TIMBER I
n both Westminster and Edinburgh, politicians talk about creating a ‘Circular Economy’, and the First Minister of the Scottish Parliament, John Swinney, recently opened the new Alexanders’ Timber Design timber frame plant, which is demonstrably putting this idea into practice.
The 9,600sq m plant at Irvine, Scotland, has been built to the demanding specification of Alexanders’ Timber Design; part of Glennon Brothers. The open and closed cell timber frame systems produced there use home- grown Scottish timber, and waste wood chippings from the Glennon Brothers sawmills form an important part of the supply chain of OSB- producer West Fraser. The company uses the waste chippings to produce its sustainable SterlingOSB Zero in a manner which can definitely be described as a closed loop process, all while keeping road miles to a minimum. Swinney remarked during the opening of the £18 million facility, that its output would help “deliver on the Scottish Government’s Net Zero and affordable housing aspirations.”
The West Fraser has established a far wider architecture for sustainability goals and associated procedures which now drive all its procurement work. Group compliance manger Julie Turner, explains: “Sustainability is at the core of everything we do, with West Fraser making very good progress towards complying with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) while the group’s UK operations are also ahead of schedule on the journey towards Net Zero. West Fraser is very proud of the due diligence systems we have in place; and we have taken them to a whole new level. We go the extra mile on sustainability and have a very strong commitment to legislation.”
Dilgent procurement Turner plays a key part in overseeing all West Fraser’s procurement activities, and is responsible for ensuring that due diligence is carried on throughout the purchasing process. It means liaising with West Fraser’s customers as well as its supply chain, and meeting with other members of the procurement team ahead of contracts being placed. This monitoring was enhanced last year by the introduction of a new supplier portal which provides dashboards and can trigger alerts in regard of anything which might represent a risk.
“I spend a large proportion of my time each day sharing and demonstrating our processes for our customers,” she says, “who nowadays are consistently seeking to ensure they are buying legal timber from a responsible source.
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ALL BARK, NO WASTE
It’s easy to talk about responsible and sustainable wood sourcing; putting it into practice is more challenging, as Oliver Stanley finds out.
This is now as important as commercial decisions.”
“While FSC is a valuable subscription certification which covers all our production in the UK, we go much further. Every single consignment coming into our plants is assessed. Amongst the situations, we are absolutely trying to rule out is any illegal trade – such as the import of timber from say Russia, via a third country – or the purchasing of any endangered species. Early engagement and collaboration have been crucial. We look at geo-location data, satellite assessments, and imagery which are aspects FSC doesn’t
embrace. Primarily, this is to do with the EUDR regulations which are a major project I am currently working on and we are far more advanced on it than any of our competitors. As part of the project, last year we created a supplier portal which went live in September (2024) and all the companies we buy from must log on to input the relevant data on each consignment.
Forest floor
In addition to their commercial information, suppliers have to provide the relevant ‘forest floor’ information, which encompasses the
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2025
Photo: Meritt Thomas/Unsplash
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