The timber industry strategy for capitalising on the 2012 London Olympics is taking shape.
A wood. for good sponsored study of the opportunities for timber in the Olympics complex is set for delivery in October, with a precis due to be run in TTJ.
According to wood. for good managing director Charles Trevor, the report will estimate the amount of timber that could be used in Olympics construction and look at opportunites for supplying products for temporary building, shuttering and hoarding.
It will also cover government involvement in planning and development, sustainability criteria and strategies of ‘rival’ industries for the Games.
Mr Trevor said: “The Olympics represent a tremendous opportunity to the timber industry and will have a ripple effect in other areas of development.”
A meeting at the Timber Trade Federation attended by Mr Trevor and representatives of ConFor, TRADA, the British Woodworking Federation and UK Timber Frame Association agreed that the industry’s strategy must also be to lobby Olympics “stakeholders”, including government, the Games authority and construction firms.
The group will reconvene when the strategy report is finished.
“We have to leverage the Olympics opportunities and we have to think big,” said Mr Trevor.
TTF chief executive John White described the meeting as useful and said everyone had agreed on the need to engage with games stakeholders, including the government, the Olympics authority and construction industry.
Mr White said: “We need to be saying that wood offers a solution. Sustainability is a given for timber – it’s the only building material that’s renewable.”
He said the industry also needed to communicate the technical performance and aesthetic potential of timber and wood products to show how they can be used to create “beautiful and iconic” buildings for the Olympics.
Industry representatives will meet again following publication of a wood. for good sponsored study of the business opportunities afforded by the Olympics. The report should be completed by late October.
The study will examine the permanent buildings planned for the games and estimate where and how much timber could be used.
It will also cover materials needed for temporary building work, the strategies of rival industries, information on schedules for the award of contracts, details of goverment planning and sustainability criteria.
