Sustainable Timber Use - “Can’t See the Wood from the Trees” Webinar

This webinar explored the use of timber in buildings. The main message was that FSC Certified timber (Forest Stewardship Council Certified) is the best timber to specify, other certified timbers aren’t guaranteed to be working to best practice in regards to the health of forests or the animals that live in the forest. Mixing timbers up and being open to not using a single species also helps with general health of forests and forest regeneration. What is imperative are the environmental product declarations of the timber products that are specified in buildings. These are becoming more widely available.

Timbers to avoid are European Pine, CCA treated timbers. 

There is an argument that CLT uses timber in an inefficient manner especially if transported from Europe. Using mass timber for insulation is a waste.

Timbers that are good to use include (in no particular order):

a. Radiata pine 

b. Shining Gum is a fast growing timber

c. E0 timber in lieu of CCA treated timbers

d. Timber sourced from thinning of forests is a much more sensitive approach to timber harvesting

e. Investigate Parallel Strand Lumber, which is a CSIRO invention but produced now in the USA

f. Urban Timber: timber sourced from urban areas and milled with portable sawmill at the location of the tree. Trees sourced from arborists, council clean ups or post storms. The portable sawmill (Lucas Mill) 

g. See Ceres Fairwood

When using timber

1. Build small and lean, quality not quantity

2. Recycled timber is best

3. Source fast growing timbers from plantations

4. Mixed plantations are also a good way of maintaining the health of the environment