Summary
• Wood Futures’ keynote speaker will be environment minister Phil Woolas.
• The conference is sponsored by Coillte Panel Products Medite 2016 Forum.
• Other speakers will include representatives of NGOs, Defra, construction, merchanting, research and retail.
The fact that we have a representative of the concrete industry at a TTJ conference, Wood Futures – Sustainable Solutions, has raised a few eyebrows. Indeed, it may have ruffled a few feathers.
The event, at London’s Royal Festival Hall on November 8, is aimed at getting a perspective on the opportunities and challenges for timber and wood products in a market place that is increasingly shaped by environmental concerns.
So what we’ve done in selecting speakers, in association with our key sponsor, the Medite 2016 Forum, is to draw on as wide a range of viewpoints as possible with representatives of key market sectors for timber, retail, multiple merchanting and the construction industry, plus the forestry sector, government and environmental NGOs. They will explain how environmentalism and the increasing pressure on business to be sustainable currently shape the demands made on the whole supply chain, including, of course, the timber sector. And most of them will, no doubt, say that they are going to crank up these demands in the future.
But why invite the concrete industry? After all, elements within it haven’t hesitated to knock timber in their marketing, first on durability, and most recently on fire safety in timber frame buildings. Well, first it is to hear about concrete’s strong and coherent stance on the environment and how, in the words of our speaker, Concrete Centre head of architecture and housing Guy Thompson, it is “optimising” its products for use in sustainable construction. It’s also an opportunity to get an alternative take, which some may find surprising, on how rival materials industries should relate to one another in the market place. Sure, they will frequently be in competition but, Mr Thompson told TTJ, maybe the route to true sustainability means it’s time that conciliation and co-operation replaced confrontation.
Business view
Louise O’Neill from Marks & Spencer’s Corporate Social Responsibility team, will reinforce just how critical an issue the environment generally, and minimising carbon emissions in particular, is to business today. Her company this year launched Plan A, a wide-ranging £200m programme to boost its sustainability. And where the likes of M&S lead, others have to follow.
The audience at Wood Futures will also get the government perspective on the environmental performance of the timber and forestry sectors and how the legality and sustainability criteria of its timber procurement rules will shape up in the years ahead. Our keynote speaker will be environment minister Phil Woolas and on procurement we have Jenny McInnes from Defra.
The challenge for timber in meeting the strict environmental demands of supplying London 2012 Olympic Games projects will be detailed by the man who is helping shape their procurement policy, Dr Peter Bonfield, leader of construction products for the Olympic Delivery Authority. And representing the environmental NGOs which have been instrumental in setting today’s green market agenda will be George White of the WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network.
Ed Pepke of the UN ECE/FAO’s timber marketing section forestry will give the inside track on just how sustainable our global timber resource is, and UK Forestry Commission director-general Tim Rollinson will give his view on how his sector can work with the timber trade to boost wood’s environmental performance and credentials.
Green building revolution
From the sharp end of the business from the timber trade’s perspective we will have Travis Perkins’ group environmental controller Jez Cutler. He will explain what Travis Perkins needs now from timber suppliers in terms of product certification and broader green credentials and how the company’s requirements will develop given government targets for construction to be building only “zero carbon” housing by 2016 and 3 million new “sustainable” homes by 2020. Paul King of The Green Building Council will say how his organisation is helping to shape the eco-construction agenda.
Of course, by definition wood is a sustainable, renewable material. But Rupert Scott of TRADA will tell Wood Futures delegates that this is not enough. If timber really wants to punch its weight in an increasingly environment-oriented market, it has to set its inherent advantages in the context of the latest eco codes and standards emanating from Westminster and Brussels.
Taking the event in a different direction before delegates depart for a post-conference reception on The London Eye, we have also invited BT futurologist Jim Mitchener. He will predict some of the advances in communications and other business technologies timber businesses will have to take on board as they strive to keep up with the environmental revolution.
The aim of Coillte Panel Products’ Medite 2016 Forum initiative is to provide opportunities for the timber and wood products sector to think about, discuss and debate its future. Wood Futures – Sustainable Solutions will certainly do that. It might even be a first step in creating a sustainable relationship between timber and concrete, where they talk and collaborate rather than knock lumps out of each other. You never know.
