The 2026 edition of AAMA/WDMA/CSA 101/I.S.2/A440, North American Fenestration Standard/Specification for windows, doors, and skylights (NAFS) has been published. This standard is the result of a multi-year effort by CSA Group, Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance (FGIA) and Window & Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA). An agreement among the three organizations requires NAFS to be reviewed every five years… The updated 2026 standard supersedes the 2022 edition, representing a continued evolution of the standard while improving harmonization across North America. The Joint Document Management Group (JDMG), comprised of representatives from all three associations, stresses the importance of NAFS-26. “Unlike with the previous version of NAFS, there were no major revisions for NAFS-26, with the exception of the secondary designator clarification,” said Lisa Bergeron, Director of Business Development and Government Affairs for JELD-WEN, who served as FGIA’s JDMG co-chair. “NAFS remains an excellent industry tool as an internationally accepted performance standard for the included fenestration product types.”
Canada Wood Japan has helped secure an important market-access outcome for Canadian Hem-Fir (N) dimension lumber in Japan. In collaboration with the National Lumber Grades Authority and the Canadian Lumber Standards Accreditation Board, Canada Wood Japan worked with Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to obtain recognition of the revised standard design values for Hem-Fir (N) dimension lumber graded under NLGA standards. For builders, designers and structural engineers in Japan, design values are essential. They provide the basis for structural calculations and help determine where and how lumber can be used in code-compliant buildings. When grading rules or design values are revised in Canada, those changes must also be properly understood and accepted by Japanese regulatory authorities to ensure continued market access. …Canada Wood Japan demonstrated that the revised Hem-Fir (N) design values would continue to meet Japan’s structural safety requirements and would not compromise the performance of conventional wooden buildings. 
Canada’s insurance sector is calling for more time and data before it can fully evaluate mass timber as a building material, even as its use spreads rapidly across the country, according to a recent policy brief by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). …Despite the material’s growing footprint, insurers remain cautious. The IBC brief identified three key gaps in available data: long-term structural performance over several decades, the effects of moisture and water-related incidents, and typical repair and replacement costs following fire or other damage. Reinsurance capacity for mass timber projects, particularly mid- to high-rise developments, has also been constrained, which the brief noted directly affects the availability and terms of primary coverage. Insurance broker Aon has noted that limited long-term loss history makes it more difficult for insurers to model risk with the same level of confidence they apply to more established building materials, according to the IBC.
Canadian wood producers and manufacturers say they know how to solve the country’s housing shortage and, at the same time, increase demand in the construction industry for their products. The “two-fer” solution is laid out in a recent report published by the Canada West Foundation. The report is based on a December 2025 roundtable at which the Canadian Wood Council and the Forest Products Association of Canada convened leaders from construction and forestry to discuss how to increase the use of wood products in prefabricated, modular and panelized wood construction in residential multi-storey buildings. In the CWF report, these methods of construction are identified collectively as Modern Methods of Construction, or MMC. Eric Johnson, for FPAC and CWC, says factory-built components make better use of materials and skilled labour, reducing waste and increasing productivity. …The biggest barriers to scaling up wood-based housing are not technical but regulatory and organizational.
We studied the efficiency and productivity of BC’s secondary wood manufacturing sector using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist total factor productivity index (MPI), while incorporating data from both a survey on individual firms and Statistics Canada’s sectoral data. DEA results showed that BC’s secondary wood manufacturing firms had low efficiency and the factor contributing to the inefficiency was more lack of technical capability than scale of operations in most of the business types. The MPI results reveal that SWM consistently underperforms relative to the sawmill and panel sectors, with a clear divergence emerging after the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Weak productivity growth is largely attributable to limited and inconsistent technical change, reflecting a lack of innovation and adoption of new technologies. Policies aimed at supporting the sector could focus on factors improving firms’ technical efficiency and frontier such as process optimization, technology adoption and innovation, and training and skill development.
Since its launch in 2018, the 
Three years ago, the Ontario Building Code required that any developer taking on a mid-rise wood-frame building had to construct stairwells out of non-combustible material. That was expensive. It made construction challenging, and, according to the 
Mississauga city staff are reviewing a proposal for a “wood recovery facility” and an associated office building near Winston Churchill Boulevard and Lakeshore Road near the Oakville border. Applications have been submitted to amend the official plan and zoning to permit the facility, which would recover wood material to be used as a fuel source, according to the city. …local councillor, Alvin Tedjo said the cement plant provides roughly a third of all the cement for the province but still uses coal, adding the proposed wood recovery plant would provide low-carbon fuels. “The idea is that this plant would then create and process the materials in order to be used in the cement process which would then significantly reduce the use of coal and actually is part of removing coal completely from the (cement) plant so that we can be fully coal-free in Mississauga,” Tedjo said in a June 4 interview.
NOVA SCOTIA — When Tricia Murray rebuilt her home after the devastating 2023 wildfires, she expected her insurance premiums to soar. …Instead, her premium dropped by 12%… because her new home uses modern, fire-resistant materials and incorporates a buffer zone. Murray’s experience highlights a shift in how insurance companies calculate risk. For decades, insurers relied purely on history, it was classified as low risk. ….Instead of grading entire neighbourhoods under one risk level, insurers are using advanced tools like satellite imagery and laser scanning to assess individual properties. This new approach looks at specific, real-time details: The proximity of trees and brush to a structure. The type of roofing and building materials used. Property maintenance, such as clearing dry leaves from decks and removing wood chips near walls. Amanda Dean, at the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said those tools give homeowners the power to lower their own risks by following FireSmart Canada guidelines.
NEW BRUNSWICK — Postmedia plans to stop printing most New Brunswick newspapers in Moncton. Postmedia publishes the Times & Transcript, Telegraph-Journal, Daily Gleaner and other local newspapers. They are printed and distributed from a building along Main Street in downtown Moncton. Dave Arsenault, president of the New Brunswick Media Guild, confirmed that print and distribution will cease in Moncton and be moved elsewhere. …”Following an assessment of printing and insert packaging operations, it was determined that outsourcing these operations from Postmedia’s Moncton facility would allow us to continue serving print subscribers and advertisers while supporting long-term financial sustainability,” the company said Wednesday. The printing will be outsourced out of province starting Aug. 2. Postmedia bought most of New Brunswick’s English-language newspapers from Irving-owned Brunswick News in 2022.
Mass timber has emerged as a leading material in the pursuit of low-carbon, sustainable construction. With its warm, natural aesthetic and significantly lower embodied carbon than steel and concrete, mass timber is increasingly used across a wide range of building types. However, unlike conventional steel or concrete structures, the very characteristics that make it appealing also create unique challenges. The constraints of mass timber construction, such as exposed structural elements and prefabricated panels with limited flexibility, demand a new level of precision and foresight in the design and coordination of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems. By anticipating the structural and aesthetic challenges of mass timber and engaging in thoughtful MEP design and coordination, engineers, architects, and specifiers can deliver high-performance buildings that not only celebrate the beauty of timber but also help meet decarbonization and sustainability goals. …Mass timber’s prefabricated nature and exposed aesthetics require precise, early-stage coordination among mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. 
If you’ve ever spent some time amongst old-house lovers, and especially the craftspeople who work on them, you’ll no doubt have heard mention of “old-growth lumber.” It’s a material that’s spoken of with reverence, usually as supporting evidence for the “they don’t build ’em like they used to” argument, and always contrasted with today’s lumber, which is deemed comparatively subpar. So what is it about old-growth lumber that makes it so legendary, and if it’s so great, why don’t we use it anymore? …So yes, the trees are generally between 100 and 150 years old, but old-growth lumber is also characterized by competition to survive and disturbance history. In other words, if the forest is left alone for long enough, and no natural disasters reset the clock, you end up with old-growth trees. So it’s not that we can’t produce old-growth lumber now, it’s that it doesn’t fit our production needs.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representatives Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and Andrea Salinas (D-OR) introduced the Mass Timber Federal Buildings Act. This marks the third consecutive year that legislation promoting mass timber for federal contracts has been introduced. This bipartisan legislation provides incentives for the use of mass timber building materials in federal contracting, giving timber and other forest products companies the ability to compete for construction, renovation, or acquisition of public buildings, and for military construction. The bill creates a two-tier contracting preference for mass timber and other innovative wood projects. The first-tier preference applies to mass timber that is made within the U.S. and responsibly sourced from state, federal, private, and Tribal forestlands. The optional second tier applies to mass timber products that are sourced from restoration practices, fire mitigation projects, and forest owners. Additionally, this bill contains a reporting requirement for a whole building lifecycle assessment. 
The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), Washington, has released its 66th Annual Paper Industry Capacity and Fiber Consumption Survey. …The report shows that fiber consumption declined by 3.5% in 2025, with recovered fiber consumption decreasing by 4% and wood pulp consumption falling by 3.2%. The printing-writing paper operating rate improved, reaching 82.8% in 2025, while containerboard operating rates remained steady at 91.9%. Packaging paper production also increased by 1.7%, while boxboard production essentially was flat at 12.4 million tons and tissue production remained near 7.8 million tons. Despite the resilience shown by these sectors, US paper and paperboard production declined 3.7% last year, to 66.3 million tons, AF&PA says. …Containerboard production fell 4.4% to 36.1 million tons, and containerboard capacity declined 5.1% in 2025. …Printing-writing capacity fell 13.9% last year to 7.7 million tons. …Tissue production declined 0.8% in 2025 to 7.8 million tons, though, over time, it has represented a growing share of total US paper and paperboard capacity.
Wood is in most buildings you enter. But how do you know it’s safe? “The work we do at the Forest Products Laboratory is important for everybody’s everyday lives in terms of the buildings we live in, work in, and play in,” said Forest Products Laboratory materials research engineer Laura Hasburgh. Wood may be present in the structural part of the building, such as the wall or ceiling framing. Wood is also used for interior finishes, like trim, doors, furniture and cabinetry. That’s why the safety and durability of wood products are important for everyone—from the businesses making the products to the people using them. However, testing wood materials for durability and resistance to moisture, weight, and fire is largely unaffordable for industry and universities. The Forest Service’s 
U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) encouraged the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to tackle the nation’s housing affordability crisis by helping make mass timber a more mainstream building material. Mass timber usage was one issue discussed at a Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee hearing chaired by Hyde-Smith to review the FY2027 HUD budget request. …Hyde-Smith sought HUD Secretary Scott Turner’s commitment to engage with the U.S. Forest Service, state forest commissions, research universities, and builders to incorporate mass timber in home construction as one means to tackle housing affordability. …”Mass timber multifamily housing is demonstrating an ability to lower construction costs and reduce the time it takes to build, which makes it an ideal approach for helping increase affordable housing production,” Hyde-Smith said. 
Sumitomo Forestry’s $4.5 billion Tri Pointe buyout was approved with more than 99% support, taking the combined Japanese-owned share of US single-family home construction from just 0.2 per cent in 2015 to close to 6 per cent in 2026. Sumitomo Forestry’s buyout of Tri Pointe Homes, one of California’s largest builders, was approved at a special meeting in Irvine, California, earlier this month, with the deal set to be completed by mid-year. The Tri Pointe transaction, first announced in February, is the largest US homebuilder acquisition by a Japanese forest-based conglomerate in history, and follows the same playbook Sumitomo has already run across Australia, where Japanese conglomerates wholly or partly own just under 30 per cent of the country’s top 20 housebuilders. …Tri Pointe gives the Tokyo-listed parent access to California and Nevada, the two major US growth states where Sumitomo… had no meaningful presence. 
The city of Seattle opened its first warehouse for salvaged lumber Friday in SoDo. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson cut a red wood “ribbon” with a chainsaw to mark the occasion. The warehouse, operated by Earthwise Architectural Salvage, will serve as a place where lumber from the demolition or renovation of buildings is collected and sold for new construction, or to make furniture and other DIY projects. “Reuse is better than recycling,” said Katie Kennedy, the Seattle Public utilities manager who helped obtain the grant for the city. “You are displacing the need for new materials.” In addition to saving trees from being cut down for new lumber, the project is aimed at reducing waste and emissions.
New York’s Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA) has not reached the finish line. The state legislature adjourned without voting on
Mass timber is frequently praised for its aesthetic appeal and sustainability benefits. However, what often goes unrecognized are the construction phase advantages it brings to a project—advantages that directly impact schedule certainty, jobsite safety and overall delivery predictability. Beyond appearance and environmental performance, mass timber fundamentally changes how buildings are built. For owners and developers focused on speed to market and reduced risk, these operational benefits deserve just as much attention as design and carbon metrics. Mass timber construction shifts critical decision-making earlier in the project lifecycle. Structural elements such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels and glulam beams are fabricated off-site and arrive ready to install. There is no waiting on cure times, no extended periods of formwork or shoring, and fewer weather-related delays during structural erection.
More efficient use of lumber byproducts leads to more sustainable forest management. That’s why Michigan Technological University researchers are developing a biomaterial lighter than steel and just as strong, made from leftover wood waste, that could revolutionize the lumber industry. …Xinfeng Xie, associate professor of forest biomaterials, and his team have partnered with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Waste Upcycling for Defense (WUD) program to turn scrap wood into a strong, sustainable building material. …Led by Xie, students began by using a group of wood-decay fungi, also known as xylophagous fungi, to break down lignin, the tough, rigid structural polymer in plant cell walls. This biological approach leaves behind cellulose nanofibers that are stronger than steel, and its only byproducts are carbon dioxide and water. …The project also provides a physical product that has a positive impact on the future of their industry.
IRELAND — Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon [et al]… welcomed the final report from the interdepartmental and industry 
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The Finnish Sawmill Industry Association is urging the government to accelerate wood construction and broaden the use of domestic wood in building, saying Finland is not using wood construction enough to raise value added for domestic wood, support investment and strengthen regional vitality. It calls for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment to lead a national wood-construction program and appoint a high-level cross-government steering group, the Finnish Sawmill Industry Association reported. The association links wood construction to Finland’s competitiveness and industrial policy and says the market’s development should be treated as part of efforts to cut emissions from the built environment. It also calls for increasing the use of domestic wood more broadly in construction, beyond wood construction in a narrow sense. …It calls for regulation and permitting processes to be developed in a direction it says enables investments and links wood construction to Finland’s clean-transition investment goals. 
