Mass Timber Realities: Sourcing Openly and With Intention

Over the course of this past year, a group of us at SERA have been meeting with the Mass Timber Tipping Point Project (led by Architecture 2030 and Pilot Projects). They are working with architects and engineers from across North America to understand a current snapshot of how mass timber sits in the market: how are these systems getting into projects and how do these decisions to “go mass timber” remain durable across full project delivery?

These are important questions—and there are others. As a natural material, wood comes with a context and history. How it is removed from its forest brings environmental impacts to its surroundings; how it is sold, and for how much, carries meaning for those who grew it. What is emerging is the label Intentional Sourcing—in other words, when we specify wood in our buildings, can we do it intentionally in ways that benefit our forests and supply chain partners?

Project approaches or disclosure-tracking processes that would support intentional sourcing, however, simply don’t exist or are rare so far. For a long time, designers have relied on regulations and certifications to ensure we got “good wood.” Wood certifications like FSC, PEFC, and SFI have often been a shorthand for sourcing good wood because of their third-party verified environmental protections, but some certified wood can come with a cost premium and/or have limited availability in the market. And, perhaps surprisingly, certification doesn’t tell us where our wood is coming from. It’s like an organic label in the supermarket—we can feel good knowing that the choice is healthier than its mass market counterpart, but there is no real story or lineage we can specifically point back to, so we have no way of knowing what impacts it might have had for the landowners, the environment of origin, or carriers as it made its way to our site. We hope that the producers are being paid more for growing a better product, but we cannot know for sure, and they themselves are not necessarily being recognized for the good work they’re doing.

You may have heard the term “Forest to Frame” which echoes the mantra of “Farm to Table.” There is a lot of potential there for shining a light on the kinds of questions that are murky now, but I would argue that real visibility into the provenance and therefore the climate value of the wood we use is only possible with transparency. If the industry doesn’t have the widespread means to tells us about the sources of the wood that are out there, we are left unable to specify in smart and even targeted ways to support our clients’ goals. Thus, a necessary precursor to Intentional Sourcing is Transparent Sourcing. When we have greater intelligence about the materials out there that we can source from, it can allow for more choices while more directly rewarding those doing the good work out in the forests, mills, and production facilities. Imagine what’s possible when you’re able to connect with producers at a farmer’s market vs. just looking at an organic label or especially those little PLU stickers in the grocery store!

To this end, I’ve been working with a cast of dozens from across the country to develop a Mass Timber Transparency Pledge which is asking North American mass timber manufacturers to commit to providing more specific information about where they are sourcing their wood. It’s not about finding “gotchas!” or trying to rank producers against each other. It’s more about asking for information that will help stimulate smarter conversations going forward about sourcing with intention. We think it’s actually a potential boon to an industry that is still seeking widespread adoption; craft food, beer, and wine offers blueprints for ways to weave in stories that help us to stimulate consumer excitement. As mentioned earlier, even with certified wood, it is typically really hard to even know what kinds of forests our wood is coming from. With representatives from across the AEC community, and with a growing list of signatories, we are building tools to help our manufacturing partners work more transparently together. And in the longer term, this is how we will be able to benefit everyone involved in the timber industry, and to ensure that the wood we source is maximizing the positive climate impacts we are aiming for.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Mass Timber Transparency Pledge, and perhaps participate yourself, I encourage you to visit the pledge site: https://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/transparencypledge, graciously hosted by Sustainable Northwest.