Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

The Finnish forest industry’s reputation as a producer of highly processed products has been hit hard, as demand for printing paper has dwindled. The Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) recently noted that the value added to the national economy by each cubic metre of wood processed has declined since the paper industry’s ‘golden age’. Additionally, if the amount of wood available for processing decreases due to climate protections, the challenge becomes even greater. Now, Finnish forestry firms want to make something more expensive out of wood than pulp.Metsä Group discontinued production of printing paper in 2016. As a result, more of the company’s pulp has been sold instead of being made into more expensive products. …Stora Enso has also almost completely abandoned printing paper and converted its machines to produce cardboard, among other things.

The future of Australia’s built environment hinges on a single word: carbon. Australia’s construction industry faces a challenge, with embodied carbon predicted to account for a staggering 85% of its emissions by 2050. …”Australia, as a whole, is taking an audit of industries and how they address sustainable and circular practices,” observes Kevin Peachey, Head of Built Environment at WoodSolutions. “In a bid to combat climate change and achieve emission reduction targets, the Australian Government set ambitious goals, legislating a 43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – and net-zero emissions by 2050.” …Could it be that this one-word problem has a one-word solution? Wood. …These developments only highlight the need for the type of expert guidance that organisations like WoodSolutions provide to the industry. …The series offers a comprehensive look at sustainable timber construction, from the role of forests in carbon capture to detailed guidance on calculating the embodied carbon of building materials. 

Additional coverage from Architecture and Design Australia: Q&A with Kevin Peachey, Head of Built Environment Programs at FWPA & WoodSolutions

The Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport announced changes in the building regulations for wooden multi-family residential buildings that eliminate the existing requirement for thick concrete floors that serve as sound barriers between units in wood frame apartment buildings. Previously, all multi-family buildings were required to have floors with a minimum thickness of 210 mm of concrete slab. …Previously, the requirement for concrete floors resulted in the loss of a market for 800 annual Korean multi-family Dagagu building housing starts for Canadian wood products. The removal of this requirement is expected to revitalize this market, potentially restoring Canadian wood as a primary material in these constructions. …Canada Wood Korea, along with other organizations, has been advocating for these changes to support the use of wood in building construction. 

Read more about Canada Wood Market Insights in the May Newsletter

HÀ NỘI — General Secretary of Việt Nam Timber and Forest Products Association (Viforest) Ngô Sỹ Hoài said that the wood industry needs to pay attention to green production and trade to increase exports. According to Hoài currently, many major markets are strengthening the enforcement of import regulations as well as important technical barriers for products from exporting countries. For example, EU countries have requested exporters to meet regulations at the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Goods imported into the EU will be imposed with a carbon tax and businesses must convert to lower-emission production models to get carbon credits. Viforest is encouraging businesses to ensure green production, green trade and digital transformation. Sustainable development will be key to increase orders and revenue from export activities. The association has been conducting many trade promotion activities at home and abroad to seek more customers and orders.

In 1836, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, a Danish antiquarian, brought the first semblance of order to prehistory, suggesting that the early hominids of Europe had gone through three stages of technological development that were reflected in the production of tools. The basic chronology — Stone Age to Bronze Age to Iron Age — now underpins the archaeology of most of the Old World. Thomsen could well have substituted Wood Age for Stone Age, according to Thomas Terberger, head of research at the Department of Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony, in Germany. …Dr. Terberger published a study last month that provided the first comprehensive report on the wooden objects excavated from 1994 to 2008 in northern Germany. …The objects date from the end of a warm interglacial period 300,000 years ago, about when early Neanderthals were supplanting Homo heidelbergensis, their immediate predecessors in Europe. The projectiles unearthed at the Schöningen site are considered the oldest preserved hunting weapons. [a NY Times subscription is required to access the full story]

UK — Hemp could become a key tool in the fight against climate change. Like timber, hemp is a biogenic material.  …I have estimated that substituting concrete with cross-laminated timber in all new building floor construction globally for the next 30 years, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 20 and 80 million tonnes. Yet, hemp grows much faster than trees, growing up to four metres within four months, giving it a greater capacity to absorb CO₂ per hectare. …Raw hemp fibre can be processed into panels and mats for thermal or acoustic insulation and made into a hemp lime. By mixing raw fibres with mortar and moulding it into blocks, hemp lime can be used as a substitute for concrete blocks. …Hurdles remain. Assuming there is enough available land to meet market demand from competing crops, the higher than average cost of hemp-based building products will likely fall as production scales up.

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA — As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia embarks on its ambitious Giga projects, the inaugural Saudi International Wood and Woodworking Machinery Exhibition is set to play a pivotal role in linking these grand endeavors with the burgeoning wood and woodworking machinery market. Organized under the banner of the renowned WoodShow Global platform, Saudi WoodShow is slated to take place in Riyadh from May 12 to 14, 2024. …The WoodShow unites stakeholders, offering a pivotal platform for innovation, partnership, and leveraging the nation’s ambitious infrastructure endeavors for economic prosperity. …In addition to a stellar lineup of exhibitors, Saudi WoodShow boasts GUMACO as a Strategic Partners. Partner associations such as French Timber, AHEC (American Hardwood Export Council), American Softwood, Malaysian Timber Council, and AIMSAD (Turkish Woodworking Machinery Industrialists Association) will also contribute their insights and resources to enrich the exhibition experience.

Architecture studio Elding Oscarson has extended the National Swedish Museum of Technology with Wisdome Stockholm, a timber building topped by a curving roof that bulges over a dome inside. Made from 277 pieces of triangular cross-laminated timber (CLT), the spherical structure, which the designers refer to as a “visualisation dome”, contains tiered seating surrounded by 3D screens. It sits inside an open-plan rectangular hall… Elding Oscarson founders Jonas Elding and Johan Oscarson told Dezeen that they developed their design for Wisdome Stockholm to showcase the possibilities of timber construction. “We wanted the project to show the possibilities with timber, so we aimed for making everything in timber – of course the flooring and interior, but also the exterior,” they said. …The roof was made from a timber gridshell of layers of thin laminated veneer lumber (LVL) board bonded by LVL dowels and bolts. It sits atop an LVL column structure spanning 48 by 24 metres.

The sustainability of materials used to generate electricity through wind power took a step forward today, as a German manufacturer announced a prototype turbine spinning with blades made from wood. Based at Lichtenfels, near Kassel in central Germany, Voodin Blade Technologies says its lumber blades help turbines reduce CO2 emissions by up to 78% against conventional materials, and cut up to 20% from turbine production costs. The four year old start-up has attached its innovative structures, 19.3 metres in length, to an existing turbine tower already erected at Breuna, near Kassel.  60- and 80-meter blades are also taking shape on the firm’s drawing board. Voodin’s boss Tom Siekmann says that while up to 90% of wind turbines are recyclable, conventional blades are currently not. Their usual construction is of fibreglass and carbon fibre sealed with epoxy resin. …Voodin makes its wooden blades from laminated veneer lumber using CNC lathes to create complex 3D shapes.

The Scottish Timber Trade Association (STTA) brought the timber and wood products industry together at Holyrood for the first time to host a reception about driving net zero awareness and timber’s benefits to the Scottish economy. Along with three other leading timber and wood products organisations …the STTA invited more than 40 businesses operating in the timber and wood product industry supply chain across Scotland to discuss the critical role it plays in supporting the country’s drive to Net Zero. …Alex Goodfellow, CEO of Donaldson Group and STA board member said: “The reception was the first time the timber industry has gathered at Holyrood to discuss sustainability and how timber in construction supports the drive to Net Zero. Scotland excels at timber production, and we lead the UK in the use of timber frame construction, both of which support the country’s economy and sustainability goals. However, more production is needed.

100 years after it last hosted the games, Paris is once again home to 2024 Summer Olympics and just one large-scale permanent building has been created for the occasion: an aquatic sports center that’s defined by an stunning curving concave wooden roof and boasts impressive sustainability features. The Aquatics Centre Paris 2024 was designed by VenhoevenCS and studio Ateliers 2/3/4, and is located in the Saint-Denis district. The roof is impressive, with a span of 89 metres and a curving concave form. This isn’t just to make it look attractive, but actually has a practical reason too. The idea is that it reduces the volume of air inside, correspondingly minimizing the level of air-conditioning required to deal with the humidity that’s inevitable in a swimming pool. Timber was also used on the glazed sections of the exterior to provide shading. Though the building does incorporate concrete, its main structural elements are timber.

One of the planet’s most natural defenses against climate change and a key element in sustainable products is found in wine bottles around the world. Scientists and engineers say cork has been used to make several products in everyday life, from flooring to insulation, and the process of harvesting it leaves a small carbon footprint. In Portugal, farmers are only able to harvest bark by hand from the trees during a three-month window in the summer every nine years, and they use careful techniques to avoid wounding the trees.