August 2021

SLB Chair Encourages More Federal Investment in Wood Products

In July, SLB Chairwoman Caroline Dauzat testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry on the opportunities and challenges facing the U.S. wood products industry as it recovers after the pandemic. Dauzat touched on how her company, Rex Lumber, and peer firms managed through the pandemic, including the rapid rise in new housing demand, and she cited market diversification as a key way to increase the industry’s resiliency against future shocks.

Read more about Dauzat’s testimony here and here.

USDA Announces New Relief Assistance for Loggers and Haulers

As part of its Pandemic Assistance Producers Initiative, the USDA recently announced the creation of the Pandemic Assistance for Timber Harvesters and Haulers (PATHH) program, which will provide millions in relief to timber harvesting and hauling businesses that experienced gross revenue loss of 10% or more between January 1 and December 1, 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. PATHH, which is being administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, is accepting applications for assistance from qualifying loggers and truckers through October 15.

In discussing the PATHH program, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said, “The pandemic caused a major disruption for loggers and timber haulers, including lack of access to wood processing mills. This industry plays a critical role in our nation’s economy, and we are proud to support these hard-working loggers and truckers as they get back on track.”

Visit PATHH’s website for more information, and share the link with any harvesters and haulers who may qualify.

Think Wood Continues to Press Wood’s Carbon Benefits

Think Wood continues to develop data-driven resources on embodied carbon in the built environment to meet the interest and needs of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals for carbon-reduction strategies. Think Wood recently published two white papers, “Understanding the Role of Embodied Carbon in Climate-Smart Buildings” and “ESG Provides Tailwind for Mass Timber Buildings,” and, with funding from the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, published a life cycle analysis and comparative cost study of the Platte Fifteen building in Denver, authored by KL&A Engineers and Builders and Adolfson & Peterson Construction. The study compares the mass timber Platte Fifteen building with steel and concrete designs to assess differences in global warming potential; findings suggest that the building’s mass timber structural system delivers measurable embodied carbon savings with minimal cost differences.

In July, Think Wood teamed up with the Chicago chapter of the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) to put on a 60-minute webinar presentation, Wood for a Lighter Carbon Footprint. The webinar featured a presentation from WoodWorks’ Bill Parsons and included a lively Q&A that was moderated by David Swain of Studio Gang. A recording of the webinar will soon be available on the CLF Chicago chapter’s YouTube channel and the national CLF online forum.

In early August, Think Wood sponsored an editorial webinar through Architectural Record titled How Sustainable Is Wood?, which explored the factors that influence wood products’ carbon sequestration capacity. The webinar featured well-known mass timber practitioners: Andrew Waugh, Waugh Thistleton; John Klein, Generate; and Heather Holdridge, Lake|Flato Architects, as well as CLF’s Stephanie Carlisle.

WoodWorks Helps Firm Achieve First Type-III, Wood-Frame Hotel

Charlotte-based ODA Architecture frequently works in the hospitality sector, and its client— Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott—wanted a five-story hotel in a high-density area of Athens, Georgia. The area is designated as a fire district and thus requires noncombustible exterior walls. ODA understood its only code-compliant option to be Type-III wood-frame construction with fire retardant–treated walls and sheathing but was unsure of its feasibility. To further investigate and resolve the issue, ODA’s principal turned to WoodWorks for support, having effectively used the organization’s resources in the past.

To help ODA determine the feasibility of wood for the project, WoodWorks presented a lunch-and-learn on the nuances of Type-III design and, when the design went forward, assisted with differential shrinkage calculations for the façade material, shaft wall connections, and framing for cost-efficiency.

The Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott in Athens is now complete, having consumed the equivalent of more than 437,000 board feet of softwood lumber, representing nearly eight board feet per square foot of construction. ODA credits WoodWorks’ support in helping it meet its client’s needs, and importantly, ODA has gone on to design another Type-III, five-story wood-frame hotel.

Robust Fire Testing Underpins Group A Code Change Proposal

Through written comment, the AWC has expressed its support for ICC code change proposal G147-21 ahead of upcoming public comment hearings in September. G147-21 will allow for 100% exposed mass timber ceilings in buildings up to 12 stories, compared with the 20% permitted in the 2021 IBC. The AWC expects that this proposal, in particular, will draw considerable floor testimony based on its market implications in lowering the cost of Type IV-B mass timber construction.

The AWC’s support of G147-21 is premised on evidence generated through AWC-sponsored and USDA-funded compartment fire tests at the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE). These tests proved the fire safety and performance of the latest generation of cross laminated timber (CLT) adhesives, and the results were cited extensively during the committee action hearings prior to the committee’s recommending the proposal for approval.

View the AWC’s recent webinar, available as an e-course, to learn more about the RISE testing results and how they support G147-21.

New Content From Think Wood Supports Designers in Creating Affordable Housing Solutions

Economic and employment uncertainty during the pandemic has deepened an existing affordable housing crisis, and the design community is eager to better understand what levers it can pull to make housing more affordable across the United States. A January 2021 survey of Think Wood’s database cited affordable housing as the number five timber trend of the year.

To address growing interest, Think Wood developed multimedia editorial content, including a new blog, Five Prototypes Making Housing More Affordable in America. The blog features innovative housing designs built from mass timber, light-frame, and modular construction, and it highlights the associated benefits of each material.

Think Wood will also soon promote the launch of The Future of Wood Construction, a Q&A video featuring Bill Parsons of WoodWorks and produced by Housing Innovation Collaborative (HICo), a nonprofit, affordable housing–focused research and development platform. The video, which will be linked on HICo’s YouTube channel, launched in August as part of a larger effort to feature building materials and their impact on affordable housing.

Think Wood will continue to monitor affordable housing efforts and identify opportunities where wood can be a part of the conversation.

WoodWorks Debuts Its New Look

In August, WoodWorks unveiled a new logo and branding to better embody its mandate to support the development of light-frame, mass timber, and hybrid projects through project support and education. Working with a communications consultant, WoodWorks engaged its staff, partners, and the AEC community in its rebranding. The resultant look reflects WoodWorks’ role at the nexus between sustainability and construction. It will be integrated across all of WoodWorks’ current platforms, including a newly redesigned website that is scheduled to launch later this year.

Stability Characterizes Remodeling Market Over Past 25 Years

In a new blog for Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, Kermit Baker, the recently retired director of the center’s Remodeling Futures Program, reflected on key findings from his 25-year career of studying the residential remodeling industry. According to Baker, the remodeling market has been remarkably stable over the past 25 years and has made, and continues to make, vital contributions toward meeting evolving housing needs, including affordable housing. Home improvement decision-making and expenditures have proven fairly predictable over time, with households typically spending more on improvements soon before or immediately after home purchases. Contrary to popular belief, lower-income households are just as important as upper-income households to the overall remodeling market, though the types of improvement investments each group makes differ.

Read Kermit Baker’s entire blog here.

Wood’s Aesthetics, Sustainability Entice Workers Back into the Office

Canada’s Globe and Mail recently covered how building designers are using the aesthetic, biophilic, and sustainability values of wood to help lure tenants back to commercial office spaces, following more than a year of remote work.

The piece cites several well-known real estate investment and architecture firms whose use of mass timber is creating successful outcomes for their commercial clients. Real estate investment firm Hines is chief among these, thanks to its pioneering Timber, Transit, Technology (T3) design. Demand for space in T3 buildings has remained strong despite the pandemic, and Hines expects that mass timber will play a key role in helping workers in mass timber buildings return more quickly than those working in traditional concrete structures. According to Senior Managing Director Syl Apps, “There are a number of studies comparing timber buildings versus nontimber, and they consistently show that across multiple metrics, employees are happier and more productive in environments that are timber.”

Read more about mass timber’s comparative advantages in commercial spaces and the push to return workforces to the office here.

New Analysis Suggests U.S. Forests in Abundant Supply

Timber analytics firm Forest2Market published new analysis on the ongoing sustainability and availability of U.S. forests, based on U.S. Forest Service and other data regarding the balance of tree growth and removals over time. The findings indicate that tree growth is outpacing removals by 59% or more across all regions of the United States, signaling an excess of available supply. This dovetails with data that suggests that private forest owners alone are growing 43% more wood than they remove from their timberlands, thanks in part to productivity improvements and innovation.

These findings stand in sharp contrast with the widespread public perception that forests in the U.S. are being abused and destroyed. The author notes the importance of continuing to incentivize working forests and increased forest stocking levels to support forests’ economic viability and the creation of vital environmental and carbon benefits for us all.

Read a summary of Forest2Market’s analysis here.

Wood: A Cornerstone of the Circular Economy and Built Environment

In a recent piece, “Design for Deconstruction,” ArchDaily singles out wood and mass timber products as key to achieving a lower carbon footprint in the built environment and greater long-term sustainability. The piece cites the circular economy and the built environment sector in Canada in praising wood as the lone construction material made from a renewable resource; for its versatility, durability, and carbon sequestration abilities; and for its ability to be converted to wood fiber and other bio-based products following the conclusion of a building’s useful life, further increasing material productivity and reducing waste.

Read more about how wood supports reduced environmental impact from the building sector here.