Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

The Australian Government is seeking expressions of interest to establish two research centres under Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) to deliver innovative forestry research and development. Assistant Secretary for Agvet Chemicals and Forestry Julie Gaglia said that the new research centres will support long-term innovation in the forest and wood products industry. “The centres will focus on different research themes which are likely to include supporting Australian made solutions to climate change, sustainable forest management, and future wood supply,” Ms Gaglia said. …“With growing demand for wood and fibre products both domestically and internationally, and the impacts of climate change, we need to deliver research that will support the management of our forests, and the wood and fibre products they produce. “This new research will help Australian forest growers, and wood and fibre processors prepare for future demands.

Timberlink’s NeXTimber facility has pressed its very first cross laminated timber (CLT) panel, marking another significant milestone in the construction of Australia’s only combined CLT and GLT (cross laminated and glue laminated timber) radiata pine mass timber facility. The commissioning of this CLT line follows the production of the facility’s very first GLT beam in August 2023.  David Oliver, Timberlink chief marketing, sales & corporate affairs officer, said, “The entire team has been working towards this moment since we announced construction of the facility in 2020. To see the hard work of so many come to fruition is very rewarding.” …The newly commissioned CLT line, co-located at Timberlink’s Tarpeena, SA manufacturing facility, can produce panels up to 16M long and 3.5M wide and will unlock significant capability to manufacture mass timber building products in Australia.

UNITED KINGDOM – Timber businesses looking to play their part in tackling climate change can take inspiration and learning from the experience of Scotts Timber Engineering, the Northamptonshire-based manufacturer of engineered timber products, which has just received its first Carbon Footprinting certification from Go Climate Positive, a leading provider of carbon management and offsetting services. Scotts is the only timber engineering business that has received Go Climate Positive’s certification, and has been found to be achieving a third less carbon intensity than others in its industry. The certification process involved measuring the greenhouse gas emissions from all aspects of Scotts Timber Engineering’s operations, including the emissions from its supply chain and products and services. …”we are a timber-focused business – and working with sustainably sourced, PEFC-certified wood and promoting more use of timber in construction and the built environment is a sure way of boosting our green credentials,” said James Scott, managing director.

The appointment of Prof. J Owen Lewis as chair of the Interdepartmental and Industry Timber in Construction Steering group was announced October 4. The group will examine conditions to increase the use of timber in construction, assessing regulatory and standardisation challenges, and maximising the use of homegrown timber. Minister of State for land use and biodiversity at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Senator Pippa Hackett appointed the chair at the Build with Wood Conference. …Qualified as an architect, building services engineer, and energy technologist, Prof. Lewis has practised professionally in Ireland, England and Zambia.He is a former president of the philanthropic Royal Dublin Society and chair of the Irish Green Building Council, and part-time project technical director with International Development Ireland Ltd. …He is chair of the Irish Green Building Council, and part-time project technical director with International Development Ireland Ltd.

An industry consortium that includes Buro Happold and Waugh Thistleton has developed a NHBC warranty and insurance pre-assessed residential timber frame system in a bid to restore confidence in timber frame construction. Faith in timber framed residential apartment blocks collapsed after the government banned non combustible cladding systems on buildings over 18m. …Called the New Model Building, the system covers CLT and post and beam engineered timber framed buildings up to six storeys high. The system was developed by architect Waugh Thistleton, Buro Happold, Gardiner & Theobald and University College London (UCL) with support from Built by Nature. The principle behind the system is to offer 60 minutes of fire resistance, the same as a non-timber framed building and prevent fires spreading from the unit of origin. The New Model Building is open source, can be used by anyone without paying a licence fee and should open up timber frame to a wider market.

This article is part of the Bloomberg Green series Timber Town, which looks at the global rise of timber as a low-carbon building material.  SWEDEN — A giant crane hoists a 40-ton chunk of turbine tower almost 200 feet (60 meters) in the air and then places it atop a half-finished structure. What’s different about this project is that it isn’t made from the usual ingredient: steel. Rather, startup Modvion AB is building the tower out of wood, a material it says will reduce the carbon footprint by more than 90%. This will be the world’s tallest turbine of timber when completed in the coming weeks, and then it will be sold to a utility supplying clean energy to local homes and factories. …CEO Otto Lundman said, “Wind power is one of the most efficient and attractive that we have. We increase that value further.”

The world’s gone digital and yet many professions and industries still rely on paper every day. When will they scrunch up and toss away the last page?  For 400 years British hydrographers have made paper charts of the world’s seas and oceans. …Paper, it seems, still rules the waves. …For decades, computers, smartphones and tablets have provided an alternative. Erin Smith, a popular YouTuber who runs a channel about stationery, says there is a cottage industry of high-quality stationery manufacturers who target their products at those who want to use real paper… A study published in 2021 indicated increased brain activity is associated with remembering information once it has been written down by hand, as opposed to recording it on a smartphone or tablet. …Oskar Lingqvist, global leader of paper and forest products at management consultants McKinsey says his research reveals that other kinds of non-graphic paper, especially cardboard packaging, are flourishing. 

Janne Poranen is co-founder and executive chair of Finnish start-up Spinnova, who spin wood pulp into sustainable fibre for clothes. He talks to Julianna Photopoulos about falling into a physics career and using cellulose technology to help make the fashion industry more sustainable. …You might be somewhat shocked to know that, according to a recent European Union (EU) study, worldwide fashion and clothing is responsible for 10% of global CO₂ emissions. It’s probably not something you think about when you pull on your jeans in the morning, but your clothes come with a significant environmental cost. …Janne Poranen – a physicist at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) decided to do something about it in 2014. As head of biomaterials at VTT, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was possible to create more sustainable textiles; ones made with minimal water, without the use of polluting chemicals and with negligible CO2 emissions.

Support for New Zealand’s wood processing and manufacturing industry, as proposed in the National Party ‘Forests for a Strong Economy’ policy will advance New Zealand’s economic and sustainable future. “New Zealand’s wood industry is one of the few sectors able to promote regional growth, strong communities, and environmental benefits,” says the Wood Processors and Manufacturers Association of New Zealand (WPMA) Chief Executive, Mark Ross. The National Party policy carves out initiatives such as implementing a scheme under the Emissions Trading Scheme making carbon values available to wood processors, introducing a streamlined consenting process to establish new wood processing facilities, and facilitating growth in our export markets for value-added wood products. “As a major industry in New Zealand we are at the forefront of delivering economic growth, long-lived carbon storage and emissions reduction,” adds Ross.

PERTH, Australia — Plans to build the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower in Perth have been approved after negotiations and redesigns. Victorian developer Grange Development Consulting now has the green light to build the $350 million tower with 237 apartments over 51 storeys. …The proposed building at 6 Charles Street is named C6 after the periodic table’s symbol for carbon and would become the State’s first carbon-negative building. …Grange Development founder and director James Dibble said mass timber construction and fabrication methods had made it a viable option to use only recently. “If we get this right, we should never have to rely on building another solely concrete or steel tower in our lifetime.” “If we can accelerate a paradigm shift into the use of more renewable building materials such as mass timber in a hybrid nature… we will have succeeded.”

Surfboard design has evolved over millennia from flat, solid planks of Hawaiian wood to the now hollow polyurethane foam boards wrapped in fibreglass and polyester or epoxy resin so beloved by surfing fanatics around the globe. However, one Scottish maker has managed to combine and refine the old ways with the new and create boards sympathetic to the roots of the sport while also being expertly designed. Frazer Reid chose to blend his two great passions of woodwork and surfing into a business model, launching his company FAR Cabinet Makers and Wooden Surfboards from his hometown in Crail, Fife. …“Wooden surfboards are built like an aeroplane wing,” says Frazer. “The framework for the interior is all cut on my CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine. The framework is then cut and everything is built around it, which dictates the overall shape and size of the board.

An ambitious $138 million, 51-storey building proposed for South Perth near Perth Zoo known as the “timber tower” faces knockback this week for not having “achieved design excellence”. C6 promises to be the world’s tallest hybrid-timber building and Western Australia’s first to be “carbon negative”, but the Joint Development Assessment Panel will consider a recommendation for refusal at its Thursday meeting, calling it an “over-development” that has not adequately addressed authorities’ concerns. …The agenda for Thursday’s meeting says it has provided only 2.4 per cent deep soil area for tree planting, instead of the required 10 per cent. The development proposes “on-structure planting” to compensate, but “no demonstration of the viability of the proposed on-structure planting has been demonstrated,” the city noted in its assessment. It also noted that the banksias and peppermint trees proposed under the podium would have restricted access to sunlight and there was no plan for how they would survive.

Local architecture office Superlimão Studio has created a lifted building with a tree-like structure constructed using mass timber for a McDonald’s restaurant in São Paulo.   Located at one of the busiest intersections of São Paulo, the 2,150-square foot (220-square metre) building is part of the American fast food chain’s “Recipe for the Future” initiative and was completed in 2023.  …Superlimão Studio employed cross-laminated timber (CLT) pillars with diagonal branching bracing to overcome the maximum spans of the materials to reinforce a  “connection with nature and the sustainability theme throughout the project,” the team said.  …The design uses engineered wood from floor to ceiling that can be seen from the street through glass curtain walls and exposed to occupants through an opening in the finish layers.

McDonald’s has refurbished and turned its Tai Wo site in Hong Kong into a more sustainable place, strengthening its environmental commitment. The Tai Wo location recently became Hong Kong’s first Leed Zero Carbon restaurant, and the design is estimated to save 848.22 metric tonnes of CO2 at the restaurant, which is comparable to planting more than 36,000 16-foot-tall trees. According to the company, the outside facade is made from local trees that have fallen due to typhoons or old age, owing to a collaboration with eco-social startup HK Timberbank. The furniture and decor on the inside are produced from recycled materials. …It also includes a new collection of Happy Meal books and colouring games teaching young diners about environmental protection, from energy conservation to lowering carbon emissions.

Researchers have developed a quick and easy way to turn the wood-based bioproduct lignin into nanoparticles that can create a transparent coating with anti-fog properties or a colorful antireflective surface. The discovery transforms this abundant waste product into a useful material with diverse applications, such as on glasses and vehicle windows. …One of the barriers to using lignin is its complicated molecular structure, which makes it difficult to break down. Now, researchers from Aalto University in Finland have developed a method of turning lignin into a bio-based transparent coating with anti-fogging and antireflective properties. …The small size of the particles enabled the researchers to control layer thickness and appearance, from transparent sub-monolayers to multilayered films, which allowed them to control the color and absorbance of light at different wavelengths. 

MEXICO CITY — Local architecture studio Dellekamp Schleich has created an office building in Mexico City that it says is the country’s largest and tallest mass-timber structure to “set an example for innovative construction methods”. Called El Jardín Anatole, the 940-square-metre structure was placed in the former courtyard of a historic house in a residential neighbourhood in Mexico City. The four-storey office and retail building has a structure that consists almost completely of engineered timber derived from oak trees from the north of Mexico, except for a dramatic V-shaped steel truss at ground level and concrete used for the elevator and stairwells. In a country where concrete and stone are widely used for architecture, the studio wanted to “explore the potential of lighter construction materials”. …Mexico City is subject to earthquakes, so the studio wanted to make sure that it created a solid, flexible structure that could withstand seismic activity.

The find didn’t look like much at first – basically a log, lying crosswise over another log.  “It didn’t look particularly exciting,” says Larry Barham, professor of archaeology at the University of Liverpool. “But when you look closely and you remove the sand around it, you can see where one sits on top of the other is a notch.”  That notch suggested that the logs had been manipulated by human beings – extraordinarily ancient ones, who once frequented this site above the dramatic 772-foot Kalambo Falls in Zambia.  Later analysis of the logs would reveal telltale signs of having been cut, chopped and shaped by human tools.  …We know very little about how early humans worked with wood because so few of the artifacts survive.  … The team carefully excavated five different wood objects and set about dating them. …They found three different periods of human occupation: 476,000, 390,00 and 324,000 years ago.

KRISTIANSAND, Norway — Lumber 4 by Olso-based architectural practice Oslotre is a commercial and office building spanning six floors constructed using a composite structure of CLT and concrete, creating a slim and efficient floor system that spans long distances while also addressing fire and acoustic requirements. A recessed ground floor constitutes the commercial level, with the five floors above dedicated to office spaces. Diagonals on the ground floor facilitate better vehicular access around the building. The existing communication core from adjacent building phases contributes to lateral stability and access to the office floors. Between the third and fourth floors, an atrium with an internal staircase made of mass timber has been introduced. Wood elements are prominently displayed in the interior, providing warmth in winter and cooling in summer. The façade is composed of prefabricated curved wooden elements in pine, treated with green paint. …The insulation used throughout is wood fiber. The cladding consists of fire-treated pine.