Most researchers today explore high-tech materials like carbon nanotubes or graphene to develop a class of composite known as radar-absorbing material, i.e., a composite that can attenuate radar signals for stealth applications. Such high-tech materials are costly and energy-intensive to produce. Researchers from Brazil and Canada have explored sustainable carbon made of tree bark waste as an affordable alternative to those options. Their findings were recently published in the Journal of Renewable Materials, with insights on how engineering material and design can lead to performances as well as those expensive options. The research also supports the goals of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, by promoting the use of renewable materials and reducing industrial waste. The team plans to scale up production and test the core material in other real-world situations.
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Packaging is going back to its roots. Long before the advent of plastics, before the rise of mass production and the widespread adoption of synthetic materials, early civilisations relied on what the natural world had to offer – pressed bark, woven plant fibres, and rudimentary pulps – to store and transport food and goods. Paper, in particular, has long served as a trusted material for containment and communication alike. Today, that ancient material is undergoing a resurgence and is evolving to not only meet contemporary functional needs but also to respond to an urgent call for environmental responsibility. The rapid shift away from single-use plastic has created new momentum behind paper-based alternatives. From luxury goods wrapped in soft textured, bespoke papers to barrier coated containers engineered for performance and recyclability, fibre-based packaging is no longer confined to brown boxes or rustic aesthetics. It is becoming more refined, more versatile, and, crucially, more sustainable – at least on the surface.
Although mass timber is widely praised for speedy, low-carbon construction, not everyone has boarded that train yet. Many people in construction still believe the risks of using mass timber outweigh the benefits. To shed some light on the subject, Urbanarium and the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture recently sponsored a debate in Vancouver on the proposition: “Mass timber is not worth the risk(s).” On the pro side (not worth the risk) were Adam Rysanek, an associate professor at SALA, and Graham Brewster, the senior director of development at Wesgroup Properties. On the con side were Shawn Keyes, the executive director of WoodWorks BC, and now VP strategic growth and development at Intelligent City, and Jana Foit, a principal and higher education practice lead in the Vancouver studio of Perkins&Will. …“Everybody came in wanting mass timber to work. What they heard were practical arguments that showed that it’s not that easy.”
Kalesnikoff Mass Timber recently opened its new 100,000-square-foot mass timber prefabrication and modular facility in Castlegar, B.C., 400 miles east of Vancouver. Starting small just before the Second World War, Kalesnikoff today is a family-owned, fourth-generation company that produces dimensional lumber, glulam beams and columns, glue-laminated timber (GLT) panels, cross laminated timber (CLT) and prefabricated components. The new facility, which is built entirely out of Kalesnikoff’s own mass timber… enables Kalesnikoff to provide new products that can be used for prefabricated walls, flooring, modules and full modular construction. Chief operating officer Chris Kalesnikoff says it’s the first vertically integrated mass timber operation in North America. Kalesnikoff was started by Chris’s great-grandfather and two of his brothers in 1939 as a logging operation. His grandfather and his father (Ken) expanded the sawmill into value-added wood products.
The Kelowna International Airport (YLW) is proud to share a significant project milestone for Airport Terminal Building (ATB) expansion – the mass timber roof structure of the facility is now complete. The use of mass timber throughout the terminal building expansion highlights the airport’s commitment to sustainability, innovation and community reflection in this project. YLW received $500,000 from the Province’s Mass Timber Demonstration Program, which aims to grow B.C.’s mass timber and engineered wood products industry and position B.C. as a world leader in wood design, engineering and construction. An important design consideration for the ATB Expansion is to incorporate characteristics that showcase our local community. The use of mass timber plays a meaningful role in conveying our region’s natural beauty, heritage and character.
The new Cowichan District Hospital will be British Columbia’s first fossil fuel-free hospital, Island Health announced on Earth Day, April 22. The new hospital is under construction on Bell McKinnon Road near Duncan on Vancouver Island and is scheduled to open in 2027. It is also Canada’s first hospital to achieve Zero Carbon Building – Design certification from the Canada Green Building Council. “We’re building hospitals that will care for people in our communities for generations,” said Bowinn Ma, B.C.’s minister of Infrastructure. “This certification shows that through innovative design, we can create hospitals that support the well-being of families and a sustainable future.”.. The hospital’s leading-edge sustainability measures will free up resources for patient care while supporting patient and staff well-being and delivering environmental benefits.
TORONTO — A mass timber showcase on Toronto’s George Brown campus is also a study in collaboration and innovation. George Brown College’s Nerys Rau, Moriyama Teshima Architects partner Philip Silverstein and PCL’s Mike Love all explained the process behind building Limberlost Place at a session titled Exploring Limberlost Place: at the Canada Green Building Council’s Building Lasting Change conference held recently in downtown Vancouver. Limberlost Place is a 10-storey mass-timber net-zero building that achieved occupancy in January. …Silverstein said the building is rated at Tier 4 of the Toronto Green Standard, adding no other building in the city has reached that metric. “It’s like LEED Platinum on steroids,” Silverstein said. Love said the number one question was “what if the wood gets wet?” “It’s OK for wood to get wet. Just remove any ponding water and let it dry. It wants to breathe,” he said.
The new La Pêche Town Hall, built on a promontory facing Route Principale, is a mass timber, highly energy-efficient building that will soon become the first Passive House-certified institutional building in Quebec. Rectangular in shape and located on an east-west axis, the building, by BGLA architecture + urban design, features a long façade which faces directly south onto the main road. This façade offers views of the hills of Gatineau Park from the inside, while also using natural solar gain to serve as the building’s primary heating source. The presence of wood is felt inside and outside the project. Eastern cedar cladding envelops all the façades, while the glulam and cross-laminated timber structure is exposed and highlighted in each of the interior spaces.
The adage that one person’s waste is another’s treasure was proved true on Wednesday, May 21, when the province announced millions in investments in forestry biomass. Forestry biomass refers to forestry by-products that are not used in traditional wood-processing industries like sawing, veneering and pulp and paper. Examples include: crowns, branches, bark, sawdust, wood shavings, and wood chips. It is used in everything from food additives to building materials. It also has many emerging uses, including renewable natural gas, bioplastics and hydrogen, considered to be responsible alternatives to carbon-intensive products. The government says their aim is to protect workers and jobs in the forestry sector… The program has invested up to $20 million each year in projects to increase wood harvest, create forest sector opportunity and find new uses for wood in collaboration with stakeholders, industry and Indigenous communities. Find the press release 
The American Wood Council (AWC) has released a national Mass Timber Alternative Materials and Methods (AMM) Guide for use with the 2018 International Building Code (IBC). This new resource is designed to support building code officials as they review, permit and approve mass timber projects across the country. The AMM Guide is designed to help bridge the gap between the codes adopted in each state and the newer mass timber provisions in the 2024 IBC. Adopting the most recent edition of the Building Code, like the 2024 IBC, can be a slow multi-year process for states or jurisdictions. As a result, there is sometimes a gap between what is included in the currently adopted code in a state and what is allowable based on the latest available ICC I-codes. The AMM guide serves to fill that space by offering code provisions for jurisdictions without mass timber specific guidance.
University of Oregon researchers hope to make wood — often overlooked in health care facilities — more commonplace in those settings. Exposed wood, they’ve found, can resist microbial growth after a brief wetting. During the study, wood samples tested lower for levels of bacterial abundance than an empty plastic enclosure used as a control. “People generally think of wood as unhygienic in a medical setting,” said assistant professor Mark Fretz, co-director of the UO’s Institute for Health in the Built Environment and principal investigator for the study. “But wood actually transfers microbes at a lower rate than other less porous materials such as stainless steel.” Numerous studies support those properties of wood. A UO-led research team including scientists from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego and Portland State University wanted to explore what happens when wood gets wet and then dries. 
Picture a hospital and you might imagine concrete, stainless steel or plastic. But University of Oregon researchers hope to make wood—often overlooked in health care facilities—more commonplace in those settings. Exposed wood, they’ve found, can resist microbial growth after it briefly gets wet. During their study, wood samples tested lower for levels of bacterial abundance than an empty plastic enclosure used as a control. “People generally think of wood as unhygienic in a medical setting,” said assistant professor Mark Fretz, co-director of the UO’s Institute for Health in the Built Environment and principal investigator for the study. “But wood actually transfers microbes at a lower rate than other less porous materials such as stainless steel.” In a 
A decade-spanning political battle between housing developers and defenders of California’s preeminent environmental law likely came to an end this afternoon with only a smattering of “no” votes. The forces of housing won. With the passage of a state budget-related housing bill, the California Environmental Quality Act will be a non-issue for a decisive swath of urban residential development in California. In practice, that means most new apartment buildings will no longer face the open threat of environmental litigation. It also means most urban developers will no longer have to study, predict and mitigate the ways that new housing might affect local traffic, air pollution, flora and fauna, noise levels, groundwater quality and objects of historic or archeological significance. And it means that when housing advocates argue that the state isn’t doing enough to build more homes amid crippling rents and stratospheric prices, they won’t — with a few exceptions — have CEQA to blame anymore.
I recently gave my electric pressure washer a vigorous workout. …Years ago, I walked into a lumber company to purchase materials and saw a placard on the counter advertising new maintenance-free pressure-treated lumber. Yes, at one time, residential pressure-treated lumber was a new thing. …We all discovered the claim was wrong. Pressure-treated lumber requires extensive maintenance. …This reality led to the first generation of composite decking. I remember when Trex was introduced. It dominated the marketplace, even though it was quite unattractive. It, too, was marketed as maintenance-free. Millions of other homeowners demanded a more realistic composite deck material. Generations two and three of composite decking followed. …The corporate attorneys for some decking manufacturers have reined in the optimistic marketing managers. You’ll now see clever descriptions such as “minimal maintenance.”
In an age of sleek finishes and synthetic shortcuts, timber framing offers something few modern materials can: substance. There’s a quiet grandeur to exposed beams that hold not only the weight of a home but the stories it gathers over time. The appeal isn’t rooted in nostalgia—it comes from discernment. Choosing timber is a commitment to craftsmanship, to the feel of hand-hewn structure beneath polished design. Bespoke estates, mountain retreats, and coastal getaways are embracing timber as both a form and a functional element. No longer reserved for rustic cabins or historical reproductions, it’s becoming the architectural signature of homes designed with permanence in mind. That kind of durability begins with sourcing, ensuring the materials behind the beauty are as intentional as the design itself. Timber framing is one of the oldest construction methods still in use, with roots stretching back over a thousand years. 
PORTLAND, Oregon – The Port of Portland is leasing a former marine terminal to a mass timber company as part of an effort to spur housing development and job growth in the area. On Wednesday, the Port of Portland approved a lease for Zaugg Timber Solutions to open a factory at the Port’s Mass Timber and Housing Innovation Campus at Terminal 2. …“Our partnership with ZTS marks a major leap forward in developing the Mass Timber and Housing Innovation Campus at T2,” said Kimberly Branam. “Their new manufacturing facility will boost our region’s economy by promoting sustainable forestry practices, creating quality jobs, and increasing housing production.” While the new 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is expected to open in 2028, ZTS will produce mass timber modular housing units, industrial and commercial buildings and other building components starting in 2026 in an interim manufacturing facility at the terminal, officials noted.
After this year’s fires burned through the Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods, destroying over 16,000 structures, the city is reckoning with 4.5 million tons of debris, according to LAist—”the largest municipal wildfire cleanup operation in recent history.” As a result, the Army Corps of Engineers is sending trucks to 18 different regional facilities including landfills and recycling plants to manage the process of clearing out build remnants and remediating hazardous materials. Trees that appear damaged or unviable are cut down and sent to a local golf course to be mulched—a fact that doesn’t sit right with local sawmill owner Jeff Perry. In the aftermath of the Palisades and Eaton Fires, Perry teamed up with local landscape architects to create Altadena Reciprocity, an initiative that helps homeowners recycle an often-overlooked resource—neighborhood trees—into a product that residents can use for flooring, stair treads, door casings, and much more. 
Nationwide, women made up 26.4% of the roughly 775,000 people who worked in the paper manufacturing and printing industry in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. At pulp, paper, and paperboard mills, they made up 14% of positions. That’s what brought the Wisconsin Paper Council and Ahlstrom — a global Finnish company that produces specialty papers and packaging at five plants in Rhinelander, Mosinee, Kaukauna, De Pere and Stevens Point — gifted $20,000 to establish the program in 2023. In 2024, Ashman received $1,000 from the program after graduating from Appleton East High School. Now, at 19, Ashman works as an intern with Thilmany mill in Kaukauna, helping with environmental compliance and coordinating cleanup efforts along the Fox River. The scholarship was used to help pay for her college tuition. She said what was even more valuable was the internship opportunity she landed at the award-giving reception in 2024.
Researchers in the Department of Forest Biomaterials are developing a proprietary material that could serve as a sustainable alternative to one of the world’s most significant sources of pollution: plastic foam. “Our material eliminates polystyrene foam materials that are filling landfills and persisting as litter in the environment,” said Richard Venditti, the Elis-Signe Olsson Professor of Pulp and Paper Science and Engineering. Plastic foam, often known by the brand name Styrofoam, is used in many everyday products — from disposable food and beverage containers like cups and plates to shipping materials such as packing peanuts and protective packaging. While convenient, plastic foam presents a significant environmental challenge due to its lack of biodegradability and difficulty in recycling. Estimates indicate that plastic foam takes up to 30% of landfill space globally. 
Pulp and paper company Green Bay Packaging will be breaking ground on a $1 billion expansion to its Morrilton packaging plant Tuesday, according to a news release from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office. The company announced an expansion of its Arkansas Kraft Mill in Morrilton in December. The news release from Sanders’ office lauded the investment as the “largest capital investment project in Central Arkansas’ history.” It comes about a month after the announcement of a $1 billion data center in Little Rock, which was referred to as the “largest economic development capital investment” in Little Rock’s history. Green Bay’s multi-year expansion is geared toward modernization. According to a release, it will “significantly enhance the infrastructure of the mill” and, among other investments, it will involve the installation of an electric turbine generator, which will “substantially reduce” the plant’s Scope One and Scope Two greenhouse gas emissions.
Mass timber continues to gain traction in the United States for its sustainability, strength and aesthetic appeal. …In just the last four years, Texas saw a 168% increase in the amount of mass timber projects either in design, construction or completed. As mass timber developments in Texas increase in popularity, owners and contractors face a critical decision: whether to source the material domestically or internationally. The decision isn’t as simple as price — although it is a big factor. There are other points to consider when selecting your mass timber provider. …With threats of tariffs and rising material costs, builders might feel inclined to source mass timber from domestic providers. According to Forisk, an industry research and consulting firm, there are 38 mass timber production facilities across the United States and Canada —24 of which can produce cross-laminated timber (CLT). Nearly 51% of those facilities are located in the Northwest region of the United States.
GALWAY, Ireland — Minister of State with responsibility for Forestry, Michael Healy-Rae, announced a new report “
The fashion industry is often seen as a voracious, thirsty villain that extracts billions of liters of water out of the environment. …These conditions are the biggest ‘WHY’ for Spinnova, a Finnish startup that works tirelessly to create technology for sustainable natural fibers to match its growing demand. …But before we delve into the details, would you believe the core idea for Spinnova was actually born from… a spiderweb? Back in 2009, Juha Salmela, a cellulose expert from Finland attended an Oxford University conference. He heard a presentation from a leading spider researcher, who explained the similarities between spiderweb’s protein and nanocellulose. And, that happened to be his Eureka moment. What if wood fiber could be spun into textile fiber in a similar manner? Fast forward to 2023, the wood-based Spinnova fiber was born. …The process at Spinnova starts with sourcing cellulose-rich raw materials such as FSC-certified wood pulp.
UK waste wood market processed over 96% of material, annual statistics published this month by the Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA) showed. The association said that there was “strong demand” for material in 2024. According to the statistics, 4.5 million tonnes of waste wood arose in the UK last year. Of this, 4.33 million tonnes (96%) were sent for reuse, recycling or recovery, the figures showed. The organisation compiled the 2024 figures through its annual survey of members who handle approximately 90% of the market, combining the findings with latest industry data. The figures are somewhat similar to 2023 which saw 97% of the material processed.
As per a study documented in RSC Sustainability (Royal Society Of Chemistry), researchers have explored a new approach to using cellulose fibre manufacturing. The study highlighted the use of waste products from agriculture, which Sweden has in abundance. Taking a leap from commonly researched wood-based cellulose, the researchers instead focussed on products including oat husks, potato pulp, wheat straw, and sugar beet pulp to create dissolving pulp for clothes – a key ingredient in making textiles. In this regard, Diana Bernin, Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology and senior researcher in the study, mentioned this study, which is centered on generating textile from waste products, as a significant step in creating a circular economy. She also added that these waste products are more beneficial than using cotton.
The ultimate problem for architects is that the most sustainable building is always the one that is already there. There is a huge amount written about green buildings, much of it nonsense. There is some confusion about buildings layered in vines and living walls, and buildings that actually are green. Contemporary architecture’s issue is mostly embodied in one material: concrete. …The rate at which we are still using it is astonishing: half of all the stuff manufactured by weight is concrete. From 2011 to 2013, China used more concrete than the US had in the whole of the 20th century. …There are signs, however, that architects are beginning to shake things up. The first credible alternative is, perhaps a little ironically, that oldest of building materials, timber. [A Financial Times subscription may be required to read the full story]
Although a casual observer just sees the bark on a tree, a lumber expert might envision the potential for boards inside, thinking of the bark largely as waste. In many cases, bark does turn into waste in the logging industry. That’s lots of waste, because bark can account for up to 15% of a tree’s weight, and “only a fraction of this is currently being utilized, primarily for landscaping or for energy; the rest is left at the harvest or handling site to naturally decompose,” according to Sumanth Ranganathan, Dr.-Ing, a biochemical engineer at Scion, a research institute in Rotorua, New Zealand, and his colleagues. For some trees, though, that wasted bark is a potential treasure-trove of biopharmaceuticals, from anti-inflammatories to cancer-fighting drugs. …Each year, the country’s logging industry produces about 2.5 million metric tons of bark. Ranganathan’s team envisions feeding that into a bark-based biorefinery.
Mass timber construction is gaining traction for its sustainability and efficiency, yet it brings distinct insurance and risk management challenges that require industry collaboration and proactive strategies. Key Takeaways from this Article:
Maximising the use of bio-based products is key to meeting current sustainability targets. Yet according to sustainability consultancy Metabolic, using bio-based products for half of new housing in Europe would require production of engineered timber to increase nearly fivefold, and roundwood by four and a half times. Given the improbability of an uplift in production on that scale, as well as the current rapid growth in global demand and the UK’s own limited timber harvest, using the country’s waste timber to make ‘cross-laminated secondary timber’ – CLST – would seem to make a great deal of sense. Rather than its current fates of combustion for energy recovery, chipping for MDF, dumping in landfill, and other low-grade, non-circular activities, incorporating this plentiful material into supply chains would benefit the construction industry, as well as the country’s economy and environment. And it would also seem to be a highly achievable ambition – so why isn’t it happening?
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND — The International Sustainable Forestry Coalition (ISFC) welcomes the release by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) of its new Standard covering the way greenhouse gas accounting should be applied to wood and wood-based products. Until the publication of this Standard, there had not been an internationally agreed upon accounting approach for biogenic carbon emissions and removals – an important piece of the puzzle to support corporate climate action and reach global net zero targets. The new series is ISO 13391 Wood and wood-based products — Greenhouse gas dynamics, and covers all essential components of carbon accounting for the sector: carbon in forests, carbon in harvested wood products and potential greenhouse gas emissions avoided through the use of wood-based products instead of fossil-based products.
The legacy sewing pattern brands Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls, and Vogue, commonly referred to as the Big 4, have been sold to a liquidator. 
…Mass timber provides several key learnings to understand how bioregional design can be developed and scaled. In the early 1990s, cross-laminated timber was invented in Austria, primarily driven by efforts to add value to softwood timber. The process involves glueing layered boards together to create strong, stable panels. Canada was an early adopter in North America, supported by knowledge-sharing with Europe and government-funded projects like the Wood Innovation and Design Centre in British Columbia. The US followed with key projects such as the Framework Building in Portland and T3 in Minneapolis, demonstrating that mass timber is viable for mid-rise and even high-rise buildings. The Canadian National Building Code was updated in 2020 and the American International Building Code was updated in 2021 to allow mass timber buildings up to 18 stories in certain conditions based on these pilot projects.
As the popularity of wood-based materials in building construction increases, facade-based applications are becoming more desirable and prevalent. Wood’s susceptibility to decay is a familiar phenomenon, and many established preservation methods exist. However, most wood treatments for external use are problematic from human health and environmental perspectives. Conventional preservation chemicals …contain known hazards. …For these reasons, scientists and manufacturers have been developing alternative techniques that are biocompatible and ecologically friendly, aiming to preserve wood effectively without the drawbacks of harmful chemicals. An established example is acetylation, a process that chemically alters wood to make it water resistant without toxic substances. …A Florida Atlantic University research team has developed a method to elevate the mechanical performance of hardwood as well. The technique strengthens the cell walls of trees by introducing an iron compound into their vascular systems. …Other investigations seek to prevent decay before it begins.