact on people, places, and the environment. This has been a passion of his across both his roles; in retail and in property development – where embracing sustainable timber is an active choice. “Conviction-led moments of passion, like Bywater moving into timber – or Iceland banning palm oil products – are pivotal moments for an entrepreneurial business. We need to seize those opportunities and nurture them.” Bywater Properties was among a range of developers at the conference discussing their efforts to decarbonise construction along with Related Argent, developer of Brent Cross Town, and Human Nature, developer of Phoenix in Lewes. David Hopkins, chief executive of TDUK, agreed with the sentiment restating the importance of partnership between industry and Government to reshape how we build in the UK, and embrace the many incredible businesses already delivering low-carbon construction. “The speakers we had across the conference, and every individual in the room, demonstrated an ambitious and dynamic industry ready to lead construction to a more sustainable future – using existing solutions to overcome our housing and climate crises. “Embodied carbon, which could account for up to 40% of the carbon emissions of construction between now and 2050, is completely unregulated. The high-carbon, low efficiency methods which dominate England today will cause us to fail to meet our net zero targets. “We need change now. The next Government must signal from day one, they are willing to take on the challenges of building low-carbon today by bringing forward legislation – like Part Z – to begin measuring and reducing these carbon emissions as a top priority.” In a panel session on the future of housing, John Smith of Donaldson Timber Systems said the industry was prepared. They are already manufacturing systems which go beyond the needs of the Future Homes Standard, while James Turner of architects Mikhail Riches said they were regularly designing and delivering low-carbon housing schemes to a Passivhaus standard. The readiness of industry to deliver low-carbon solutions, which can reduce both embodied and operational carbon today, was echoed right across the conference, especially in the final session, which looked at what the next Government could do to unleash a wave of sustainable construction right across the UK. Speakers including Zoe Watson from UK Architects Declare, Will Arnold from iStructe, and Brigitte Clements from ACAN! posed powerful policy recommendations widely agreed by industry which would support construction to decarbonise at scale. Key asks included ‘regulating embodied carbon’, ‘incentivising retrofit’, ‘investment towards biobased materials’, ‘circularity principles reflected in policy’, ‘alignment of net zero with housing’, ‘investment in skills training’, and ‘decarbonisation in government procurement’.

On June 30, 2023, the assembly of the Grand Roof (Ring) that will be the symbol of the Japan World Expo site began in the PW Northeast construction area on Yumeshima, the site of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan. Source: Timberbiz The Grand Roof is being built for the next World Expo on the man-made island of Yumeshima with about 20,000 cubic metres of wood and constructed using traditional Japanese techniques with no nails. The units, consisting of 420mm square lumbers and 210mm x 420mm beam timbers were pre-assembled on the ground, then lifted and put together by crawler cranes. The wooden Ring was assembled sequentially from the areas where the foundation work was completed. Most of the giant timber roof has been erected, it has a height of 20 metres and contains an eight metre walkway. When completed, the Grand Roof (Ring) will be one of the largest wooden structures in the world, with an inner diameter of approximately 615 meters and a circumference of approximately two kilometres. The next thing to be built is the Forest of Tranquility which is eight signature pavilions and hundreds of country pavilions mostly made of Japanese wood and located inside the wooden ring.

The world’s forests have absorbed more than 100 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide over the past three decades, but they need more protection, according to a new study. Source: Timberbiz Professors Oliver Phillips and Simon Lewis from the School of Geography contributed to the tropical component of the global study, which assessed how the most carbon-rich, species-rich forests have responded to climate change and other threats since 1990. The study, entitled “The enduring world forest carbon sink,” is published in Nature. It combined long-term ground measurements with remote sensing data to measure the volume of carbon dioxide absorbed by forests across the world. The results showed that forests have absorbed more than 100 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide over the past 30 years, nearly half of the carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels over the same period. Forests remain an essential part of climate change mitigation. However, they are facing threats from deforestation and wildfires. This study makes recommendations for their protection and restoration. Keep forests standing and healthy and they provide huge climate benefits. Professor Oliver Phillips leads RAINFOR: The Amazon Forest Inventory Network, an international collaboration to understand Amazon ecosystems, and the global ForestPlots.net alliance which monitors forests in over 50 countries. “The extraordinary persistence of the carbon sink shows the great resili-ence of nature to climate change so far,” he said. “Right now, deforestation, fire and logging are damaging forests everywhere, but drought less so. Helping Earth’s forests resist climate change means keeping them as intact, healthy and vibrant ecosystems.” Professor Simon Lewis, who leads the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network, said that undisturbed African tropical forests, including the vast forests of the Congo Basin, are making a remarkable contribution to slowing climate change by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. “The message from the tropics is clear: keep forests standing and healthy and they provide huge climate benefits,” he said. “What is needed are formal collective land rights for local people who have a long-term stake in the survival of their forests, and financial mechanisms to make forests worth more alive than dead.” Professor Phillips added that we know what has happened thanks to partners measur-ng inside forests for decades. It bears reflection that careful, on-the-ground work by dedicated tropical scientists is absolutely essential. Without them we wouldn’t understand how forests are faring. The research was co-led by USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station Senior Research Scientist Yude Pan and Senior Scientist Richard Birdsey from Woodwell Climate Research Center, alongside 15 co-authors from 11 countries. “Our research team analysed data from millions of forest plots around the globe. What sets this study apart is its foundation in extensive ground measurements – essentially, a tree-by-tree assessment of size, species, and bio-mass,” Dr Pan explained. “While the study also incorporates remote sensing data, a common tool in national forest inventories and land surveys, our unique strength lies in the detailed on-the-ground data collection.” The research investigated forests across the world including boreal forests in Northern Hemisphere areas across Alaska, Canada and Russia, tropical forests such as the Amazon Rainforest and the Congo Basin Forest, and temperate forests in between. They found that the carbon sink capacity of boreal and tropical forests has significantly decreased. Boreal forests have experienced a 36% drop in capacity due to disturbances like wildfires, insect outbreaks and soil warming. Deforestation has caused a 31% decline in tropical forests’ ability to absorb carbon. However, regrowth in agricultural and logged areas has partially offset these losses. In contrast, the carbon sink capacity of temperate forests has increased by 30%. This is largely due to extensive reforestation efforts, particularly in China. Their recovery shows how land management policies and practices can help to preserve this global carbon sink. Calls for research and protection of forests The study makes recommendations to support forests across the world. It calls for an end to deforestation and for more restoration. It suggests improvements to timber harvesting practices to minimise emissions and disruptions to forests. The study acknowledges the need for increased research in the tropical regions where there are fewer ground sampling plots.

Sales of new homes nationally increased by 15.7% in the June quarter 2024 compared with the March quarter indicating that the number of homes commencing construction is set to increase later this year. Source: Timberbiz The HIA New Home Sales report is a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders in the five largest states and is a leading indicator of future detached home construction. HIA Economist Maurice Tapang said that this increase in sales was first observed in Western Australia in the second half of 2023 when sales in that market started to increase. “This year, sales in Queensland and South Australia have also observed a sustained increase in recent months,” Mr Tapang said. “Driven by this increase in sales in these three states, new home sales in the June quarter 2024 were 20.4% higher compared to the same period in the previous year. “With the sales recovery in these markets now sustained, an increase in the number of new detached houses commencing construction will be observed in the second half of this year, albeit from a low base,” he said. Market confidence was returning as the impact of rate increases dissipated and the shortage of housing stock made new home building increasingly attractive. “These three markets have seen demand for new homes increase due to strong employment opportunities and relatively affordable land, driving local population growth,” Mr Tapang said. “At the same time, new home sales in New South Wales and Victoria remain weak despite simi-lar growth in demand. The adverse impact of rate rises is more significant here due to the higher cost of residential land in Sydney and Melbourne.” Sales in New South Wales and Victoria had also been constrained by the introduction of addi-tional regulatory costs, through the National Construction Code which had distorted sales data. “As a result, there is not the significant or sustained increase in sales required to expect an in-crease in home building in either of these markets,” Mr Tapang said. “The higher cost of delivering a new house and land package, due to higher taxes, fees and charges in these markets, is impairing the recovery of detached home building.” The ABS also released its Building Activity data today for the March quarter 2024. This data pro-vides estimates of the value of building work and number of dwellings commenced, completed and under construction across Australia and its states and territories. “There were 39,720 dwellings that commenced construction in the March quarter 2024. This is 0.5% higher compared to the previous quarter, but 13.5% below compared to the same quarter in the previous year,” Mr Tapang said. “Australia completed 41,330 dwellings in the March quarter 2024, which is 9.5% lower than the previous quarter and 8.1% lower compared to the previous year. “There were 25,600 detached homes that were completed in the March quarter 2024, down by 16.8% compared to the previous quarter and down by 8.9% compared to the previous year,” he said. “The volume of residential dwellings under construction rose marginally in the quarter but remained lower than at the same time in the previous year. This suggest that home building will not continue to drag on GDP growth.” New home sales saw the largest increase in the June quarter 2024 in New South Wales, up by 32.8% compared to the March quarter, followed by South Australia (+29.3%), Queensland (+19.5%), Victoria (+10.3%), and Western Australia (+7.8%). New home sales in the financial year 2023/24 increased by 25.4% in Western Australia, followed by Queensland (+10.6%) and South Australia (+2.3%). The two other states recorded a decline in 2023/24, with Victoria down by 7.6% and New South Wales down by 7.5%. Dwelling commencements in the March quarter 2024 increased by 24.9% in Western Australia compared to the same quarter in the previous year, followed by the Australian Capital Territory (+24.7%). The other jurisdictions recorded a decline in commencements, led by the Northern Territory (-41.2%) followed by Tasmania (-37.0%), New South Wales (-29.7%), Victoria (-13.8%), Queensland (-9.5%), and South Australia (-4.8%).

A significant upsurge in mass timber awareness and application has been highlighted by the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ) in its survey of building and construction experts. Source: Timberbiz Wood Processors and Manufacturers Association Chief Executive, Mark Ross, says the finding is encouraging and signals an increased adoption of engineered timber products in New Zealand by builders, designers and architects. “The timber that we are talking about is not only renewable but has environmental advantages over steel and concrete when it comes to carbon storage and durability,” Mr Ross says. “With New Zealand’s sustainable forestry model, using locally grown timber supports our circular bioeconomy, climate change targets, and domestic processing of logs. “Forecasting by Deloitte’s indicates that changing our market share to timber by 25% would result in the removal of an additional 920,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment each year.” Greater use of timber was critical to rebuilding New Zealand’s economy, boosting GDP, and providing regional jobs in a highly productive sector. The BRANZ survey is carried out biennially. Data compared over a period of five years highlights noticeable growth in the role of mass timber use in New Zealand construction. This mirrors global trends, with the engineered wood products market projected to grow by 77% to NZ$268 billion by 2031. Changes in engineered timber use can be attributed to a heightened focus on carbon-neutral construction practices, the increasing demand for energy-efficient buildings, and consumer preference for natural materials. The BRANZ survey is supported by Mid-Rise Construction https://midrisewood.co.nz/ a co-investment program between MPI and Red Stag, which is stimulating the use of mass timber engineered wood products in construction. You can download the report here.  

The SA Country Fire Service (CFS) will send nine firefighters to Canada on Saturday morning to deal with their escalating wildfire situation. CFS answered the call to send volunteers and staff to assist Canada’s incident management and fireground leadership teams in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Source: Timberbiz “The CFS embraces opportunities to support overseas agencies, and this is the second consecutive year our firefighters have been deployed to Canada,” State Duty Commander, Matt Davis said. “CFS firefighters are highly trained and highly respected, and we will not only support Canadian firefighters but also refine and gain additional skills to better protect our communities ahead of the Fire Danger Season.” The South Australian contingent will join approximately 90 other personnel from our interstate partner agencies for a deployment which could last up to 40 days. The CFS crew, which includes two firefighters from the Department for Environment and Water, will be: Libby Mapletoft, Fire Behaviour Analyst, Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Phil Tapscott, Divisional Commander, Region 4 Operations – Port Augusta Keagan Porter (Minlaton), Hayden Linggood (Cherry Gardens) and Steven Douglas (McLaren Flat), Sector Commanders Nat Tanti, Resources Officer, Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Matthew Allan (Region 1 Ops – Mt Barker) and Shaun Irrgang (Jamestown), Strike Team Leaders Bruce Hull (Region 1 Operations – Mt Barker), Supply Officer There are currently hundreds of active fires in the Canadian provinces and local firefighters have been battling the fires on foot and using heavy machinery to create containment lines. The SA crews will operate in control centres and those trained in arduous firefighting will be in frontline positions. “The skills and capabilities of our emergency services members are highly regarded around the world and South Australia stands ready to assist,” Acting Minister for Emergency Services, Susan Close said. “Undertaking deployments like these demonstrates how personnel are ready to put their own lives on hold to help communities in need, regardless of where they live.”

The transition of the Future of Heyfield project from Wellington Shire Council to the Heyfield Community Resource Centre has received a $486,940 grant for the project’s next phase. Source: Timberbiz The grant has been made available through the State Government’s Forestry Transition Program to continue the project for the next two years. “HCRC is proud to lead the next steps of the Future of Heyfield project. The funding will ensure that the ideas sparked within the working groups will be supported and implemented for the benefit of the local community and economy,” Resource Centre Coordinator Caroline Trevorrow said. The Community Development Fund grant will enable the Heyfield Community Resource Centre to take the lead on the important work started by the Wellington Shire Council as part of the Local Development Strategy program The funding will support the Heyfield Community Resource Centre to become the centre of several innovation working groups, providing a range of services from meeting and event facilitation, grant writing assistance, project management through to community engagement activities. This also includes the implementation of plans developed through the Local Development Strategy for health and active ageing initiatives, the visitor economy and agriculture. The Heyfield Community Resource Centre has been an integral part of the Heyfield community since 1988, providing a diverse range of activities and services. It is part of the statewide Neighbourhood House network and is home to programs such as Kids House childcare, the Men’s Shed and Learn Local adult education. Wellington Shire Council partnered with the State Government to deliver the first phase of the Local Development Strategy and received a further $90,000 grant for the Heyfield Manufacturing Cluster masterplan from the Community Development Fund.

Australian Sustainable Hardwoods, Australia’s largest hardwood manufacturer, is inviting architects, engineers, specifiers, and building developers to visit its MASSLAM facility at Heyfield in Victoria as part of a free open day. Source: Timberbiz This unique opportunity allows guests to witness the intricate process of MASSLAM production and receive first-hand lessons in cost efficiency, quality and build-ability. Attendees will be taken on a comprehensive tour of ASH’s production, machining and finishing sheds, providing a detailed understanding of how raw materials are transformed into sustainable, high-performance, building solutions. During the tour, there will be a chance to engage with the team of MASSLAM designers and engineers’ team who are at the forefront of mass timber technology. They will share their insights into the design, engineering, and application of MASSLAM in various construction applications. This interactive experience offers a rare glimpse into the technical and creative aspects of mass timber production, providing valuable knowledge to industry professionals not just looking to specify mass timber in their next project, but embed cost efficiency into design and installation. The MASSLAM Open Day will also provide an opportunity to network with other leading experts in the field. As Australia’s leading mass timber innovator and manufacturer, don’t miss this exclusive opportunity for unprecedented backstage access of mass timber production at ASH. Registrations are limited and close August 7, 2024. Wednesday August 14, 2024 ASH Manufacturing Facility Weir Road, Heyfield Register here.

To reduce global carbon emissions, should people harvest and use more wood or less? This question underlies the merits of policies that encourage power plants and heating facilities to burn more wood pellets and builders to construct more tall wood buildings. As one illustration of the question’s importance, the US government has recently requested input on whether a lucrative tax credit for carbon-neutral electricity should apply to burning wood. In the Carbon Costs of Global Wood Harvests, published in Nature in 2023, WRI researchers using a biophysical model estimated that annual wood harvests over the next few decades will emit 3.5-4.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year. That is more than 3 times the world’s current annual average aviation emissions. These wood-harvest emissions occur because the great majority of carbon stored in trees is released to the atmosphere after harvest when roots and slash decompose; as most wood is burned directly for heat or electricity or for energy at sawmills or paper mills; and when discarded paper products, furniture and other wood products decompose or burn. Another recent paper in Nature found that the word’s remaining forests have lost even more carbon, primarily due to harvesting wood, than was lost historically by converting forests to agriculture (other studies have found similar results1). Based on these analyses, a natural climate solution would involve harvesting less wood and letting more forests regrow. This would store more carbon as well as enhance forest biodiversity. Carbon Costs focused on the pure physical emissions from wood harvest and timber management relative to leaving forests alone. This is consistent with the approach used for decades by the IPCC and numerous other papers to estimate the emissions from new wood harvests.2 However, it differs from some papers that claim the carbon emitted to the atmosphere by harvesting and using wood should generally be ignored. These papers assume that wood is carbon neutral, just like solar or wind energy, so long as other forest tracts in a large area (often a whole country) are growing enough to keep the total amount of carbon stored in forests stable — which is true of forests in most countries. By itself, this argument makes little sense: If some parts of a country’s forests are not harvested, forests in that country overall will grow more and absorb more carbon, which reduces global warming. This rationale for carbon neutrality is roughly equivalent to claiming that a money-losing company does not lose money if a country’s companies are profitable overall. Yet, some researchers, such as the developers of the Global Timber Model (GTM), also have a more refined argument for why harvesting wood causes low, no, or even negative emissions. In a blog and a critique submitted to Nature, their core claim is that the effect of forestry on carbon is an economic question that requires analysis using an economic model rather than a biophysical one. According to the GTM, increased wood demand for any one product leads to a range of results that can lower carbon costs; these include causing people to plant more forests, to reduce their consumption of other wood products, and to intensify forest management. The first idea, that increased wood demand leads to more forests, is related to a broader idea: that forests exist because of the demand for wood. This underlies the views of many others who see wood as carbon neutral. The GTM is by far the most cited economic model for analysing the carbon consequences of global wood use, so its findings could have serious policy implications. Importantly, the model has been used to claim the climate advantages of harvesting more wood for bioenergy, particularly to burn in power plants. One GTM paper estimates that substantially increasing demand for wood for bioenergy could lead to roughly 1.1 billion hectares of agricultural land being converted to forests around the world. That is an area almost four times the size of India and equal to more than 70% of current global croplands — which raises the question of where the world’s food would come from. This dialogue, to which WRI has responded in an exchange under review at Nature, provides a useful basis for exploring the effects of wood consumption on climate change and what they mean for policy. The U.S. government has specifically asked for comments about the role of economic models in treating wood as carbon neutral or negative. Here, we take a closer look at both economic and biophysical models and what each does or doesn’t tell us about the climate consequences of using wood. Does Increased Wood Demand Lead to More Forests? Although economic models rely on a different logic, the GTM creators and others sometimes argue that the carbon released by harvesting trees is inherently carbon neutral because it is cancelled out by the carbon that was absorbed when the trees grew.3 This theory could be valid only if all harvested forests existed solely because of the economic incentives created by wood use. If that were true, wood use would be not just carbon neutral, but carbon negative, because the very existence of these forests and the carbon they store could be attributed to the demand created by using wood. Yet, no one seriously suggests that all or even most harvested forests exist only because of wood demand. That would include the rainforests of the Congo Basin, the Amazon Basin, South-East Asia and Alaska, each of which continues to be subject to significant harvests. It would also include the vast, heavily harvested forests of Siberia and Canada where it is too cold for agriculture. In fact, 75% of the world’s forests are owned by governments, which respond to multiple incentives. Even in the United States, a commercially oriented country, only 30% of non-corporate forest owners, who own most private forests, report timber revenue as one of the many reasons they own forests. No one seriously argues that all forests came into being because of wood demand or would disappear without it. […]

The Green Triangle pellet mill will go ahead with Grant District Council approving the request to sell Hutchinson Road. Elected members opted to approve Mount Gambier Biomass – formerly Altus Renewables – request to acquire Hutchinson Road for $28,183. Source: Timberbiz, The Border Watch The $120m renewable energy plant will produce upwards of 300,000 tonnes of industrial specification pellets each year and generate an estimated $64.1m for the local economy. The mill will use FSC/PEFC certified logs and sawmill residues from nearby plantations and sawmills. The plant is proposed for land along Hutchinson Road, adjacent to Mount Gambier Regional Airport with the plant to attract a number of B-double trucks during  day-time and night time. As part of the development, it was identified the intersection between the Riddoch Highway, Airport Road and Hutchinson Road would require realignment to minimise traffic impact. Council previously entered agreements with Altus Renewables to approve the development however, in 2023, the company was placed into administration. Earlier this year, Altus Renewables was purchased by Albioma and council was informed the project would proceed. Mayor Kylie Boston said although the initial project received public backlash, it had since eased off. “I guess there are a few phone calls when we have something in the agenda, but those decisions have to come through council,” Ms Boston said. “Those approvals are done with the state government, and we then see it once it comes through and then it has to be administered.”