Wednesday, 04 September 2019
Market Development Highlights
September 4, 2019
Buoyed by recent additions to the team, Aubrey McCormick (US Pacific West Regional Manager) and Roger Taylor (US South Regional Manager), FSC US is working with renewed vigor across the country to actively engage forest products supply chains to better understand challenges and opportunities they face.
In line with the recently completed North America wood products demand growth strategy, the FSC team is engaging with mass timber manufacturers to support a positive buying experience. To help connect existing suppliers with construction project teams, the FSC Wood Finder is proving to be a valuable resource. The Wood Finder is currently being upgraded, with a new version launching in November. FSC certificate holders selling certified building products who are not already included can easily be added to this database by completing this brief survey.
With a range of partners, FSC is also continuing to develop the Climate Smart Wood Group, which provides support to construction project teams, architects, owners and developers looking to make the case for and use climate-smart building products. Given the growing focus on embodied carbon in construction, the Climate Smart Wood Group is working to demonstrate the importance of responsible forestry when determining climate impacts.
Along these lines, a recent report by the Sierra Club, “Forests, Wood, & Climate” provides a background on why forest stewardship is important and how the timber industry can transition to climate-friendlier forest management practices that “substantially increase carbon stores over the levels typical of status quo industrial forestry.”
With growing interest in wood as a structural building material, driven significantly by a desire to reduce embodied carbon in buildings, FSC sees big opportunities to grow market share and increase demand for FSC certified building materials.