It’s one of the most controversial vegetable oils on the planet, so what’s palm oil doing in your deodorant? That’s exactly what eco-conscious consumer Sheila O’Reilly wanted to find out when she called up makers of some popular consumer products. Palm oil is ecologically problematic and has been linked by the World Wildlife Fund, among several others, to deforestation and other environmental abuses. …Marketplace’s latest investigation has found it’s not always possible for consumers to find out whether or not palm oil is in their products, and in many cases, companies refused to disclose this information. …Palm oil is harvested from the oil palm plant. It grows easily and produces much more oil per hectare than other vegetable oils. It’s why growers in Africa, Asia and South America have been clear-cutting rainforests to make room for the lucrative crop.
This year, the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association’s Cedar Summit and Cedar School will take place in May. The Cedar Summit will be held in Victoria, BC at the beautiful Ocean Pointe Resort from May 17-19, 2023. Space is limited, so be sure to book your spot today. The Cedar School will be available in both Vancouver (at the Hilton Vancouver Airport Hotel) and Victoria (at the Ocean Pointe Resort). There is a maximum of 50 students that can attend. Each member company can send up to 5 students.
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.”
DELFT, The Netherlands — Global home furnishings retailer Ikea has joined Canopy in an effort to keep ancient and endangered forests out of the viscose supply for home textiles and to work toward supply chain transformation. By joining the CanopyStyle initiative, Ikea is continuing its commitment to the world’s forests and procuring viscose for home textiles only from producers that have achieved the highest ranking in Canopy’s Hot Button Report. Ikea is the first major retailer focused on the home textile and furnishing space to join CanopyStyle. …Lena Bischoff, material and innovation area manager, Inter Ikea Group… “The home textiles sector needs to step-up and ensure that the forest-derived textiles, like viscose and lyocell, only come from responsibly managed forests, and make a shift towards lower-impact alternatives.” The world’s ancient and endangered forests are not required to make fabrics like viscose and rayon for fashion and home fabrics.
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. 
ZGF has 70 years of experience designing to fight climate change and advance social justice. The firm’s recent work includes large-scale mass timber projects like the PDX Airport New Main Terminal and a 1,000-person Google office in Howard Hughes’ former aircraft hangar in Playa Vista, California. Check out our Studio Spotlight to learn how ZGF uses equitable design practices to make a difference in people’s lives.
Traditional timber construction, Türkiye’s cultural heritage, provides unprecedented durability, quake-resistant properties, and minimal environmental impact, say experts. …the February 6 earthquakes that left thousands of modern buildings in Türkiye and Syria in heaps of mangled steel and concrete have put the spotlight back on wood-based dwellings. Architects and building experts say that wood could be the primary building block for earthquake-resistant houses in an area lying directly atop one of the most active seismic zones in the world. And though this would mean cutting trees, they say, it can be achieved without harming the environment. …Today, many engineers and architects in Türkiye acknowledge that if traditional wooden-framed buildings are appropriately installed, they may fully serve the purpose of durability. …Ahmet Turer, a professor of civil engineering at the Middle East Technical University in Türkiye, emphasises that the question “why wood?” has several answers, alongside its ecological benefits.
…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?