…The Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment (wbLCA) method studies the totality of products present in a building, providing valuable information for decision-making related to the design, construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual demolition or reuse of a building. In other words, it refers to the totality of the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) for all of the building’s components. Recently, the National Research Council of Canada, in collaboration with the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute, released the national guidelines for wbLCA, which reflect what is practiced in North America. The aim is to harmonize the practice and to aid interpretation and compliance with relevant standards, with the guidelines being updated periodically as it evolves, enabling the calculation of reliable baselines or benchmarks, supporting LCA-based compliance schemes and assisting in the development and use of wbLCA software.
A substantial government outreach program focused on Green and Low-Carbon Development in China was conducted by FII China with regional Foreign Affairs Offices (FAO) in 2021, and Jiangsu was prioritized as a key province for the first round of the program. As a result of the first event, in October 2021, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between FII and the Jiangsu FAO to strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation together. The established framework ushered in new chapter for bilateral cooperation and laid the foundation for more substantial cooperation in the era of China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality strategies. A range of follow-up activities and engagements were carried out under the MOU framework to build momentum, and the past year has witnessed that the collaboration in Jiangsu province achieving new heights for the ways that FII China can work with regional government authorities. 
Explore value-added wood opportunities from Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Japan all in one seminar. On Thursday, March 30, 2023, Greg Henderson and special in-market speakers will present new wood product sales opportunities & market entry strategies for Japan as well as an overview on opportunities in Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Greg is the Founder and Co-Owner of Exportspark, a Certified International Trade Professional (CITP) and a Registered Incoterms® 2020 Trainer. For over 25 years, Greg has been working with businesses and associations to provide international trade training & advisory services to help develop exporting capabilities and drive revenue growth from international markets. Topics will include: Opportunities, buying patterns, & wood product segments that are growing in each market; key importing requirements; and a short review of local cultures & sales techniques that help prepare for any meetings with buyers from that market.
A new 485-seat elementary school and learning centre in Kamloops will be a timber-built structure designed to deal with extreme summer heat. According to the B.C.Ministry of Education and Child Care, work on the $63.5 million project in the Pineview Valley neighbourhood in Kamloops’ southwest will begin next spring and be completed by the summer of 2026. …“Mass timber will be used in the new school’s design, where appropriate. It will also include greenhouse gas reduction measures that will set the building’s emissions at least 50 per cent lower than the current LEED Gold Standards,” the Ministry statement read. “In addition, the school will be built with a climate-resilient building design that will better equip the school to stay cool during extreme heat.”:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/MYAOMRQOKBAN3BYI7N4SC5CX2U.jpg)
Homes built or remodeled in the last decade tend to have one thing in common: The floors are “luxury” vinyl plank. The material is cheap, and by scanning wood to make a print, manufacturers can somewhat convincingly mimic the real thing. But the material — now the most common type of flooring in the U.S. — is causing problems. The flooring uses PVC, plastic made from vinyl chloride, a toxic chemical. PVC products are dangerous to make, both for workers and communities nearby. They can potentially be dangerous to use because of additives. When they’re thrown out, that can lead to more pollution. And products like vinyl flooring keep growing, despite the fact that safer alternatives exist. …Perkins & Will, the architecture firm, noted in one report that some additives like plasticizers don’t bind tightly to PVC, so they can eventually end up in household dust that you breathe, or could be directly absorbed through bare feet. 
Leaps in technology are making it easier to build structures with fewer negative impacts and potentially reduce climate change, but more must be done to accelerate their widespread use. Increasing attention is on embodied carbon—amounts of CO2 emitted during the production and life cycle of building materials. For commercial buildings, this is primarily the concrete and steel making up the structure and sub-structure, which typically account for
…renewable energy and the decarbonisation of building operations is a clear social imperative. In Ireland, the day-to-day running or operational carbon of our buildings currently equates to 24 per cent of our national emissions annually. …Whole life carbon is the combination of the operational and embodied carbon in a building through a 50-year period, which equates to 51 per cent and 49 per cent of a building’s whole life carbon emissions respectively. Ireland’s Climate Action Plan takes decisive action to achieve a 51 per cent reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and sets us on a path to reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050. …Timber has the lowest embodied carbon of any mainstream building material, and acts as an ideal substitute for the more carbon-intensive traditional alternatives. …Today, 90 per cent of mass timber worldwide is manufactured in Europe. Why is it that our neighbours, with similar stringent regulations, are embracing this technology and we are not?
Timber is a natural, renewable material, easy to fabricate, and with low-carbon emissions. …Simply put, due to the complex physics involved in the perpendicular lamination, the strength of CLT board is similar to that of reinforced concrete, and has proven performance under seismic forces. …In the early 21st century, as a more sustainable and responsible reforestation-focused wood industry grew, CLT started to become the material du jour for sustainable and, indeed, circular building projects, with organizations like Circular CLT dedicated to reducing CLT production waste and finding solutions for it such as biomass-fuelled hydrogen power. But how did CLT use in construction begin? And what does it mean for the future?
