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The University of Toronto’s motto “velut arbor aevo,” meaning “may it grow as a tree through the ages,” is coming to life with the construction of a tower made primarily of mass timber. Construction is planned to begin this spring on a 14-storey, 80-metre-tall academic building that will be built on a frame made of wood instead of steel. To date, it’s the largest tall mass timber structure of its kind to go up in North America. …The Canadian Wood Council says mass timber is dense, strong and efficient to build with… Chief executive Kevin McKinley says. …The university’s tower is also important because it supports the efforts of Canada’s forestry sector to find new markets for its products and stay at the forefront of technology innovation. “There are also the intangible benefits. …It’s nice to live or work in a building made of wood”.
Following the February 17 announcement by Penguin Random House parent company Bertelsmann that the conglomerate will be carbon neutral by 2030, Penguin Random House (PRH)… announced its 2020 Social Responsibility Commitments, which laid out its objective to publish its books responsibly and minimize its environmental impact. As part of that document, PRH set two sustainability goals for 2020: source 100% of the paper it uses from certified mills and cut its carbon emissions by 10%. According to PRH global CEO Markus Dohle, at the end of 2019, 98% of its paper purchased was from mills certified by either the Sustainable Forestry Initiative or the Forest Stewardship Council. By the end of 2020, Dohle wrote, “we are fully on track” to reach the publisher’s goal of sourcing 100% of its paper from certified mills.
Wood construction costing workshops – just over 1 WEEK away! With BC’s recent early adoption of the 2020 National Building Code, there will soon be a surge of taller mass timber buildings in planning and construction. As the new code, objectives, innovative systems and construction capabilities advance wood construction, it’s becoming increasingly important to understand how wood building projects differ in planning, timing and costing. Wood WORKS! BC, in partnership with VRCA and ICBA and with support from BC Wood, is pleased to present two workshops tailored to help different sectors understand the differences in pricing wood projects relative to other materials. Experienced professionals will share their knowledge and experience – both successes and challenges. These two workshops (happening on the same day and tailored for two different groups) – will feature presenters with extensive experience in wood projects, from concept through detailed estimating and to final assembly.
As the sawmill industry develops, it is facing many challenges; however, it is being offered many business opportunities as well. With this in mind, /https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2020/02/18/sidewalk-labs-project-has-sufficient-merit-to-move-to-the-next-phase-evaluation-committee-says/sidewalk_labs.jpg)
Wood is having a moment in the world of architecture. Other cities, including Milwaukee and Minneapolis, are going all-in on an innovative type of wood whose boosters claim takes less energy to produce than concrete or steel. It might even be on the verge of making inroads in Chicago, where the Great Fire of 1871 incinerated vast stretches of the city as it raced from one wood building to another. The type of wood in question is not stick-like two-by-fours. It goes by the catch-all phrase “mass timber”… In Milwaukee, developers plan to break ground this spring on a 25-story residential tower that is billed as the world’s tallest mass timber structure. …Chicago’s mass timber efforts are modest by comparison. Last week, when Related Midwest announced it will start construction on The 78 megaproject along the Chicago River, the developer’s president, Curt Bailey, hinted that the project’s first phase could include low-rise office buildings supported by mass timber.
Could wood buildings save the climate? New research from Yale indicates that the use of engineered wood in urban construction could help cities absorb excess carbon from the environment. This collaborative study from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the School of Architecture and colleagues from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany modeled the effects of building materials on carbon emissions and storage. They found that timber products have the potential to turn our buildings into carbon sinks. “Natural carbon sinks such as land ecosystems and oceans have been able to offset anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide for decades, but scientists were never sure how long this absorption capacity [would] persist because of a changing climate,” said Galina Churkina, Potsdam Institute researcher and the study’s co-author.
BOGOTA – Nearly half of the 500 top global companies and investment firms that produce, use or finance commodities posing a threat to forests have made no public commitment to prevent deforestation in their supply chains, researchers said on Wednesday. Swathes of tropical rainforest… are being cleared each year according to UK-based environmental group Global Canopy. Its sixth annual Forest 500 report tracked the policies of 500 companies and financial institutions with the most influence on tropical forests. …The report found that 40% of the 350 companies which produce, trade, use or sell the largest amounts of the six key commodities had made no public commitment to prevent deforestation in their operations and supply chains. …The proportion of companies with no deforestation commitments had barely changed since last year, she noted.
