Woodknowledge Wales

Woodknowledge Wales

Inspiring innovation through collaboration

Resources

Innovation Challenge | WoodBUILD Podcast with Rob Thomas and Matt Stevenson

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Podcast

Rob Thomas and Matt Stevenson are two innovators with a passion for working with timber in all its forms. In this podcast, recorded earlier this year, they join David Hedges for a conversation about why we innovate, collaboration and partnership, ingredients for and tests of success, the curse of the pilot, the role of Government and regulation and a lot more besides. Rob and Matt are keen to work with other like minded people and they offer an open invitation to listeners to get in touch if they have an idea they want to explore.

Guests

Matt Stevenson
 Rob Thomas
Contact Matt via email: matt@ecosystemstech.com Contact Rob via email: rob@hiraetharchitecture.co.uk

 

Trees and Timber | WoodBUILD Podcast with Tom Barnes and Andrew Bronwin

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Trailer

Everyone has an agenda when it comes to trees and tree planting – in Wales this is one of the first areas of attention for the new administration. There’s broad agreement that we need to grow more trees, we have such a poor level of tree cover in the UK, but there’s less agreement on what we should plant and what we want our future woodlands to be for. The debate is often quite polarised. In this podcast Tom Barnes and Andrew Bronwin talk about the impact of the pandemic, climate change, productive woodlands, the role of government and policy, pests and disease, tree species and how we can add value to the timber our woodlands produce.

Guests

Tom Barnes
 Andrew Bronwin
Tom runs his family business Vastern Timber and recently featured in Wood For The Trees. You can find out more about his work at www.tombarnesblog.com and www.vastern.co.uk. Andrew is founder and director of Bronwin & Abbey, Chartered Foresters and Surveyors, located on the Wales / England border in Powys. https://bronwin.co.uk/

Full Podcast

 

Investing in Afforestation—Economic aspects of woodland creation for timber production | Briefing Papers

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The decision to invest in an afforestation project with the primary aim of producing timber may involve many personal and environmental factors alongside financial considerations. Adoption of a forestry enterprise within a farming unit represents a change in land use and a long-term investment of land, labour and resources. Financial evaluation provides a structured and objective means to inform the decision and allows comparison of afforestation with other economic uses of land.
Afforestation projects can take a number of forms, from planting steep areas or wet corners of a farm to integrating timber trees with agricultural production or establishing plantation woodlands. Some afforestation projects such as commercial plantation woodlands have the potential to produce quality timber products alongside diversifying farm incomes and providing other environmental benefits such as carbon sequestration and flood risk mitigation.
This series of guidance notes provides practical information for farmers and other landowners interested in investing in forestry. It is designed to help develop a first understanding of economic evaluation of afforestation projects. The six guidance notes of the series introduce the basic steps involved in the assessment of such projects to allow some preliminary due diligence when considering an investment in forestry. This does not replace a full assessment and advice by a chartered forest manager.
BRIEFING PAPERS →

Top five alternative conifer tree species review

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Forests and woodlands are as much part of the mix of solutions for the Biodiversity and Climate Emergency as they are themselves under threat from it.
The UK Climate Change Committee have set out strong recommendations for 30,000 hectares of new woodland per annum by 2050 (UKCCC, 2020), of which a significant portion will likely be commercial plantation woodlands. Expansion and sustainable management of this new woodland will act as a mechanism for meeting UN Sustainable Development Goal 15, combatting climate change, improving home-grown timber supply for the construction sector, and providing a wide range of valuable public goods.
Plantations, alongside other forms of woodland creation, have an important role in carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation, providing public amenity and recreational benefits and biodiversity conservation. The coniferous forest resource in Great Britain is increasingly expected to deliver a broad range of ecosystem services to society; this alongside the provision of timber and other forest products, through management for multiple objectives, often within a small geographical area.
Welsh Government commissioned Woodknowledge Wales to conduct a review to identify the top five alternative commercial tree species suitable to meet timber utilisation demands in light of increasing potential pest and disease pressures as a result of climate change.
Our approach to identifying the top five alternative tree species for GB has drawn on and collated the existing knowledge base through literature review and inputs from a broad range of stakeholders. It does not capture experience found on the ground which has not been published, yet. Results should be seen as a starting point for further investigation.
In this sense, we have set out on a journey of collaboration bringing together stakeholders to discuss potential ways forward. If you would like participate in our future stakeholder workshops, please get in touch.
Please note this an amended version of the report published on the 23rd June 2021 which now lists the top five ranked species in Table 3.6 in the correct order (Thuja plicata and Sequoiadendron giganteum were in the wrong order in previous versions).
English:
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Cymraeg:
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The new timber sales and marketing plan: Small processors and access to timber on Welsh Government Woodland Estate

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NRW’s Timber Sales & Marketing Plan (2021-2026) can offer opportunities for the small timber processing community in Wales. The purpose of this paper is to interpret the Plan and its implications for small sawmillers. This will create a solid foundation for exploring the means by which small processors may be able access timber grown on the Welsh Government Woodland Estate in the future as well as highlight opportunities for future activities and interventions.
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Unlocking the full potential of offsite manufactured timber housing in Wales: The Challenge of timber price volatility

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Unprecedented price volatility of timber is constraining the development of the timber frame manufacturing sector. This threatens the delivery of Welsh Government’s affordable housing, MMC and zero carbon strategies. The purpose of this paper is to highlight issues of concern and offer first ideas to develop potential solutions.
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Wood Fibre Insulation – Specification Guidance

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A building’s thermal performance is now as important an aspect of the building’s design and construction as its structure. Energy prices and climate change are often cited as the principal reasons for the increased energy and CO2 reduction standards required of our built environment. Less known is the fact that insulation can also play a major role in our health, safety, comfort and wellbeing.
When higher levels of thermal performance are required, this has a significant impact on building physics and other dynamic elements of a building’s performance.
Woodfibre insulation has a number of properties that enables it to provide a multifunctional role within the construction of a home. When specified and installed correctly, woodfibre provides protection against summertime overheating, enhanced acoustic performance and moisture control. The latter provides a building fabric with additional insurance against potential moisture problems that could otherwise undermine the integrity of the building and the health of the occupants.
Woodfibre is highly sustainable, locking up considerably more CO2 than is produced in manufacture. It can therefore play an essential part of a strategy for mitigating climate change.
This document provides information for specifiers and procurement specialists working on social housing projects. It is designed to help with the specification of wood fibre insulation within a social housing context. It provides performance criteria and indicates what needs to be considered when specifying woodfibre insulation.
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5 Essential Strategies for an Emerging Forest Nation

Wales is not a forest nation. Wales is a sheep, beef and dairy nation. Wales is a steel nation.

Like many nations, Wales is the economic country it is, not by political design but largely because of historical accident. Additionally, Wales has been held back by financial subsidies that have maintained the status quo; particularly but not exclusively through the Common Agriculture Policy and the fashion for laissez-faire economic policies. A more purposeful approach is required to achieve the net zero carbon goals set by Welsh Government.

We have now left the European Union. We have declared a Climate Emergency. There has never been a better time or more reason to change.  

We are proposing five integrated strategies how Wales can achieve a just transition to become a high-value forest nation. A transition that would create substantial employment – particularly in rural areas – and a transition for which Wales has many natural advantages.

BRIEFING PAPER →

Strategy 1: Construction

Introduce policies to deliver net zero whole life carbon construction

Welsh Government should adopt a clear framework for delivery of net zero carbon housing by changing the Welsh Building Regulations. This framework aligns with the Net Zero Whole Life Carbon definitions developed by the World Green Building Council and aligns with the RIBA 2030 challenge. Clear policies focused on delivering this framework to decarbonise construction will lead to a substantial increase in demand for timber. The following requirements should be introduced in full into the Welsh building regulations for all new developments announced in 2021 and fully implemented by 2025. Social housing new build should with Welsh Government grant be first exemplars of the efficacy of the new regulations.

Policy Recommendations

Timber is the exemplar low carbon construction material. Policies should initially demand measurement and then introduce embodied carbon reduction targets. In particular we recommend the adoption of an Upfront Carbon emissions target of <300kgCO2e/m2 as per the RIBA 2030 Challenge

See ▸▸ Embodied Carbon Guidance.

Timber is proven as the exemplar structural material for high performance homes built to the Passivhaus standard. Part L should be amended to require a space heating demand of 15kWh/m2/year (as per the RIBA 2030 Challenge).

See ▸▸ Zero Carbon Homes: Timber Solutions for Wales

Net zero means not using fossil energy. However, we recommend Welsh Government review the support given to wood burning (as the least carbon efficient use of timber) in favour of wind, solar and tidal alternatives. Equally the biomass subsidy as currently applied is diverting timber away from the manufacturing and construction sectors and doing little to bring under-utilised woodland into management.

To encourage better building and more manufactured approaches to delivery construction policies and regulation should move away from design standards alone and require post completion performance measurement.

See ▸▸ Building Performance Guidance.

To deliver net zero whole life carbon an element of offsetting is required. Afforestation is widely recognised as a robust means to offset emissions. We also believe that stored biogenic carbon in the building should also be recognised as an equally robust means of offsetting. In that respect we recommend that Welsh Government seek a one-year moratorium on ratifying the Emissions Trading Scheme to enable the Welsh Government to take evidence in favour of carbon credits for wood in buildings.

▸▸ Capturing Carbon Investing in Woodlands
▸▸ Illustrative Carbon Storage Contract

Welsh Government have funded a scoping study for a Zero Carbon Building Performance Hub under Innovative Housing Programme (IHP) year four funding. However, it is essential to provide ongoing revenue funding for such a hub. The hub will act to provide the necessary definitions, training, guidance, methodologies and benchmarks so that all actors in the construction supply chain in Wales can have a common and shared understanding of the zero-carbon journey (for both new build and retrofit, domestic and non-domestic). The hub funding could be enabled through the Social Housing Grant (SHG).

Building on Net Zero Whole Life Carbon definitions by the World Green Building council and LETI these five principles ensure that measures to address upfront carbon, energy demand, use of renewable energy and embodied carbon individually do not have an adverse effect on whole life carbon. 

Strategy 2: Manufacturing

Enable high value timber manufacturing and integrate with construction demand

Without interventions, the demand for timber products that will flow from decarbonisation strategies outlined above will be met almost exclusively by imported products. The lack of added value processing of timber in Wales represents a substantial market failure. We produce no structural Glulam. We produce no Cross Laminated Timber. We produce no timber I-beams, no Laminated Veneer Lumber, no Oriented Strand Board and no Wood Fibre Insulation. The list goes on. All these products have two key features in common. Firstly, they are all critical components in high-performance low-carbon buildings that displace steel, plastics, concrete and other high carbon and often toxic materials. Secondly, they are all made from the type and grade of timber we grow in Wales.

Policy Recommendations

As a matter of urgency Welsh Government should recognise forestry and timber as a foundational industry and create a green industrial strategy for wood. Such a strategy must integrate new and expanding timber growing, processing and manufacturing with the substantial demand within the Welsh Government construction and infrastructure programme. However, we should also aim to supply the export market to England to help address its own chronic shortage of home-grown timber products and to build capacity and scale that is possible in Wales.

NOTE: Timber frame manufacturers are already choosing to locate in Wales due to proximity to larger English markets and the availability of labour.

Welsh Government should seek to create strategic public private partnerships, or targeted procurement and supply agreements, with Welsh companies and or European producers to establish advanced product manufacturing in Wales to service both the Welsh and wider UK markets. Three of the many opportunities are outlined below.

  • Opportunity 1: Wood Fibre Insulation Factory: Currently, wood fibre insulation has between 5% and 10% market share in France and Germany. In the UK these products represent less than 0.1% of what is in excess of a £1 billion insulation market. UK customers are being poorly serviced by a European market for which demand is outstripping their ability to supply. Furthermore, transport costs of low-density products like insulation means high prices to UK customers. The retrofit programme, required for existing homes, is a great opportunity to deliver healthy and low-carbon homes by investing into the healthy and low carbon building material supply chains.
  • Opportunity 2: Wood Windows Factory. We estimate that the Welsh Government and Welsh housing associations pay for the installation of approximately 85,000 new plastic windows every year in their retrofit and newbuild programmes. Which also means that a approximately 70,000 plastic windows go to landfill each year. Currently no Welsh timber window manufacturer can supply this market as they lack the certification requirements of Secure by Design.
  • Opportunity 3: Glulam Factory. Glulam is a wood based structural material which can and is being used as an alternative to structural steel for low and medium rise (particularly non-domestic) buildings. Glulam should become the healthy, low carbon structural material of choice for hospitals, schools and other low rise non-domestic buildings.

The timber frame sector in Wales is expanding. The timber frame sector represents the manufacturing bedrock for the rapid evolution of offsite MMC net zero carbon housing in Wales. However, in part as a result of the timber frame sector operating as a subcontractor to the main contractor, manufacturing margins remain below 5%. This limits the timber frame manufacturers’ ability to invest in automation, training and innovation and leaves the sector vulnerable to economic downturns. Welsh Government should introduce targeted and specific policy interventions to enable manufacturers to be at the heart of housing delivery in Wales, rather than the periphery.

Welsh Government should also proactively position Wales as a nation of excellence in timber frame manufacturing specifically targeting the English market. This can be achieved through procurement of timber frame to a national performance specification currently being developed by Woodknowledge Wales in collaboration with Welsh local authorities and the timber frame sector.

These activities should be supported with an allocation of timber supply from NRW and/or local sawmills, allowing wood processors and timber frame manufacturers to establish a base line production at lowest risk to all. This approach will help to position Wales as a nation of excellence (and leadership) in advanced timber frame manufacturing, delivering necessary scale by strategically targeting the English market.

To reflect the economic, social and environmental benefits for Wales of using timber in construction and stimulating afforestation we believe that the Welsh Government should adopt a Wood First Policy (e.g. in France by 2023 50% of all public buildings must be based upon timber) and create a ‘Charter for Timber’ in a similar manner as the charter for UK manufactured steel. This would liberate markets for products such as Glulam as a key structural material in non-residential construction.

Strategy 3: Wood Processing

Influence primary processing decisions to better benefit Wales

The Welsh state has historically subsidised forestry. The Welsh Government Woodland Estate provides the majority of the timber to industry and Welsh Government provides the grants to landowners to incentivise planting and management. But the private sector (in the form of the primary processor – the sawmiller) determines what happens to the trees.

In our opinion, wood processing in the UK is a de-facto public private partnership. But to date the Welsh Government has never sought to influence what happens to this critically important resource. Partly as a result, the vast majority of Welsh timber that is grown for industrial applications is used for relatively low-value fencing, packaging and garden products. These timber markets are important, but the absence of the higher added-value construction materials should be viewed as a both an industrial failure and a failure of policy.

We estimate that only 4% of Welsh timber is used as construction sawnwood. This low value outcome matters. Not only are the returns insufficient for Welsh landowners to invest in tree planting without the need for grants, but also the current markets, although essential, are massively sub-optimal in terms of climate change mitigation and social returns. The Welsh Government needs to use its role as both the regulator and the grower to achieve better outcomes for Wales.

Policy Recommendations

Natural Resources Wales (responsible for managing the Welsh woodland estate) have just completed a consultation on their sales and marketing plan for 2021-2026. The proposal is to move from a sales strategy based on the highest bidder to a triple bottom line approach. We believe that NRW should go beyond the difficult to police triple bottom line approach and proactively ring-fence a proportion (e.g. 10% per annum of the 525,000 m3/annum in 2019) for strategic adding-value processing by Glulam, timber windows, and wood fibre insulation factories, into the valuable products required by a low-carbon UK.

Welsh Government should support the establishment of a coordinating agency to ensure that Welsh grown timber is available for the use of the timber frame manufacturing and joinery and other value adding sectors. This coordinating agency could for example consolidate demand from the Welsh timber frame sector and the housing association retrofit programme and link this demand directly to the provision of timber from the Welsh Woodland Estate. This coordinating agency will in essence bring supply, demand and processing into more purposeful alignment. NOTE: Woodknowledge Wales have established that housing associations are prepared to demand Welsh timber and timber frame manufacturers are prepared to use Welsh timber.

Strategy 4: Forestry

Increase forest area and incentivise forest management for high value applications

The failure of Welsh Government to achieve a significant expansion of forest area in the past 10 years has been well documented and is in stark contrast to our near Celtic neighbours (Eire and Scotland). The production of timber in Wales is forecast to fall over the coming decades whilst that of Eire will double. This decline needs to be addressed through a huge afforestation plan for Welsh landowners of all sizes, particularly farmers.

There is no shortage of private funds available to purchase Welsh land to grow trees. Growing trees already makes economic sense to the longer-term institutional investors with deep pockets. A laissez-faire approach to afforestation will likely mean the sale of Welsh land to wealthy individuals and pension funds, especially given the anticipated post-BREXIT economic challenges likely to be faced by livestock farming.

A key challenge in becoming a successful forest nation is therefore to ensure that our woodlands are both expanded in area and managed in a way that maximises the benefit to Welsh farmers, communities and broader society. Directing investment, both public and private, into partnership with existing farmers to plant a range of woodlands including, crucially, those managed for timber production, will deliver the timber supply needed by new housing and value-added industries, while offering them the opportunity and means to adapt for the future. We believe that private investment is available and ready for deployment.

That of course means we need a balance between the management of woodlands for timber production and for biodiversity, recreation and other benefits such as carbon and water management. It also requires that the productive output is put to best use. Critically, it means that Welsh people should have an economic interest in the trees as well as being able to access woodlands for their wellbeing. Otherwise, we fear that the productive forests will continue to be regarded with suspicion by a society that that has little stake in them. Welsh society currently views degraded treeless landscapes as ‘natural’ and coniferous woodlands as ‘alien’. This is in stark contrast to most other countries in northern and central Europe, despite the comparability of their environmental conditions. It goes without saying that every effort should be made to ensure Welsh society is fully supportive and engaged in the changes ahead. In that respect the National Forest presents a great platform for education and change. But the opportunity for Wales is much bigger: to become a high-value forest nation. We support the BBC Wales initiative with the endorsement of the Prince of Wales to plant Britain as well as Wales specifically, but the key is not only combating climate change. It is to provide meaningful jobs for the future.

Policy Recommendations

Welsh Government should explore the alignment of both public and private investment to enable the scale of investment necessary for substantial afforestation on Welsh farmland (preferably without transfer of land ownership). We believe that the private investment is available, and equitable partnership models between investors and landowners are readily available.

Review the operation of the Woodland Carbon Code, to make it possible for Welsh organisations (e.g. housing associations) to directly invest in Welsh afforestation as part of their offsetting strategies.

See ▸▸ Capturing Carbon: Investing in Woodlands.

Strategy 5: Socio-Cultural Change

Maximise the benefit in becoming a high-value forest nation to Welsh communities

To help overcome barriers to change, to increase the understanding of woodlands in general and the acceptance of productive forestry in particular it is essential that the benefits flow explicitly to Welsh communities – particularly those communities surrounded by trees. Woodlands have proven benefits for education (nature-based learning), well-being and leisure (walking and cycling etc.) as well as the meaningful employment that is implicit in the other four strategies.

Policy Recommendations

Where the Welsh Government Woodland Estate is located near to communities, parcels of forest land should be sold or leased to local organisations in a way that leverages increased social, economic and environmental value (e.g. as demonstrated successfully by the Skyline project). Such an approach would draw more communities into forestry and create greater diversity in forest management and timber processing. NRW should then also be tasked with procuring land to enable the agency to maintain overall productivity levels from their directly managed forest.

Welsh Government should support the creation of designated Forest Towns. Such a designation should come with responsibilities and rewards. Once a designation is achieved, it should enable access to investment in community-based forestry related activities that would benefit the community in terms of employment, wellbeing, education and leisure. The first designated forest town could be Treherbert (which is behind the skyline concept).

Zero Carbon Homes—Zero Carbon Timber Solutions for Wales

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What is the zero carbon timber housing solution for Wales?
This document proposes a range of timber build solutions. Results are based on the analysis of an appropriate and future proofed definition for ‘zero carbon’, followed by design and calculation to develop an understanding of the quantifiable factors of embodied and operational carbon. Using a fabric first approach, an examination of existing and alternative timber construction methods, materials and systems offers a range of developed timber solutions that are capable of meeting the target fabric specification. These include information on whole carbon emission and offsetting calculations for a range of key typologies demonstrating the routes to Zero.
The detailed report presents findings from the Home-Grown Homes Project including actions for further detailed design, training and skills, technical development and testing, design and modelling tools. These may be relevant for designers, manufacturers, specifiers and clients.
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5 Essential Strategies for an Emerging Forest Nation

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Wales is not a forest nation. Wales is a sheep, beef and dairy nation. Wales is a steel nation.
Like many nations, Wales is the economic country it is, not by political design but largely because of historical accident. And there has never been a better time or more reason to change. We have left the European Union and have also declared a Climate Emergency. A more purposeful approach is now required to achieve the net zero carbon goals set by Welsh Government
Therefore, we are proposing five integrated strategies for how Wales can achieve a just transition to become a new high-value forest nation. A transition that would create substantial employment and a transition for which Wales has many natural advantages.
Wales has suitable and available land for afforestation, fantastic climate for growing the kind of trees that industry needs, the land and workforce for new industries and proximity to almost limitless export markets for high-value timber products.
Wales must move towards more sustainable low-carbon industrial and land-use options that are geared to meeting the resource needs of the low-carbon society and that are economically viable.
Wales is starting from a long way back. This paper sets out how our slow start can be turned to our strategic advantage if Welsh Government decides to lead in the adoption of integrated economic policies outlined in this paper that are purposefully aligned across our construction, manufacturing and land-use sectors.
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