September 2021

The SLB and USDA Sign MOU to Support Net-Zero Carbon Construction and Resilient Forests

Earlier this month, the SLB and USDA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during a quarterly WoodWorks Board meeting, an organization that the SLB and USDA jointly fund. This MOU builds upon the existing collaborative relationship that seeks to grow demand for wood products as natural climate solutions. The organizations will jointly explore and coordinate additional market development, research, technological advances, and other activities to expand the use of wood in the built environment.

“Since signing the original MOU in 2015, the SLB and USDA have proudly worked together on many notable initiatives to promote and grow markets for softwood lumber in residential, commercial, and multifamily construction. We look forward to continued collaboration and cooperation for the benefit of the entire softwood lumber industry,” explained Caroline Dauzat, Owner of Rex Lumber and SLB Board Chair.

Through increased partnerships and co-funding of joint initiatives, the SLB and USDA will achieve shared goals and objectives and deliver them at a rate that is more efficient and effective than working separately. Key initiatives to accelerate adoption of innovative wood building solutions include:

• Continuing joint funding of WoodWorks, a free provider of education and technical support related to the design, engineering, and construction of commercial and multifamily wood buildings in the U.S.
• Promoting carbon-sequestering wood as a means to mitigate climate change through responsible material selection.
• Developing initiatives to expand understanding of embodied carbon, life cycle assessments, and the connection to forest management and wood construction.
• Creating events to expand connections with large corporations who can use wood products to meet their sustainability goals.
• Supporting university and young professional education programs by highlighting the benefits of forests and forest products and how to design and build with them.
• Establishing support programs for real estate developers and owners by removing or addressing market barriers to using wood products in new market segments.
• Exploring strategies and connections to sawmill investment for locations that have lost infrastructure.

Read more about the MOU and collaborative efforts between the SLB and USDA here.

WoodWorks Grows Tall Wood Portfolio

WoodWorks recently added 14 new tall wood projects to its technical assistance portfolio and has now assisted more than 120 tall wood projects to date. WoodWorks categorizes a project as tall wood based on its occupancy type, maximum height, and number of stories in relation to what is allowable under 2018 code. Recently assisted projects include:

• Ascent — Set to become the tallest mass timber structure in North America, Ascent is being built in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and features 19 stories of mass timber over a six-story podium. Photo credit: Korb & Associates.
• 80M — Now going up, 80M includes a three-story mass timber vertical addition to a pre-existing structure. It will be the first commercial office building in Washington, D.C. to feature mass timber as an addition to an existing building.
• Apex Clean Energy Headquarters — In Charlottesville, Virginia, Apex’s new eight-story HQ is being built of CLT sourced from 1.6 million board feet of black spruce. CLT is central to the project’s sustainability ambitions and offers significant schedule savings while minimizing community impact. See live visual updates of the project here.
• Intro — Nearing construction completion in Cleveland, the 512,000-square-foot Intro multifamily project includes eight stories of mass timber over a concrete podium and exposed CLT ceilings supported by glulam columns and beams.

Intro, in particular, meshes trends and highlights the emerging opportunity available for mass timber multifamily projects in the six- to 12-story range. Approximately 64% of mass timber projects under design in the United States are multifamily projects, and 85% of WoodWorks’ tall wood portfolio are in the six- to 12-story range. WoodWorks and the SLB have placed strategic importance on this category of construction. The SLB’s Mass Timber Outlook predicts that incremental demand will grow by approximately 1.7 billion board feet in the six-to 12-story range through 2035, delivered through nearly 500 building projects.

Outcomes of WoodWorks’ Education on Display in San Jacinto College Project

The 122,142-square-foot San Jacinto College classrooms project in Pasadena, Texas, was the first of three mass timber projects now underway at Kirksey Architecture. WoodWorks has provided technical support to Kirksey since 2018, and several members of its project team—including the owner—have attended WoodWorks’ education events to enhance their mass timber expertise over the years.

For San Jacinto College, Kirksey initially considered concrete, steel, and mass timber as structural options. WoodWorks provided timely support to help steer the team to mass timber, including introducing possible suppliers; providing technical information on grid design, shaft walls, and concrete toppings; advising on pricing and insurance; and joining a meeting with Houston city officials to build their knowledge of and comfort with mass timber.

According to Steve Durham, Kirksey’s Executive Vice President and Director of Collegiate Projects, “WoodWorks has been incredibly instrumental in educating many of us on mass timber. It wasn’t just for a single project. They were a great, constant source of information.”

WoodWorks also leveraged the San Jacinto College project to create several unique education opportunities to further the case for wood, including hosting a mass timber conference with the AWC and San Jacinto College for code officials, contractors, architects, and engineers, and by organizing project tours for code officials and specifiers.

The San Jacinto College project is under construction and set to consume the equivalent of 2.1 million board feet of softwood lumber. The project’s estimated 17 board feet per square foot consumption vastly exceeds the typical light-frame baseline of 8 to 9 board feet and shows how volume opportunity goes up when mass timber is used for a structural system.

Think Wood Launches Mass Timber Digest Showcasing Innovative Research & Projects

In response to increasing demand for information on low-carbon building solutions, Think Wood has debuted the first volume of a biannual publication, the Mass Timber Digest, a 30-page journal on innovations in mass timber research and design. The downloadable PDF features new and emerging mass timber research with support and permission from industry leaders Sidewalk Labs, Perkins&Will, DLR Group, Michael Green Architecture, Gray Organschi Architects, Generate Technologies, and SERA Architects. Featured articles include “Designing a Mass Timber Hotel,” “Using Buildings for Carbon Storage,” “Testing Prefab Prototypes,” “Comparing Structural Building Systems,” and “Boosting Density While Curbing Climate Impacts.”

Since launching in late July, the Digest has been downloaded more than 2,100 times, ranking as one of the campaign’s most popular resources in the past two months. The piece also headlined Google’s Sidewalk Labs’ weekly newsletter in late July, further signaling industry support and interest in mass timber.

Throughout Q3, the Digest has been promoted on Think Wood’s website and via media partnerships and paid social media and search campaigns. The second volume of the Digest is tentatively scheduled for publication in Q2 2022. The Digest is aligned with Think Wood's strategy of producing high-value resources that engage architecture, engineering, and construction professionals and nurturing those prospects into qualified leads.

AWC Expertise on Display in New Resource, Events

The AWC continues to solidify its reputation as an authority on wood design and code acceptance through expert commentary, technical inputs, and high-quality education to audiences nationwide. In August, the AWC released the 2021 Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic (SDPWS) Commentary, which describes changes to the 2021 edition, including new provisions on cross laminated timber (CLT) shear wall design and diaphragm systems, weak story requirements, and cantilevered diaphragm deflection equations. Concurrently, the AWC guided more than 1,200 building and design professionals—a record number—through the SDPWS changes during a new continuing education webinar. View the Commentary now on the AWC’s website, and access the webinar here.

Separately, the AWC presented on the fire safety of tall mass timber at the annual FDIC International conference in Indianapolis in August. FDIC International is the largest firefighting event in the world, and by being among the small number of guests invited to present, the AWC expanded its reach and made new contacts among key fire-service professionals and leadership.

Single-Family Home Sizes Are on the Rise

According to NAHB’s Eye on Housing, the average size for new single-family homes is on the rise, driven by the pandemic’s impacts on working and living habits. According to second quarter 2021 data from the Census Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design and NAHB analysis, median new single-family floor area increased to 2,297 square feet, and average square footage increased to 2,540. On average, new single-family homes are now 5.5% larger than during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. NAHB expects larger home sizes to persist as a consumer preference in the post-Covid-19 environment. Read more about this trend here.

NAHB also found that the custom home share decreased to 17.8 percent of all single-family homes started in 2020—the lowest the annual custom home share has been since the 2005 re-design of the SOC. The custom home market consists of contractor-built and owner-built houses—homes built one at a time for owner occupancy on the owner’s land, with either the owner or a builder acting as a general contractor. Read more about this trend here.

USFS Expert Expounds on Trees’ Carbon Storage Ability

In a recent blog, Amy Androff of the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory heralded the role of trees and wood products in mitigating global climate change. In one year, a mature live tree can absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide, which is stored until the tree—or its wood product derivative—experiences a physical event like fire or decomposition. Androff notes that through the use of life cycle assessments (LCAs), researchers have concluded that, with sustainable forest management in place, carbon-storing “forests and wood products will have the greatest potential to lessen climate change impacts.” Androff also cites LCA studies that have found that CLT buildings have a lower carbon footprint and store more carbon than buildings constructed from non-timber materials.

Read more from Androff here.

Forest Carbon Markets Primed for Growth

A Minnesota-based environmental management organization, Dovetail Partners, has released a new report on carbon credits in the U.S. forest sector, covering the status of voluntary and regulatory carbon markets and recent developments.

The report notes that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has specifically identified high-carbon storage/low-embodied carbon substitutes for concrete and steel in construction, such as mass timber, as one of several viable forestry-related options for mitigating climate change. Wood products and other identified options provide the basis for forest carbon offsets, and cumulatively, the potential market for these offsets could reach up to 5 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2030. Existing voluntary markets are only providing 8 to 13% of what the domestic market may demand within a decade, suggesting substantial room for growth. Growth will hinge on effective policy actions, forest stewardship, and landowner engagement.

Read Dovetail Partners’ report here.

Report Forecasts Global CLT Market to Double by 2027

Pallet Enterprise recently reported on the latest innovations and commercialization efforts in new uses for wood and cellulose material to minimize carbon emissions. The piece cited CLT as a “wood residual success story,” noting that the global CLT market is expected to grow by double digits this decade, exceeding a market valuation of $2.25 billion by 2027. Building owners, designers, and occupants alike are increasingly gravitating to CLT buildings for their environmental benefits. North America accounts for about 43% of global production, with 14 plants online and three other facilities under development.

The piece also provides market updates for wood fiber insulation, transparent wood glass, 3D printing using sawdust, and cellulose batteries.

Read more here.