Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

Nouryon, a global specialty chemicals leader, has signed a 15-year agreement with Suzano, a world leading eucalyptus pulp producer. Under the long-term agreement, Nouryon will commission its sustainable Integrated Manufacturing Model for the new Suzano eucalyptus pulp mill in the municipality of Ribas do Rio Pardo, located in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The project, called the “Cerrado Project”, is a $2.8 billion pulp mill with annual production capacity of 2.55 million tons per year and one of the largest private-sector investments currently under development in Brazil. The pulp mill production is scheduled to commence in the second half of 2024.

As the need to address climate change grows more urgent, policymakers, businesses, and others are seeking innovative approaches to remove carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere and decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. Forests can play a role in reducing atmospheric carbon. However, there is disagreement over whether forests are most effective in reducing carbon emissions when left alone versus managed for sustainable harvesting and wood product production. Cross-laminated timber is at the forefront of the mass timber movement… Several recent studies have shown that substituting mass timber for steel and concrete in mid-rise buildings can reduce the emissions by 13%-26.5%. However, the prospect of increased utilization of wood products as a climate solution also raises questions about the impact of increased demand for wood on forest carbon stocks, on forest condition, and on the provision of the many other critical social and environmental benefits that healthy forests can provide.

The pandemic has been marked by brief periods of shortage worldwide (remember the great toilet paper rush of 2020?). …The scarcity of lumber brought prices to an all-time high of $1,686 per thousand board feet in May, a 400 percent peak from pre-pandemic levels when prices shuffled between $350 to $500. In August, there was some good news as wood fell to $399 per thousand board feet. But that didn’t last too long as lumber shot back up by 50 percent a few weeks later. …The spike was prompted by several factors… Then the lockdown happened, leading to an uptick in DIY home improvement, building, and buying of new homes… In countries like Finland, innovative building techniques with wood are the latest trend. …much of the processes in sawmills are handled by machinery… For example, several mills make use of different automated tools to scan and optimize raw wood to make sure it’s top quality for the market.

Beginning in April, Mitsubishi Estate Co. will sell single-story houses made exclusively from Japan-grown timber. To save time and money, Mitsubishi Estate is involved in the entire process, from the procurement of materials to the sale of the homes. It has set a price of ¥10 million for a 100-square-meter residence, exceptionally low for a major housing manufacturer. From the production of materials through the house’s completion, a wooden house results in half the carbon dioxide emissions of those made with steel frames and reinforced concrete. By using Japan-grown timber, Mitsubishi Estate will promote domestic forestry and decarbonization. The wood is cut in forests in the Kyushu region and processed at a special factory in Kagoshima Prefecture. Each room is built and has its interior finished at the factory, before being transported by truck to a housing site where the residence is put together with a crane.

Kyoto – A plan is underway in Japan to launch the world’s first satellite made partially of wood in 2023, as its development team aims to harness the environmental friendliness and low cost of wood in space development.  A satellite whose exterior is made of wood will burn up upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere after the end of its operation, creating less burden on the environment, according to the team comprised of Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry Co.  In addition, it will be cheaper to make than by conventional methods using aluminum, the current mainstream material for a satellite. Because electromagnetic waves can penetrate wood, the satellite can house an antenna inside.  …The state-run university and the Tokyo-based wood products company are set to test the durability of wood in space, possibly from February, using an extravehicular experimental apparatus at the International Space Station.

Budget furniture manufacturer Ikea has been named in an illegal logging investigation. The chain has been connected to tainted wood supplied by Evgeny Bakurov. Ikea has denied knowledge of the unsustainable practices but has since cut Bakurov and his companies from its supply chain. Lead investigator, Earthsight, is holding the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accountable. … Ikea has been prolific about its efforts to attain superior sustainability credentials. It has already cut all single-use plastic from product ranges and packaging. It’s targeting 2030 as the deadline for all items to be made from only renewable or recycled materials. The use of unethically produced timber undermines these efforts. … During its year-long investigation, Earthsight discovered a vast illegal logging industry within the protected forests of Russia. …  Numerous forestry and environmental laws have been broken … This has resulted in 2.16 million cubic metres of wood being illegally removed from protected forests in the last 10 years.

I noticed in the December 22nd Tree Frog News a story about the Three Little Pigs fable being a damaging narrative for natural materials. To provide a contrarian viewpoint, we’ve been running a very successful Three Little Pigs campaign of seven animated videos in Japan to educate homeowners on the advantages of 2X4 wood frame construction on YouTube and Facebook. I believe we’ve had over 2 million views and it’s been a very successful campaign. It’s been picked up by a number of Japanese homebuilders and distributors and used as a promotional device. That ‘ole wolf can huff and puff but he can’t blow down a 2X4 structure! 

The house built by the familiar “Three Little Pigs” in fairy tales is a wooden 2×4 construction method. The little pigs will teach the wolf who doesn’t know anything about its merits in an easy-to-understand manner. This is the first episode “Earthquake resistance” of the seven-part work. 

James Drinkwater

The fable of the Three Little Pigs highlights negative perceptions about natural construction materials, according to James Drinkwater, head of Built Environment at philanthropic climate organisation the Laudes Foundation. Speaking about the need to increase the use of timber and other biomaterials in construction, Drinkwater said that the well-known children’s story presented natural materials such as straw and wood as “terrible”. The story refers to a fable that dates back to the 1800s… While the Big Bad Wolf blows down the two pigs’ houses made of natural materials and eats their occupants, the brick house prevails and the third pig is saved. …Hosted by Dezeen founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs… the talk explored ideas about how architecture can work with rather than against environmental systems in order to support sustainable development.

The art of boat building is as recognisable as ever, but the science of it is constantly developing. New materials and new techniques can make it hard to compare like with like. Take wood, for instance: the material of boatbuilding choice for millennia. …perhaps the best known of the wooden boatbuilders is Spirit Yachts in Ipswich, building thoroughly modern boats – in composite wood. ‘Certainly we use epoxy resin to bond the components together, but the amount of resin used is minute compared to glass reinforced plastic or carbon,’ says founder and head designer Sean McMillan. ‘Wood, whilst also a linear fibre material, is cross-linked with a cellular structure entirely created by nature and has full structural integrity in its own right.’ Another example is racy French builder RM Yachts, whose boats are famously swift, with offshore hulls designed by Marc Lombard. And yet they are built in plywood and epoxy.

Mumbai: Canadian Wood, the crown agency of the government of British Columbia (B.C.) recently hosted a webinar focused on the theme ‘Sustainable Forestry, Certifications & Climate Change’. The webinar is a testimony of Canadian Wood’s continuous efforts of imparting knowledge among all stakeholders on the subjects related to sustainable forestry and use of softwood. …British Columbia (B.C.), is recognized as a global leader in sustainable forest management and is known for meeting the environmental, social, and economic needs of the current and future generations. The webinar revealed that India is a large scale consumer of forestry products but most of the forests in India are protected and can no longer provide a reliable source of good quality wood. That is why India needs to rely on imports of certified wood to satisfy the growing demand among consumers. 

Skellefteå is an idyllic town in Northern Sweden that’s home to about 70,000 people, but with a new battery plant for the electric car industry on the way, it is about to hit a growth spurt.   From the beginning, the Sara Kulturhus—a cultural center-cum-hotel named after the popular Swedish author Sara Lidman (1923–2004)—was to be a glowing icon for the future of Skellefteå. In 2016, Stockholm-based White Arkitekter won an international design competition by proposing a building using almost exclusively timber, and in September 2021, Sara Kulturhus officially opened to the public.   …The complex is made entirely of wood except for the underground levels, which are built of concrete, and the spacious foyer, which was made possible by extra-wide load bearing steel girders. …Most of the wood was harvested locally and sawed in a mill just 30 miles from Skellefteå. 

VIDEO Story – The man who helped start a fossil-fuel giant is now investing in a timber mill that he says can be part of the fight against climate change. Click the read more to watch the video.