At the University of Toronto, workers are putting up a 14-story building with space for classrooms and faculty offices. What’s unusual is how they’re building it — by bolting together giant beams, columns and panels made of manufactured slabs of wood. …The tower uses a new technology called mass timber. …Though still relatively uncommon, it is growing in popularity around the world. …But a lot of the current enthusiasm over mass timber’s climate benefits is based on some big assumptions. …There are also concerns that increasing demand for wood could lead to more deforestation and less land for food production. …“A lot of architects are scratching their heads,” says Stephanie Carlisle, an architect and environmental researcher at the nonprofit Carbon Leadership Forum, wondering whether mass timber always has a net benefit. “Is that real?” She believes climate benefits do exist. But she says understanding the extent of those benefits will require more research.
In today’s newsletter, you’ll find these stories and more:
Toilet paper is a waste of Canada’s boreal forest, a U.S. environment group says. And now, more green options are hitting the market, according to its latest tissue and toilet paper 
The concept of building small apartment buildings with a single staircase is being met with renewed debate, this time in Burnaby. Earlier this year, the province announced building code changes that removed the requirement to have two stairwells in multi-unit buildings of up to six storeys. The province argues that allowing single stairwells will allow for more units in buildings and that modern safety regulations have eliminated the need for two stairwells. But designer and housing advocate Bryn Davidson says he’s been told a municipal planner in Burnaby that the city won’t accept single-stairwell designs, due to safety concerns from the local fire department… groups say the B.C. government made its changes outside of Canada’s national code development process, while the International Codes Council rejected a similar proposed change in May.
EllisDon is collaborating with British Columbia educators to funnel their mass timber knowledge into a new microcredential program. EllisDon director of construction sciences Mark Gaglione said the microcredential program originated with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) who engaged David Moses, the principal of Moses Structural Engineers, to assist in writing curriculum before reaching out to EllisDon in 2022. …EllisDon engaged in three sections of the course: planning for mass timber construction, installation and the integration of other components with a mass timber build. …BCIT has made significant progress regarding mass timber education. “They are leaders in this space,” Gaglione said. “They were really the first to see this as a knowledge gap and do something about it.” The online course is open to non-students with one year of experience in carpentry, ironworking, construction management building inspection, design, development, manufacturing and estimating.
The Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in collaboration with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) School of Construction and Environment is pleased to announce that registration is now open for our 
This months SLB update includes these headlines and more:
Two clean energy projects are underway in Sequim and Port Angeles, aided by funding obtained from the state Department of Commerce. These projects will help reduce byproduct waste for the Composite Recycling Technology Center (CRTC) and aid in construction of an independent microgrid for the Clallam County Public Utility District (PUD) No. 1. The CRTC will use about two-thirds of its $437,000 grant to buy equipment that can repurpose wood byproducts resulting from housing kit production. The remaining one-third will go to the Makah Tribe, which will also use the funds to reduce wood byproducts… The CRTC thermally modifies the lumber, which collapses the wood and removes much of the moisture, resulting in pressure-treated wood without the use of chemicals.
Ireland’s cool summers and frequent showers provide the ideal conditions for growing coniferous trees at a faster rate than in other European countries. …With significant steps being taken to reduce Ireland’s carbon footprint and with challenging carbon reduction targets in place, there is an accelerating need to build more with Irish wood to help decarbonise our built environment and support the delivery of Ireland’s climate targets. …our climate positions us uniquely to grow the softwood required for our low-carbon homes of the future. Building with wood helps to reduce carbon emissions, and it also supports local jobs and the local economy. …Conifer trees can mature in Ireland in just 35 years. It takes twice that time in other parts of Europe. …Increased adoption of wood in construction not only supports the delivery of climate action targets but would also accelerate the delivery of sustainable new homes, a critical imperative for Irish society.
Laminate flooring in particular and all MDF/HDF containing products in general, are often considered as hardly recyclable and such products commonly end in landfills or incineration at the end-of-life… In order to close the recycling loop, a revolutionising technology has been developed by Unilin based on steam explosion. This allows the extraction of valuable wood fibres from MDF/HDF containing products (in particular laminate flooring). These fibres are then prepared for reuse and used as a replacement of virgin fibres in an HDF production process. This allows to recycle the main part of a laminate flooring, being the core HDF… [The pilot project produces] over 1 ton of recycled fibres per hour, and these fibres are immediately reused in the production of new MDF/HDF products on a continuous basis.