Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Climate Smart Wood Group Launches at Greenbuild
As momentum builds behind mass timber construction, a “coalition of the ambitious” launched the Climate Smart Wood Group at Greenbuild 2022.
Including the Carbon Leadership Forum, Ecotrust, FSC, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Northwest Natural Resource Group, Sustainable Northwest, Washington Environmental Council, and World Wildlife Fund, the group helps the building sector in North America identify and procure climate-smart wood products.
What makes wood “climate smart”? Climate-smart wood comes from climate-smart forestry, which improves outcomes across three dimensions over the long term:
• Mitigation: Increasing storage of carbon in forest ecosystems and wood products, and reducing emissions from forest operations.
• Adaptation: Maintaining or building ecological integrity and diversity that are the basis for resistance and resilience1 as the climate continues to change.
• Equity: Addressing issues of equity and climate justice, improving community wellbeing and respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples. To be viable and sustainable, forestry must address how social and economic benefits and impacts are distributed among landowners, workers, and communities.
In addition, the Climate Smart Wood Group unveiled procurement support, including five options:
1. Recycled, reclaimed and salvaged wood
2. Certified wood
3. Credits from registered forest carbon projects
4. Wood from climate-smart forestry operations
5. Forest carbon stock approach
More details about the Climate Smart Wood Group, including how to get involved, can be found at https://www.climatesmartwood.net