Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

For Caleb Campbell, the beauty of riding a wooden bicycle is, well, the beauty. Campbell and his dad, Scott Campbell, handcraft frames from Oregon white oak they salvage from the forest floor.  To transform leftover lumber into bikes capable of ripping down trails and gravel roads, it takes hundreds of hours of work. The result is a frame that, thanks to the carbon-lined interior, performs like a modern mountain bike but looks like an exquisite wood carving. “There are white oak trees growing everywhere, every time someone builds a house, they have to cut one down,” Campbell said. “If it didn’t go to us, it would go to a burn pile.” The bikes might look like something worthy of an art exhibit, but the Campbells would rather have them hanging in garages. They’re hoping their business, Celilo Cycles, named for the Columbia River’s once-mighty Celilo Falls, can expand beyond friends and family and become an established provider of sustainably produced bikes. 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When Oregon State University and the TallWood Design Institute needed new equipment to support creativity in their new A.A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Laboratory, they turned to Biesse Uniteam and its Uniteam UT (North Carolina) work center. When the new lab opens on May 14, the UT machine will be used for student education, industry training, technical demonstrations, and applied research. A partnership between Oregon State University’s Colleges of Forestry and Engineering and University of Oregon’s College of Design, TDI is a research collaborative focused on the advancement of structural wood products and mass timber design. “There are several large-scale CNC machines on the market that allow manufacturers to work with mass timber products such as cross-laminated timber (X-Lam) and glue-laminated beams (Glu-Lam),” said Iain Macdonald, Director of TDI. 

The hillsides surrounding his home had been consumed by a wildfire moving at breakneck speed. …The next day, Mr. Vogt emerged with minor burns. His house—the only home in the Malibu neighborhood left standing—sustained a little smoke damage. The Spanish-style house was built with every feasible fire safe feature Mr. Vogt could think of, including concrete-and-steel walls, rooftop ember guards and heat resistant windows. …Mr. Vogt stands at the vanguard of a movement toward making homes more fire safe in the West’s increasingly combustible wild lands. …The dramatic increase in big fires… has prompted calls by state and federal officials to increase thinning of forest areas. It has also triggered action to address another factor behind the growing property damage: the vulnerability of homes themselves, such as by being situated too close to vegetation and by being constructed from too many flammable materials like wood. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]

Today, many building products boast about their environmental benefits. Relatively few, however, back up such claims with scientific evidence. For decades, the California redwood industry has supported its claims with scientific data. … The study found that the production of redwood decking (as opposed to the production of wood plastic composite and vinyl decking products, which increase carbon output into the atmosphere) absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere storing or sequestering it in the wood fiber. This reduces the potential for global warming. …The study, Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Redwood Decking, was conducted by the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Material (CORRIM). …The American Wood Council, which published the initial Environmental Products Declaration for redwood decking, will use the new Life Cycle Assessment study to publish a revised EPD.

LEESBURG, VA. – American Wood Council (AWC) President and CEO Robert Glowinski issued a statement following the Governor’s signature on legislation to require the state’s Uniform Building Code Commission to recommend building standards for use of mass timber in residential and commercial building construction. The Utah House of Representatives passed the bill (H.B. 142) on February 12th and the Senate passed it on February 22nd. It was signed into law by Governor Herbert on March 22nd. “…The actions by the Utah Governor and State Legislature is the next step in helping jump-start mass timber construction in the state. AWC applauds Governor Herbert, Representative Casey Snider and Senator David Hinkins who sponsored the bill, and state legislators for recognizing the significant environmental benefits that accrue from greater wood product use and helping pioneer better places for us to live and work.

At the International Mass Timber Conference in Portland last week, there was ample evidence that mass timber… is growing to live up to the hype. Mass timber has been hailed as a silver bullet for Oregon’s economy, with its ability to stimulate the rural (forestry) and urban (design and engineering) at once. …Bill Parsons, vice president at WoodWorks, the Wood Products Council, said there are more than 220 CLT projects being built in North America at the moment, compared to just 20 in 2014. …Europe is way ahead, but in North America, Canada is by far the leader in mass timber. On a map of where the factories are that make mass timber, there were six in Canada and four in the United States. …the real heavy lifting in the supply chain is less about getting architects on board than persuading construction companies and the wood industry to embrace mass timber.

Don Bender

Researchers from Washington State University’s Composite Materials and Engineering Center (CMEC) partnered with a nonprofit recycling center in Port Angeles to combine recycled carbon fiber from airplanes with thermally-modified timber to construct better housing materials. CMEC Director Don Bender said they were looking for a creative way to marry carbon fiber with cross-laminated timber to create safe, affordable houses made out of green materials. …When CLT panels experience natural disasters like earthquakes, they can split and gather localized stress near the edges, he said. The carbon fiber can be used to prevent damage and strengthen the wood. …He said CLT is intended for interior and dry use, but when there are changes to the moisture, humidity and temperature, the carbon fiber bonded to the wood will not move, but the wood will move.

Can a wood product be stronger than steel? That‘s the claim of a team of researchers from the University of Maryland. They have refined a “densifying” process of using a soft wood, such as pine, by first soaking the wood in chemicals, then squeezing it and passing it through rollers to create a “superwood” that is 12 times stronger than steel. …Discovering more uses for wood, a renewable resource, will be an important factor as we reduce our dependence on coal, gas, and oil to make concrete, plastic and steel. Concrete and steel production now accounts for 8 percent of greenhouse emissions worldwide, which is not sustainable, given the dangers of climate change. …Overcoming wood’s disadvantages, such as its susceptibility to burning, rotting, swelling and cracking, is an essential goal of this relatively new field of research. …Many trees will need to be planted and replanted. Sustainable forestry is the only way forward.

Ted Wheeler

PORTLAND, Ore. — Timber workers from around the world are in Portland this week sharing their expertise. Wednesday was day two of the International Mass Timber Conference at the Oregon Convention Center. Mayor Ted Wheeler gave the keynote speech. He spoke about the importance of sustainable and green practices for the future of the timber industry. Wheeler mentioned how sustainable products, such as cross-laminated timber, become a competitive advantage for the industry. “It’s no longer just a matter that we build something, it’s how we build it and what we build it out of,” he said. “And we see now rural Oregon timber interests working hand in hand with urban green designers, architects, developers.” Members of the Oregon Forest Resources Institute said mass timber is a sustainable product that helps fulfill the demand for commercial construction.