| 29
own recycled timber, further reducing carbon emissions and strengthening our contribution to a circular supply chain.”
The three-year trial of an electric powered
Volvo truck is halfway through its lease period and is proving to be a huge success in its application as a shunter between the company’s Stevens Croft sawmill site and Hangingshaw processing and storage facility. This is being charged via the multiple green energy sources on site. “We have also not let up in our adoption and utilisation of our electric mobile plant fleet across most of our sites,” added Mr Bruce-Jones.
These investments have all contributed to the company being awarded the prestigious EcoVadis Platinum Medal, an honour that places the company among the top 1% of businesses globally for sustainability performance.
“This award validates all of the sustainability investments and initiatives in biomass, solar and wind that we have committed to over the last few years,” said Mr Bruce-Jones. “We remain committed to continuing this drive at all of our global sites.”
BSW has also committed to a significant investment programme across the business, covering software projects, new forestry vehicles, sawmill improvements, and so forth. “The introduction of LOOP alone required investment into spray booths and fitting RFID tags to track the movement of pallets, so it really is a constant process,” said Mr Faulkner. The Pallet LOOP was acquired earlier this year (ttjonline February 23, 2024) and “perfectly complements the BSW Group”. “It is estimated that more than 90% of pallets sold into the construction sector each year end up in landfill, and LOOP aims to drastically reduce this wood waste by incentivising the return and reuse of timber pallets,” said Mr Faulkner. “LOOP pallets are a true story of sustainability, as they are manufactured in the UK by Scott Pallets, a fellow member of BSW Group, using home- grown material. We were delighted to launch LOOP with British Gypsum recently and look forward to putting more green, sustainable pallets into the sector.”
Mr Faulkner added that BSW’s focus now is on the integration of core business areas and said there are “a number of projects planned that will allow us to present a more focused product and service offering”.
In terms of product development, he said BSW is always reviewing its product profile, as the breadth of its offer now spans both sawmill and joinery products. “We are very enthusiastic about our mass timber products, which we’ve brought to the UK market via Binderholz. We’re growing our market share of CLT and glulam in the
UK, and overseas are seeing some amazing projects being built, such as the new Under Armour headquarters in Baltimore. We’re also ready to launch micro CLT to the market, and believe it has the potential to really change how people are finishing their living spaces.” Like others, BSW is hoping the new Labour government makes good on its commitment to build 1.5 million houses and Mike Faulkner says it is “looking forward to the new government backing the use of timber products, particularly in construction”. “It’s commitment to build 375,000 new houses each year cannot be achieved without significantly increasing the use of timber and we are keen to see this develop over the coming years and months,” he said. James Jones’s production is also highly attuned to the construction sector and the company says that any stimulus will drive a requirement for all of its key products. It continues to promote the sustainability credentials of timber in construction, and a local supply chain that supports sustainability and British jobs.
The company’s Timber Systems Division recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. “We are very proud of the 25th anniversary milestone, and the past and present teams have achieved much in that timeframe,” said Mr Bruce-Jones. “The site at Forres is unrecognisable from the pioneering lines that we first installed and we certainly had no idea that we would be exporting JJI-Joists to Australia, New Zealand and multiple countries across Europe. The installed capacity is more than capable of meeting the new government’s housing targets and we work hard to promote a product for the UK’s house builders that is British owned, British managed and is supporting highly skilled UK employees with the highest possible environmental and sustainability credentials. “We continue to develop tried and tested solutions for floor, wall and roof designs using JJI-Joist technology and we’re currently working in partnership with Napier University in sponsoring PhD students to research additional innovation,” continued Mr Bruce-Jones.
Gordon Timber is also “greatly encouraged” by the housing targets and says it will be watching closely how that manifests itself. Scott Gordon added that he would like to see the government demonstrate a deeper understanding of what it takes to run a business day-to-day and how those businesses contribute to a community. He notes that Gordon Timber was pleased to participate at the timber industry’s first Net Zero event in the Scottish Parliament back in April (ttjonline: May 2, 2024). Organised by the Scottish Timber Trade Association, along with Confor, Timber Development UK and the Structural Timber Association, the event saw more than 40
businesses operating in the timber and wood product industry supply chain meet with MSPs to discuss the critical role it plays in the economy and its place in supporting the drive to Net Zero.
“It was encouraging to see cross-party collaboration and Fergus Ewing and Willie Rennie, the MSPs who sponsored the reception, ‘get it’ in terms of what it’s all about for the industry,” said Mr Gordon. He added that he would also like to see the government demonstrate “pragmatism in employment law”. “We have an extremely motivated work force and having been the first UK sawmill to achieve Investors in People (IIP) in 1995, we are very proud to say that in the last year we’ve achieved the IIP Gold standard. I think that says a lot about the two-way commitment we enjoy, but we have to keep working on the succession planning and finding ways to attract young people into the business.”
He cites getting engineers into the sawmill as a particular challenge, saying that the growing renewable energy industry in Scotland entices some of them away. Other challenges for the future include that of getting “a realistic and appropriate price for timber”, said Mr Gordon.
“I think it’s important that we all continue to value the timber that we all work so hard to produce and which we are extremely proud of. When things do slow down, as they probably will through the winter months, the challenge will be to make sure there isn’t a race to the bottom on pricing and that people understand that stock levels will rise at a quieter time of year. “As for the opportunities ahead, I think the benefits of British timber continue to be there for all to see. There is a big market out there and we are very optimistic about taking on new customers and introducing them to it.” “The market is always changing, but we are at least seeing some slight recovery post- election,” said Mr Faulkner. “We continue to focus on offering service, quality and value to our customers, giving them reliability and assurance, whatever the market presents. The climate agenda is helping to shed light on the opportunities within timber and forestry, so we need to come together and take advantage while people are listening.” “We are very positive about the opportunities in the period ahead,” added Mr Bruce-Jones. “Demand for timber and timber products is expected to increase as businesses continue to adopt a more informed and focused environmental, sustainability agenda. We anticipate material availability and security of supply will feature more prominently as economies across the world recover and grow. The challenge will be in servicing and satisfying demand across all of our market segments.” ■
www.ttjonline.com | September/October 2024 | TTJ
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105
