Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

Wood, Paper & Green Building

Plastics recycling has consequences for people and the planet – and it may just be a scam

By Adnan Khan
The Globe & Mail
March 15, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, International

A new report published last month by the U.S.-based Center for Climate Integrity has made some explosive accusations against the petrochemical industry, accusing it of a “decades-long campaign of fraud and deception about the recyclability of plastics.” More than 99% of plastics are produced from fossil fuels, the report notes, and the “vast majority” cannot be processed and remanufactured into new products. …The dismal numbers add an alarming dimension to the growing evidence that plastic is not only toxic to the environment and human health, but difficult to dispose of, too. …Even the plastic waste correctly labelled as recyclable is, in fact, not recyclable forever. “The reality is that plastics can only be recycled – or more accurately ‘downcycled’ – once, rarely twice,” the report points out. “For this reason, plastics have a linear rather than circular lifespan – when viable, recycling provides only a brief delay on their inevitable journey to landfills.” [to access the full story a Globe & Mail subscription is required]

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Inside Vancouver’s Vienna House Project And Vienna’s Vancouver House Project

By Howard Chai
Storeys.com
March 11, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West, International

VANCOUVER and VIENNA — Last month, the Province of BC announced that a new affordable housing project called Vienna House had begun construction, the culmination of a unique partnership between the City of Vancouver and the City of Vienna, the capital city of Austria. …”We were working under the mandate to be the greenest city in the world, and part of what that had us doing is trying to learn lessons from other leading jurisdictions,” says Sean Pander for the City of Vancouver. …Pander says the City had a strong focus on green buildings, use of wood, and off-site fabrication. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is providing some funding; Natural Resources Canada is providing some funding through its Green Construction Through Wood Program; and Forest Innovation Investment is providing some funding through its Wood First program. …Firms involved in the Vienna House project include Wood WORKS! BC.

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DesignOneSource unveils new interactive website featuring Mosaic

The Woodworking Network
March 8, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

VANCOUVER, BC — DesignOneSource.com, a leading resource used by architects, designers, and specifiers to research and evaluate decorative surfaces, is proud to announce the launch of its all-new website featuring Mosaic, a cutting-edge design solution tool. Mosaic, powered by DesignOneSource, empowers architects and specifiers to create exceptional and innovative designs effortlessly. The extensive development of Mosaic furthers DesignOneSource’s commitment to provide advanced interactive tools that simplify complex tasks and enhance creativity in architectural design. DesignOneSource is the specification division of Hardwoods, Rugby Architectural Building Products and Frank Paxton Lumber Company. “We are thrilled to introduce Mosaic to the architectural community,” said Todd Graham, Director North American Specification at DesignOneSource. “Our goal is to simplify the specification process, reduce the barriers to creativity, and help architects and specifiers bring their design visions to life more efficiently. Mosaic is a testament to our dedication to innovation and excellence in sourcing architectural materials.”

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Kalesnikoff opening third mass timber facility near Castlegar

The Nelson Star
March 7, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Kalesnikoff has announced it will construct a third location this year. While the exact location of the new facility won’t be announced for a few more weeks, a Kalesnikoff press release says it will be located near the existing mill and mass timber facility in the Nelson-Castlegar corridor. The building itself will be constructed in part using Kalesnikoff’s own mass timber components. Ground-breaking is anticipated soon with a targeted opening by the end of 2024. Once complete, the new facility will create up to 90 new jobs. The company says the new offerings will complement existing Kalesnikoff products and will be used for walls, flooring and full modular construction mass timber projects. …Products and services at the new facility will include modular construction, prefabricated mass timber and light frame components, and custom installation-ready products to meet customers’ needs. It will also increase Kalensnikoff’s glue laminated timber capacity.

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Top tips for insuring your next mass timber building

naturally:wood
February 5, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

You’re planning a building: you need financing, a design, a general contractor and, critically, insurance. But if you’re planning to use mass timber in your building in North America, you may have to employ different measures to secure both builder’s risk (also known as course of construction) insurance and occupancy insurance. Here are several steps building owners and developers can take to ensure they’re covered at the right price. Help your broker understand how mass timber — which employs engineered wood products such as cross-laminated, nail-laminated and glue-laminated timber as well as laminated veneer lumber — differs from light wood frame construction.  You’ll need to educate brokers about the substantial and growing body of international evidence of mass timber’s fire-resistant properties. Building owners and developers must similarly educate brokers that properly constructed mass timber structures are not any more susceptible to water damage than those made from concrete and steel, according to the Canadian Wood Council. 

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Key insights from new research on the fire safety of mass timber

By Hayley Woodin Hastings, editor-in-chief
Business in Vancouver
March 5, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Hayley Woodin Hastings and Shawn Keyes

A recent, significant fire test series has produced key insights on the fire safety and resilience of mass timber buildings. On this episode, WoodWorks BC’s executive director Shawn Keyes, a licensed structural engineer who has pioneered timber projects across Canada, discusses the Mass Timber Demonstration Fire Test Program, and why it matters. This episode is sponsored by naturally:wood

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Timber construction and Indigenous practices a natural fit, say panellists

By Don Procter
Daily Commercial News
March 15, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

The connection between timber construction and First Nations communities goes back ages, long before today’s mass timber movement in major cities such as Toronto. That movement should grow, however, in Indigenous communities as relationships are forged between mass timber proponents and First Nations partners. Patrick Chouinard, of mass timber manufacturer Element5, said he hopes more Indigenous fabrication centres for mass timber can be established by Element5 in First Nations communities. He said Element5 could produce “truckloads of billets” and ship them to Indigenous areas to set up in First Nations-owned facilities for fabrication tailored to local projects. “They own their own projects, hire local labour.” Chouinard was a conference speaker on a panel session on Indigenous collaboration. “Mass timber generally is ideally suited for First Nations communities because you can use it for so many kinds of buildings,” he said, pointing out firehalls to housing as examples.

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A facility in Kirkland Lake proposes to transform wood waste into natural gas

By Aya Dufour
CBC News
March 13, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

High-temperature pyrolysis is a technical term that can scare some people away – but over the years, CHAR Technologies CEO Andrew White has developed a succinct way to explain it. “We heat up wood in the absence of oxygen. We heat it up to 900 degrees celsius, with no oxygen so the wood can’t burn, but it cracks apart into a gas and a carbon,” he said. The gas is then upgraded to renewable natural gas and pumped directly into the pipeline. The carbon can be converted into biochar, an environmentally friendly substitute to the coal-based fuels used in steel making or nickel smelting. This is the process that underpins a new proposed biomass conversion facility in Kirkland Lake in northeastern Ontario. Some elements of this technology are very old, and others, like controlling the environment more tightly, are relatively new, according to White.

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$215M mass timber plant in Nova Scotia a ‘groundbreaking’ Indigenous collaboration

By Don Procter
Daily Commercial News
March 13, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

A $215 million mass timber manufacturing plant being developed in Nova Scotia could reap economic benefits that ripple through its community, region, province and Atlantic Canada. It will be “one of the most modern plants of its kind,” producing 50,000 cubic metres of commodity mass timber and large-scale glulam products for up to 3,100 residential units annually, said Patrick Crabbe, director of mass timber with Bird Construction and leader of the MTC Mass Timber Company. “The anticipation is it will be capitalized by May/June this year.” Crabbe, who spoke at a conference recently themed Indigenous Collaboration, said he sees the venture as “a circular economic opportunity that is a diamond in the rough.” Through integration with the First Nation sawmill industry in the region, the plant could help the small Pictou Landing First Nation community of about 650 residents maintain its large swath of evergreen forest.

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Ontario company unveils world’s first paper bottle machine

By Joe McGinty
Village Report
March 11, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

CAMBRIDGE, Ontario – For the last 10 years, KinsBrae Packaging has been trying to figure out how to disrupt the world and create a better and more efficient system for its customers. Now with its first-of-a-kind paper bottle machine, the company is hoping to change how consumers and companies look at bottles and enjoy some of their favourite drinks. …The bottles start as 100 per cent recycled cardboard printed and cut into templates that can have any graphic printed 360 degrees around the bottle. The bottle can only be used for non-carbonated liquids such as wine, juice and iced coffee. …Since paper bottles weigh five times less than glass, KinsBrae can maximize how much product they can fit on a truck. There is also no breakage with paper, so they can eliminate the inserts that prevent glass bottles from hitting each other and shattering during transport.

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Ontario Structural Wood Association and the wood industry meet at the recent Light-Frame Wood Solutions Conference

By Mike Phillips, Ontario Structural Wood Association
Ontario Construction News
March 8, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Close to 300 wood industry experts gathered together on Feb. 13 to discuss solutions to Ontario’s housing crisis. The Light-Frame Wood Solutions Conference explored how modular, prefabricated and offsite manufactured construction methods can be used for all types of construction, but could be of particular value in the delivery of much needed housing. The conference was a joint production of WoodWorks Ontario and Ontario Structural Wood Association (OSWA). WoodWorks is the technical outreach office of the Canadian Wood Council (CWC). …OSWA members were joined at the conference by a broad mix of engineers, architects, building and other government officials and developers. The conference kicked off in the morning with a speech from the Hon. Graydon Smith, Minister of Natural Resources & Forestry, MPP for Parry Sound-Muskoka.

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Is Mass Timber the Key Element in a Low Carbon Future?

By Mark Alan Hewitt, architect, historian and preservationist
Common \ Edge
March 17, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

So what is with the hype about innovation in “mass timber” construction over the past few years? …The color photos show some impressive buildings in places where the wood industry has always been healthy, such as the Pacific Northwest and Scandinavia. Ask someone in the Middle East about where to get wood, and you will receive a quizzical stare. …Anything built of wood is sustainable and reduces our collective carbon footprint. Trees are nature’s best carbon-sequestering machines. …The global timber industry has hardly behaved like a good citizen for most of the last century. If it is being forced to play well with others, that is a benefit to the building industry. Adding new products, and giving architects good reasons to employ them, is something I applaud. But we can still build with sticks, trusses, and roof trees, as we have for millennia. 

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Our recycling system isn’t working — here’s what we can do instead

By Alejandro Pérez, World Wildlife Fund
The Hill
March 10, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

WASHINGTON — A mere 9% of plastic is recycled in the United States each year. Plastic waste in our country grows unabated because the U.S. operates a patchwork of largely ineffective recycling systems that don’t create enough incentives for consumers and businesses to reduce their plastic footprint. …Lawmakers should shift the financial responsibility of collecting, recycling and reusing plastic packaging materials from consumers and municipalities to the producers of plastic products by establishing a national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy. Under an EPR framework, companies would cover the costs of recycling their materials and face penalties for using packaging that’s difficult to recycle or for not including recycled materials in their packaging. As a result, recycled materials would become more readily available and economical over time. EPR policies have already been adopted in multiple states, including Colorado and California. …Members of Congress should take these practical steps now.

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Bioplastics: sustainable solution or distraction from the plastic waste crisis?

By Meg Wilcox
Environmental Health News
March 11, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

…bioplastics are proliferating across the food industry … electronics, clothing, building supplies and more. Bioplastics are defined as plastic materials that are either partly or wholly derived from renewable biomass like plants or are biodegradable or are both. The industry is projected to grow from $8.7 billion in 2023 to $31 billion by 2030 – a growth rate faster than the traditional plastics industry. Though bioplastics comprise just 1% of the plastics market, some tout them as plastics’ more sustainable future. … “Bioplastics are driving the evolution of plastics,” the European Bioplastics Association claims, citing “carbon neutrality” and biodegradability (in some cases) as bioplastics’ advantages over their conventional counterparts. But bioplastics haven’t fully lived up to the hype of faster decomposition rates, safer materials and smaller carbon footprints. Still, experts say the material could be among a suite of solutions if end-of-life management and chemical safety were factored into their design, alongside stronger greenwashing regulations.

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Examining the Mass Timber Trend

By Maura Keller
Facilities Net
March 7, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

As a low-carbon alternative to concrete and steel, mass timber is making headway into today’s architectural designs for institutional and commercial buildings ranging from life sciences to museums to office buildings. These multi-layered, pre-manufactured solid wood timbers are being embraced by architects, builders and facility managers alike. According to John Sullivan, AIA, partner and president of architecture at SGA, mass timber is a material that has captured the interest and imagination of the architectural, engineering and construction industries in recent years, and offers potential to enhance both sustainable performance and aesthetic presence. …“There is tremendous untapped potential to implement mass timber as a construction method for life sciences buildings, and through extensive research and studies, we are currently helping transform this potential into a reality,” Sullivan says. According to Bill Parsons, COO of WoodWorks, wood is a great solution for labs and health sciences. 

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IKEA launches sound-absorbing office system using 90% wood

IKEA
March 6, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Inspired by shifting work trends worldwide, MITTZON was developed to help create spaces that enable various work activities and provide an optimised office experience. The family of 85 products prioritises wellbeing through design anchored in holistic ergonomics, including acoustics and nature-inspired elements. In MITTZON acoustic screens. …It’s the largest office system IKEA has developed and will be available beginning April 2024. …Biophilic design features have been shown to promote wellness by reducing stress and increasing productivity. As such, MITTZON borrows natural elements from the Scandinavian outdoors, such as sand patterns and wood finishes. …IKEA explored filling MITTZON acoustic screens with wood fibre, a material normally used for insulation in building construction. The filling, which is made of more than 90% wood and recyclable, was tested and proven to absorb and block sound effectively.

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Completely recycled viscose for the first time

Lund University
March 6, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Edvin Bågenholm-Ruuth

Lund, Sweden — At present, viscose textiles are made of biomass from the forest, and there is no such thing as fully recycled viscose. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now succeeded in making new viscose – from worn-out cotton sheets. …Edvin Bågenholm-Ruuth, doctoral student in chemical engineering at Lund University, and his colleagues have found a way to loosen up and convert the complex cotton fibres into viscose fibres. Viscose, sometimes referred to as artificial silk, is a common constituent of clothes such as blouses, skirts and dresses. The raw material is cellulose, in most cases wood. This new technique could soon be a commercial proposition that produces viscose from recycled textiles – and therefore saves on valuable forest resources. …There are plans for a pilot plant in Europe. The inexpensive process requires a simple salt – zinc chloride – which dissolves in water, produces less toxic carbon disulphide and results in a good-quality viscose fibre.

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New Resource: Mass Timber LookBook

Think Wood
March 7, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Mass timber continues to gain traction in the built environment, breaking records and providing new solutions as a renewable, low-carbon building material that helps meet biophilic and sustainable design goals. Explore a few examples of projects in which this innovative material has helped solve a bevy of design challenges, ranging from a record-setting 25-story residential hybrid timber tower in Milwaukee to a carbon-cutting mass timber student facility at Seattle’s University of Washington, and more. Get inspired and see what’s possible with this collection of innovative mass timber projects.

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Building energy code revamps can get another $90M from Dept of Energy

By Isabelle Kempe
Smart Cities Dive
March 5, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

The Department of Energy announced March 4 that it is making $90 million available to help states and localities adopt and implement building energy codes, which set energy efficiency standards for new buildings, additions and major renovations. This is the second tranche out of a total of $225 million designated by the 2021 infrastructure law for building energy code modernization. In July 2023, the DOE awarded the first $90 million to 27 projects nationwide, including workforce development programs and a national network to support state and local governments as they develop new codes. …Homes built with current energy codes are nearly 40% more efficient than those built just a few years ago, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. In the release, the DOE touts the benefits that updated energy codes promise for communities: lower utility bills, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved grid reliability. 

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12-story tower coming to Portland’s West End

By Hilary Dorsey
The Daily Journal of Commerce Oregon
March 5, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Construction of Julia West, a 12-story, 51,388-square-foot, cross-laminated-timber building, will begin soon at 522 S.W. 13th Ave. in downtown Portland. Julia West will offer 90 apartments (60 studios and 30 one-bedroom units) of permanent supportive housing (PSH) with resident services for houseless seniors earning up to 30 percent of the area median income. The building will be a 100-percent PSH community intended for adults 55 years and older, 45 percent of whom identify as a person of color. The team for the approximately $58 million project includes owner/developer Community Development Partners, architect Holst Architecture, civil engineer Vega Civil Engineering, structural engineer KPFF, landscape architect Understory Landscape Architecture and general contractor Walsh Construction.

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Timber and a tax break: New RFP lures developers to Staten Island

By Orion Jones
The Real Deal – Real Estate News
March 14, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Not exactly known for environmentalism, Staten Island will become a showcase of mass timber construction — if city officials can persuade a developer to try it. The city issued an RFP Thursday for someone to build 500 apartments using wood. Two 50-foot-tall buildings would go on city-owned land along the Stapleton waterfront on the North Shore, about a mile from the Staten Island ferry terminal. “This is the biggest opportunity to use mass timber at scale in the city,” said Melissa Román Burch, chief operating officer of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, which put out the request for proposals. Up for grabs are 99-year ground leases on two parcels just south of the Urby, a 571-unit residential project developed by Ironstate at 7 Navy Pier Court, where tenants can watch boats come and go from the Homeport pier that juts into the New York Bight.

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NYC’s dazzling first ‘mass timber’ home sells for $7M

By Jennifer Gould
The New York Post
March 12, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

An 1870s Clinton Hill carriage house that was transformed into the city’s very first mass timber home has sold for $7 million — after hitting the market last November for $7.5 million. The seller, Aaron Schiller, was also the architect. Schiller, of Schiller Projects. He and his wife bought the 21-foot-wide home at 329 Vanderbilt Ave., which is part of the Clinton Hill Historic District, for $2.75 million in 2018. …New York banned timber towers in the 19th century over fire concerns, Schiller, a Yale-educated architect, was part of an advisory group indirectly helping the city council make changes. By 2021, the New York City Council approved mass timber for buildings up to 85 feet high. Glue-laminated timber is far better for the environment than steel and concrete — if the trees are sustainably harvested and disposed of responsibly at the “end of life.” …The home is anchored by a Douglas fir staircase. The three-bedroom, 3½-bath residence is 3,050 square feet. 

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New 85,000-square-foot, 4-level facility expected to be ready in 2026

By Steven Bradley
Clemson University News
March 8, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Clemson University broke ground Friday on a new home for its Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation (FEC) and a new era of stewardship for South Carolina’s natural resources. Upon completion in early 2026, the 85,000-square-foot building will replace Lehotsky Hall as the department’s nerve center on campus. South Carolina’s forests are among its most valuable assets — not just in financial terms — as both a distinctive feature of its landscape and a renewable resource with recreational, wildlife and environmental benefits. But there is no denying their economic impact: Forestry generates $23.2 billion annually in the state and accounts for more than 100,000 jobs, according to the S.C. Forestry Commission. …The building will showcase mass-timber construction and advanced applications of wood products and technologies that are an essential part of modern conservation and forestry sciences and feature a native flora landscape that connects workspaces to the natural environment.

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Wood Products Could Be a Key to Reducing GHG Emissions

By Sarah Puls and Joey Pickford
North Carolina State University News
February 21, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Harnessing the ability of wood products to store carbon even after harvest could have a significant effect on GHG emissions and change commonly accepted forestry practices, a new study from NC State researchers suggests. The new study uses carbon storage modeling to link the carbon stored in wood products with the specific forest system from which the products originated. …“Corrugated cardboard boxes are one of the most important products made from loblolly pine,” said Sarah Puls. “If we can extend the effective lifetime of products like these boxes, it could have a significant impact on carbon storage associated with southern pine plantations.” …The study also found that smaller sawtimber logs and engineered materials like OSB might also be good at storing carbon since they can be grown quickly but still go into long-lasting products like houses. …The study also found that short rotations could potentially outperform slower long rotations in carbon storage when a forest is highly productive.

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Public Approval Process Starting For Country’s Tallest Mass Timber Building

By Jeramey Jannene
Urban Milwaukee
February 29, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — The Neutral Project is pursuing zoning approval for its proposed 32-story riverfront apartment tower, The Edison, while it actively seeks investors to develop the 381-unit, $145 million building. The tower, 1005 N. Edison St., would be the tallest mass timber building in the country when completed, eclipsing Milwaukee’s own 25-story Ascent tower. Ascent set the world record in 2022, but an even taller building is already under construction in Sydney, Australia and is expected to claim the world record at more than twice Ascent’s height. …Things are now progressing in hopes of a groundbreaking later this year. And at the same time, The Neutral Project is pursuing an even bigger building across the street. …The company, according to a profile in Madison’s Isthmus publication, is pursuing “a 50-story-plus mass timber building” for the site. The Department of City Development has yet to announce a winning bidder.

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New York City to Decarbonize Buildings, Construction

New York City Economic Development Corporation
March 7, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

NEW YORK, NY—New York City Economic Development Corporation announced the advancement of two key commitments that seek to revolutionize a green path forward for cleaner construction and low carbon buildings with the launch of the Clean and Circular: Design and Construction Guidelines and the selection of the first design and development teams of the NYC Mass Timber Studio. Key to New York City’s decarbonization efforts, the Guidelines, offer an operational guide to reduce waste and embodied carbon in New York City’s built environment. Additionally, NYCEDC awarded seven design and development teams to participate in the NYC Mass Timber Studio, a first-of-its-kind program in New York City. The technical assistance program is designed to support active mass timber development projects in the early phases of project planning and design. …”We’re excited to see how the Guidelines will help to reduce New York City’s embodied carbon footprint,” said Elijah Hutchinson.

Related in Commercial Observer: NYC Selects 7 Projects to Lead the Way on Mass Timber

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Northern Border Regional Commission Announces Availability of $25m in New 2024 Timber for Transit Program

By Marina Bowie, Program Manager
Northern Border Regional Commission
February 5, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

The Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) is pleased to announce preliminary details of the Timber for Transit Program, designed to advance the use of domestic forest products in transportation infrastructure projects across Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont to showcase the capabilities of wood in these applications. Projects will demonstrate high-value forest products (e.g. glued laminated timber, cross laminated timber, composite materials, etc.) in transportation infrastructure… “The Commission seeks to build on this legacy (of historic structures like covered bridges) by harnessing the innovation of the forest products industry to support the construction of modern infrastructure that incorporates wood materials. This sector represents both a market opportunity for the industry as well as a means to utilize more climate friendly materials in building community centered projects that serve travelers and passengers,” said NBRC Federal Co-Chair Chris Saunders.

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New York City Economic Development Corporation Selects 7 Projects to Lead to the Way on Mass Timber Construction

By Abigail Nehring
The Commercial Observer
March 7, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

New York City wants to bring eco-friendly construction to the masses and started that journey by picking seven projects to participate in a new mass timber incubator. The first projects in the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s (EDC) “Mass Timber Studio” run the gamut from the New Lots branch of the Brooklyn Public Library to an affordable housing development in Jamaica, Queens, spearheaded by MURAL Real Estate Partners and Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, Commercial Observer has learned. Projects in the nine-month incubator will get technical support from several city agencies as well as other experts on mass timber construction, including the Wood Products Council and the American Institute of Architects New York. Plus, they’ll each get a $25,000 grant for their efforts. …The EDC launched the mass timber incubator in September in an effort to move buildings away from traditional construction materials like concrete and steel to the low-carbon alternative of pressurized wood. 

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Embodied carbon has been gaining traction in assessing the environmental impact of buildings

By Raymond Shelton
Building Enclosure Online
March 5, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

In the realm of sustainable construction, the term “embodied carbon” has been gaining traction as a critical factor in assessing the environmental impact of buildings. …According to the New Building Institute, the building and construction industry is responsible for 39 percent of GHG emissions. And “of these emissions, one-third comes directly from the creation of construction products and construction activities.” …In 2023, California became the first state to approve what they call a “whole-building” embodied carbon policy in its state building code. Nationally, the federal government launched the Buy Clean Initiative to “spur the development of low-carbon construction materials made in America.” …Carbon-storing materials like wood, hemp, straw bamboo, and algae, and low-impact concrete alternatives, like green concrete developed by McHugh Concrete, can make an incredible impact on reduction of GHGs. Environmental Product Declarations, or EPDs, are a crucial piece of the puzzle.

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Toilet paper: Environmentally impactful, but alternatives are rolling out

By Petro Kotzé
Mongabay
March 15, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

While toilet paper use is ubiquitous in China, North America, parts of the EU and Australia, its environmental impact is rarely discussed. Environmentalists recently began urging people to be more aware of the real price paid for each roll — especially for luxury soft, extra-absorbent TP made from virgin tree pulp. Though not the global primary source of tissue pulp, large tracts of old-growth forest in Canada and Indonesia are being felled today for paper and tissue products, impacting biodiversity and Indigenous communities. Eucalyptus plantations to provide pulp for TP are mostly ecological deserts, and put a strain on water supplies. The environmental impacts of toilet paper occur all along its supply chain. Making TP is an energy- and water-intensive process, and also requires toxic PFAS and other chemicals. 

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Swedish companies unveil low-carbon wall system 60% lighter than traditional concrete

By Niall Patrick Walsh
Archinect
March 15, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

A group of materials companies in Sweden has collaborated on a hybrid wall element with a lower carbon footprint than conventional concrete wall elements. The joint venture, comprising concrete element manufacturer Heidelberg Materials Preca and engineered timber manufacturer Metsä Wood, is now rolling out the element for live construction projects. The wall consists of a facade element in a sandwich construction with an outer layer made of ‘climate-improved’ concrete, intermediate insulation, and a load-bearing inner panel made of strong, material-efficient laminated veneer lumber. According to the group, the wall module has approximately 30–50% less of a climate impact than an equivalent traditional concrete wall while also being 60% lighter. …From their tests, the group determined that a typical house using the system could reduce its overall structure climate impact by 15–25%. The wall is particularly suited for buildings with up to five floors, such as residential, office, school, or healthcare facilities.

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European firms unveil concrete-timber hybrid walls

By Rod Sweet
Global Construction Review
March 13, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Swedish concrete-element maker Heidelberg Materials Precast Contiga and Finnish company Metsä Wood have developed a wall panel made from layers of concrete, insulation, and load-bearing laminated veneer lumber. They say the panel has a climate impact between 30% and 50% lower than a traditional concrete sandwich element, and is 60% lighter. …Walls can be made up to 75mm thinner than walls built only with concrete, which allows extra space inside buildings, they add. They built a small house at Heidelberg’s Norrtälje factory to test the panels’ performance, including for moisture ingress. “One of the advantages is that construction contractors… can still lower their carbon dioxide emissions,” said Håkan Arnebrant, of Metsä Wood. Daniel Eriksson said the panels’ lightness means twice as many of them can be shipped in a delivery.

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Adoption of mass timber on the rise in multiple sectors

By Alex Dunn
PropertyEU
March 13, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

EUROPE — It is not surprising that timber has always been a fundamental resource and building material globally. It is the only abundantly available, easily workable material capable of being stretched or extended, with good compression and bending strength combined with a relatively low weight. It is also entirely renewable. In that respect, it has no competitors. …Now we are going full circle. The real estate industry is experiencing a shift towards mass timber, which is emerging as a compelling alternative to traditional steel and concrete-based materials due to several societal developments. Drivers of mass timber adoption include Sustainability… Health and wellbeing … Automation… Densification… and Developments across all sectors. …The wider adoption of mass timber in real estate is not just a trend – it is a structural shift towards more sustainable and efficient construction.

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Spinnova and Suzano have signed a Letter of Intent regarding plans for a new production facility

Spinnova Group
March 7, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Finland – Spinnova Plc and Suzano S.A. have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) regarding a potential new production facility for wood-based SPINNOVA® fibre. Spinnova and its partners will deliver the fibre production technology to Suzano, who will be the owner and operator of the new production facility. The preliminary target capacity of the facility is 20 thousand tonnes of fibre per year, and it is likely to be located near an existing Suzano pulp mill. …Spinnova and Suzano have been joint venture partners since 2020 in Woodspin, whose first production facility producing wood-based SPINNOVA® fibre opened in 2023 in Jyväskylä, Finland. The Woodspin factory acts as an industrial demonstration of Spinnova’s technology and Suzano’s textile MFC technology and is used for qualifying the process and fibre output to support the investment decision for the new facility.

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$100M Australian Forest and Wood Innovations to secure sustainable future for forestry

By Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
The Government of Australia
March 12, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Murray Watt

AUSTRALIA — The future of sustainable forestry received a significant boost today with the official launch of the Albanese Government’s $100 million Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) program. AFWI is a collaboration between the Albanese Government and the University of Tasmania, committed to advancing research and innovation in Australian forest and wood products. Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Murray Watt, said the University of Tasmania AFWI Headquarters in Launceston would support a local AFWI research centre, with further centres planned for the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Melbourne. “Establishing AFWI was an election commitment which we are proud to deliver and forms part of our record $300 million investment in the Australian forestry and forest product sector,” Minister Watt said.

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Vietnam surges up world furniture production rankings to 6th

By Vien Thong
Vietnam Express
March 11, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Vietnam was the sixth highest furniture producer in the world last year, according to a report by Italy-based economic think tank Center for Industrial Studies, moving up from 13th in 2014. The five largest are China, the U.S., Italy, Germany, and India. …Vietnam’s furniture industry has grown faster than any other country in the last 10 years. …According to data from the Department of Forestry, furniture accounted for 82.9%, or US$8.4 billion, of the country’s wood and wood products exports. Subsidiary Tran Duc Homes recently started exporting prefabricated wooden houses to the U.S. It has also invested in Southeast Asia’s first production line for cross-laminated timber, an alternative to traditional reinforced concrete. Nguyen Tuan Hung, an expert at the forestry department, estimated the international furniture market to be worth $405 billion. The exports of wood and wood products in the first two months of 2024 were worth $2.4 billion, up nearly 44% year-on-year.

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Why the Paris Olympics Will Be a Modest Showcase of Wood Architecture

By Feargus O’Sullivan and Jenny Che
Bloomberg
March 9, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

There’s something highly unusual about the new Olympic Aquatics Center on the outskirts of Paris. It’s not just the building’s striking form, with its massive, Pringle-shaped solar roof. It’s not solely that the 5,000-seat venue, constructed mainly from wood, was pieced together like a Lego set. It’s also the fact that the center, designed by architecture firms Ateliers 2/3/4/ and VenhoevenCS, will be the main architectural icon for a Summer Games that is actively trying not to build them. …But Paris 2024 wants to make sustainability, rather than monumental construction, its chief legacy. Compared to the pharaonic projects of the past, the aspiration might seem almost perverse. The Olympic Village, north of Paris, will be an eco-quarter where all buildings under eight floors will be made from wood and glass… using more wood in new construction — including the advanced wood components known as mass timber — is expected to play a significant role as well. 

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Mondi’s Advantage StretchWrap clinches Fastmarkets PPI Product Innovation Award

Mondi plc
March 7, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

The Fastmarkets Forest Products PPI Awards are the only global awards dedicated to recognising the achievements of companies, mills and individuals in the pulp and paper sector. Advantage StretchWrap is a recyclable kraft paper that is made from responsibly sourced materials. Mondi developed it to stretch and resist punctures, making it ideal for replacing the plastic stretch film that has traditionally been used for pallet wrapping and transportation. Advantage StretchWrap has 62% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when compared to virgin plastic stretch film, and 49% lower GHG emissions when compared to plastic film made with 50% recycled content, according to a peer-reviewed independent life cycle assessment. …Mondi’s Advantage StretchWrap which is 100% kraft paper, delivers excellent protection for palletised goods due to high strength, puncture resistance and tension absorption.

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Fears of new UK cladding crisis after blaze destroys timber-frame homes

By Robert Booth
The Guardian
March 5, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

A London council has warned of a potential new national fire safety crisis after it discovered hundreds of low-rise timber-frame homes had been fitted with plastic cladding that can spread fire. Barnet council has alerted the government and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, that other homeowners in similar properties across the country could be affected. It said the 580 homes that needed fixing in its area were “the tip of the iceberg”. The council has since found more homes with similar UPVC panels that were also not built with measures to stop the spread of fire. The one- and two-storey homes were built with timber frames from the 1930s to the 1960s but were retrofitted with UPVC cladding panels in the 1980s. Others have timber cladding, timber frames and inadequate fire compartmentation.

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UK timber industry to spearhead implementation of key government policy

Specification OnLine UK
March 8, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building

UK — Working in partnership, the Structural Timber Association, Timber Development UK and the Confederation of Forest Industries have been appointed joint Secretariat of the Government’s Timber in Construction (TiC) Policy Roadmap working group, in a bid to expedite delivery of this critical industry plan. The TiC roadmap – published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) last year –  sets out a framework for increasing the use of timber in construction. Having already worked together as key contributors to the development of the policy document, the three organisations are well placed to bring their shared expertise to its execution. …The Secretariat role will be tasked with leading the development and implementation of solid plans to deliver each of the seven key priorities identified within the roadmap, which cover demand, supply, building safety, labour and skills, carbon, insurance, and innovation.

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