TIMBER DOING MORE GOOD Eva Timber_Sleepers T DOING MORE GOOD
he accepted definition of sustainable development was first set out in the 1987 United Nations Bruntland Report, as: “development which meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This could almost have been written today, to describe the sustainable production of timber. Attitudes to sustainability have changed for the better over the years and, as Harley-Davidson’s CEO Jochen Zeitz puts it: “Sustainability is no longer about doing less harm. It’s about doing more good.” Are we ‘doing more good’ in harvesting, trading and using timber? Do many of us know the social value our timber sales represent, and does it matter? With the COP 26 sustainability conference still scheduled for November (at the time of writing), you can help to make it matter, and reap the business benefits of doing so. Some communities, for example producing sustainably-grown and legally-harvested hardwoods in Africa, gain huge societal value from the economic development represented by producing semi-finished timbers from their
Interholco_African_Timber
David Hopkins, CEO at the Timber Trade Federation, says getting to know the back-story of your timber products can generate value for your business and right through the timber supply chain.
certified forests and supply chains, but only if they can find markets abroad for their wood. If they feel they are getting economic value from their efforts on environmental protection, legal timber harvesting and processing, they naturally nurture the forest resource for the future. This in turn helps the planet. Trees in their growth phase store CO2 in their wood fibre, and that storage continues through the lifetime of the timber which, in the case of durable hardwoods, can be a very long time indeed. Looking holistically at sustainability is something now being developed by those who buy our products in the construction supply chain. In partnership with Government, The Construction Leadership Council and the Construction Innovation Hub recently published a Value Toolkit, aimed at changing the way ‘value’
is measured. Around 70% of local authorities have declared a ‘climate emergency’ and are taking a potential list of over 30 environmental and social value factors into account in policies and procurement decisions. Knowing the sustainability back-story of the timber you are selling could be key to getting a foothold in this ready market for timber and wood products. Campaigns such as Wood for Good’s ‘Wood CO2ts Less’ offer merchants a raft of facts on the benefits that building with wood brings to the climate change equation. Some forward- thinking TTF supplier members, too, have been quantifying the climate change benefits of their products, representing them in the form most understood and often demanded by climate- conscious architects and specifiers, namely as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). These are part of the life cycle analysis (LCA) process: a selection of LCAs related to timber are available on the Wood for Good online Lifecycle Database.
Promoting economic, environmental and social value will become a vital part of your sales armoury as the ‘climate emergency’ unfolds. Talk to your TTF supplier about their supply chain and make sure you’re equipped with the sustainability knowledge that can add value to your own reputation, and ‘do more good’ with your wood sales. BMJ
24
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net June 2021
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