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Earthrings are 100% recyclable and compostable packaging rings designed to withstand moisture and make your beer look as good as it tastes. Source: Timberbiz The company says it has reinvented cardboard, making it rugged enough to stand up to soggy coolers and rainy fishing trips. Plus, Earthrings are totally biodegradable, so you can add them straight to the garden compost. Earthrings are designed to reduce packaging waste and are crafted from multiple layers of solid fibre cardboard with a biodegradable, moisture-resistant coating. These are 100% recyclable, compostable, and made with environmentally friendly inks, providing an eco-friendly alternative to traditional plastic packaging. Earthrings provide several key benefits: Reduced Environmental Impact: they decompose naturally, helping to reduce landfill waste and ocean pollution. Versatility in Disposal: They can be easily recycled or composted, offering flexibility for consumers and minimizing negative environmental impact. Durability and Strength: Despite being eco-friendly, Earthrings are designed to securely hold and protect beverage cans. Reduced Packaging Waste: It is estimated this transition will divert 23,529 kg of packaging waste annually from the landfill.  

Södra is investing in a production line at Värö which will create a vegetable tanning agent from bark. This new tannin can be used to process leather in a more environmentally friendly way. Source: Timberbiz Scheduled to be commissioned in 2026, the plant will have the capacity to produce tannins for millions of square metres of leather. Södra’s Board of Directors has approved the project which will be an integral part of the Värö mill and is expected to be able to produce tanning material equivalent to millions of square metres of leather. “This investment decision fits well with our overall ambition to increase the added value from every tree and thus contribute to the profitability of our members’ forest estates,” explains Lotta Lyrå, CEO of Södra. Developing more environmentally friendly alternatives by making additional products from the forest is an excellent example of how we use our experience, knowledge and innovation expertise to make the most of the forest’s resources, she said. Since 2006, Södra Innovation, a business area within the member-owned forest group has been exploring how tannins found in the bark of trees can be efficiently processed and used as tanning agents. Using bark for tanning is not new, but Södra is now industrialising the process in which the tanning substance is leached from the bark and turned into a product for tanning leather. “With this new patented process, we can now make a product from an, until now, unused re-source. A product that can be used in a completely different industry and support the leather industry in its transition to more sustainable tanning methods,” says Catrin Gustavsson, Business Area Manager at Södra Innovation.

With the help of a drone equipped with its own portable mobile base station, a forestry machine has been remotely controlled via 5G in an area with limited connectivity. Source: The Fast Mode The test was carried out in a forest outside Västerås, central Sweden, as part of a research project involving Mittuniversitetet, Telia, Ericsson, Skogforsk, SCA, Volvo CE and Biometria, co-funded by Vinnova and the program for Advanced Digitalization. The project group passed a milestone in November 2021 when it was able to remotely control a timber loader at SCA’s Torsboda timber terminal outside Timrå in northern Sweden. After this success, the group set itself the challenge of using a drone equipped with its own portable mobile base station to extend 5G network coverage to an area where there would otherwise be none and to use that temporary connectivity to enable a forestry machine to be remotely controlled. At the beginning of May, successful tests were carried out in a forest in Virsbo outside Västerås, as Magnus Leonhardt, Head of Strategy and Innovation for Telia Sweden’s B2B business, explains. “We can now establish that it is possible to connect and remotely control large vehicles via a drone, which in practice acts as a base station in the mobile network,” Mr Leonhardt said. “This creates completely new and flexible opportunities to connect businesses that work in areas with insufficient network coverage. Apart from the forestry and agricultural industry, the technology can be used in disaster areas if normal mobile coverage is completely knocked out.” After a basic technical briefing, the forestry machine was transported to a clear-cutting site where it was connected using 5G technology mounted on a drone. During the test, the drone was approximately 500 meters from the forestry machine but created a coverage area extending up to 3 kilometres. The driver of the forestry machine was in Skogforsk’s remote control lab in Uppsala, roughly 80 kilometres away, says Petrus Jönsson, a researcher and deputy program manager at Skogforsk, who participated in the test. With the help of a drone equipped with its own portable mobile base station, a forestry machine has been remotely controlled via 5G in an area with limited connectivity. “In this test, we chose to remotely control a forwarder in a clearing to assess the connection via the drone,” Jönsson says. “In the next step, we want to test connecting and remotely controlling a soil preparation machine, which is a much heavier machine that operates in inaccessible terrain. The goal for us is to improve the working environment for the drivers, and soil preparation workers, in particular, operate in a very tough environment.” The project aims to investigate how drone technology and 5G technology could enable remote areas around Sweden to be worked with remote-controlled vehicles. Among other things, Mittuniversitetet’s researchers are studying the latency and reliability in data communication, which is very important when remotely controlling machinery, as Professor Mattias O’Nils explains. “We have collected data from the test with the drone and will now analyse and evaluate the results,” O’Nils says. “We will also do comparative studies with other types of connections such as Wi-Fi-based networks and explore further possibilities with 5G.”

New home sales nationally fell by 12.6% in May after the draw forward in sales in April due to increases in costs associated with National Construction Code (NCC) 2022. 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. Source: Timberbiz “The changes to the NCC 2022 came into effect in Victoria and Queensland for any new home building contract signed from 1 May 2024,” HIA Chief Economist Tim Reardon said. “These two states have seen a decline in sales in the month of May as a result of the pull-forward in April to get ahead of the cost increases due to NCC 2022,” he said. This was a repeat of the experience of New South Wales in September when it introduced its energy efficiency standards. Sales in the months thereafter fell as a result of this pull-forward. “The draw forward in sales distorts the new home sales dataset, which makes it difficult to ascertain the market trends,” Mr Reardon said. “The increase in the cost of construction driven by increased regulatory requirements, and higher interest rates, will further impede the goal of increasing the supply of housing and place more pressure on public housing requirements. “If governments want to increase the supply of homes, they need to, at the very least, stop making new homes more expensive.” He said that lowering the cost of delivering new homes to market was essential to achieving the Australian Government’s target of 1.2 million new homes over the next five years and improving housing affordability across the country. Sales in the month of May increased by 15.1% in New South Wales, followed by Western Australia (+14.6 %) and South Australia (+3.2 %). The other states recorded monthly declines in sales, led by Victoria (-41.0 %) followed by Queensland (-10.3 %).

The blame for the recent failure of the New Zealand Emission Trading Scheme auction can be laid squarely at the feet of the Climate Change Commission along with the previous Labour Green Government, reflecting a series of manufactured crises rather than a fundamental issue with the market, according to the Climate Forestry Association (CFA). Source: Timberbiz The quarterly ETS auction failed to attract any bids, following a partial clearance of units in March raising NZ$190 million and the unprecedented failure of all four auctions under Labour/Greens in 2023. Climate Forestry Association chief executive Andrew Cushen says the continued uncertainty in the market highlights the ongoing impacts of years of meddling by the previous Government. “What we are seeing play out is a natural response to the regular fiddling with settings, endless reviews and constant changes, which reflected a culture of interference from the Labour Government, the former Minister for Climate Change and the Climate Change Commissioner,” Mr Cushen said. “Although participants in the market are understandably gun-shy after so long without any clear direction for the ETS, today’s auction doesn’t affect the fundamentals. At its heart, the ETS is a market mechanism, and it is designed to deal with short-term issues like the ones we’re seeing. “Despite not clearing today, that shouldn’t mean we lose faith in what is essentially our most successful – and our one-and-only – tool for meeting our climate commitments and reducing our emissions.” Mr Cushen says that the Coalition Government really couldn’t be clearer that it supports the stable, long-term operation of the ETS in its current form. “Last week, at Fieldays, both Forestry Minister Todd McClay and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts restated the Government’s commitment to climate action and recognised that a strong and stable ETS is our most effective tool for achieving our climate targets,” Mr Cushen said. “It is widely recognised that the market is currently significantly undervalued. Consistent policy settings and a long-term commitment to stability – like that signalled by the Government – are needed to bring back confidence in the sector and certainty in the market. “The Emissions Trading Scheme needs a strong and rising market price. This will enable the local investments in reductions and removals that are essential to meeting New Zealand’s climate targets.” Mr Cushen said despite the Government’s signals, it could reinforce those assurances by clearing up some areas that have created confusion in the market. “The suggestion of a lowering price floor contained in the latest Ministry for the Environment consultation, which was presented without any obvious rationale, was not at all helpful for the market and the broader sector,” Mr Cushen said. “To really draw a line under this period of market uncertainty, the Government should announce that this suggestion will be dropped, and no further work done on its development. “Ultimately, the efficient and stable functioning of the ETS will support the climate action we need to meet our international targets, and ensure Kiwi taxpayers are not left footing the bill for ex-pensive offshore mitigations. “We were very pleased to see the Government back up its commitments on the ETS last week and hope to see them take more definitive action around the consultation, ahead of the next auction.”

Forico has released a fourth Natural Capital Report, now available to download free from the company’s website. Source: Timberbiz Forico also has a strong commitment to Natural Capital and believes it to be a fundamental requirement for a sustainable global economy. Recognised worldwide, the report is a leading illustrative example of nature-based reporting. The company is motivated to play a key leadership role in this opportunity for the sector, through the production of its Natural Capital Report, production of sustainable wood fibre and championing new methods and markets in carbon and biodiversity. CEO Evangelista Albertini has said the Natural Capital Report “represents a vanguard for Financial and Sustainability Teams everywhere, encouraging them to embrace and lead the change to direct decision-making in new, essential, and increasingly urgent, nature positive and planet friendly ways”. The 2023 Natural Capital Report can be downloaded from the Forico website at https://forico.com.au

Locally grown and manufactured timber will provide the building blocks for South Australia’s new technical colleges at Tonsley and Mount Gambier, as announced by the State Government. Source: Timberbiz “This announcement is great news for the timber manufacturing industry in South Australia, with the State Government leading by example and using mass engineered timber to build the technical colleges that will educate the next generation of our workforce,” said Mr Nathan Paine, Chief Executive Officer of the South Australian Forest Products Association (SAFPA). “We wholeheartedly congratulate Premier Peter Malinauskas, Minister for Forest Industries Clare Scriven and Minister for Education and Training Blair Boyer for choosing to build these two new technical colleges from locally grown and manufactured timber. “This not only supports the State’s $3 billion forest industries, the over 21,300 people who directly and indirectly work in the State’s forest industries but will be reducing the carbon footprint of these buildings which will help South Australia achieve its net zero targets.” Mr Paine added that NeXTimber’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Tarpeena will be supplying the Cross Laminated Timber for these projects with every cubic meter for finished softwood storing 718kg of CO2-e, the only building product that is carbon positive. “We have an amazing opportunity here in South Australia to grow, process and build out of mass timber which will store carbon and deliver not just positive environmental benefits but buildings that provide healthier and happier spaces for people to live, work and play,” said Mr Paine. “Timber bas been the ultimate renewable building material, as it locks and stores carbon reducing the environmental impact on the construction industry, whilst delivering a sustainable, cost-effective building that has a positive impact on the well-being of those around it. “Mass timber building materials such as Cross Laminated Timber is the building material of the 21st Century and is a product being embraced by leading international architects, builders and designers to replace carbon-manufactured materials like concrete and steel. “Forestry is the industry that builds our nation, and with the State Government using locally grown and locally manufactured timber to build local facilities these projects are a true tick of approval for South Australia’s forest and timber industries.”  

The National Timber & Hardware Association’s 2024 Victoria & Tasmania Timber & Hardware Industry Awards have showcased the outstanding achievements and contributions within the industry and recognised the exceptional talent and dedication of all participants. Source: Timberbiz The winners were: Benalla Mitre 10 – Garden Department of the Year Takasho – Garden & Outdoor Supplier of the Year Jenkins Home Hardware – Retail Store of the Year Under 2500sqm Permewans Mitre 10 – Retail Store of the Year Over 2500sqm Provans Mitre 10 – Trade Store of the Year AAA Advanced Trusses – Best Frame & Truss Operation Meyer Timber – Trade Supplier of the Year Bremick – Retail Supplier of the Year Rebecca Cunningham, Dulux – Supplier Sales Representative of the Year Sarah Jenkins, Jenkins Home Hardware – The REAL Difference Award