Politicians today want be seen to be green. It’s good for their image with voters, so they’re now almost as big on planting trees as planting kisses on babies.
For the timber industry this creates a great opportunity to influence the political establishment. And, increasingly, it does seem that the opportunity is being seized.
The latest show of political solidarity with the timber and forest products sector came last week with the launch of the UK Forest Industries Sector Sustainability Strategy, otherwise known as Naturally Wood. This initiative is steered by the Forest Industries Development Council, but also involves the Timber Trade Federation. It draws its inspiration from the fact that, to cater to increasingly green consumer tastes and comply with increasingly tough national and international environmental regulations, UK industry, especially construction, needs ecologically sound products and raw materials – so-called “sustainable solutions”. Naturally Wood will show how the timber and forest products sectors can provide these solutions now and also help them to raise their environmental game to do it better in the future.
The politicians have embraced this venture eagerly. The launch in Westminster was hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Forestry; environment minister Elliot Morley spoke and secretary of state Margaret Beckett wrote a letter of support.
The consensus among timber industry representatives is that Naturally Wood could be a seriously useful marketing tool – a single strategy for identifying prime areas of demand for the sector’s sustainable products and for honing its capacity to supply them, with the political support giving it added credibility and clout. The key now, everyone seemed to agree, is that the whole trade gets behind and makes the most of it.
Coincidentally, on the day of the Naturally Wood launch, BSW vice-chairman John Brownlie was addressing the London Softwood Club on an almost identical topic. He urged the British-grown and importing timber sectors to come together to exploit timber’s environmental credentials and increase market size. “We are still only scratching the surface in terms of developing a wood culture in the UK,” he said. “There is so much to go for.” Cue ‘hear, hear’ from the politicians!
