The government may be buried in an omnishambles, but the timber sector is increasingly getting its act together on three key fronts. Promotion, environmental credentials and training may once have been perceived areas of weakness for the sector, but no longer – and this week there have been further positive developments in all of them.
The Wood Awards has become one of the prime showcases for the use of timber in construction, interior design and furniture. Year on year the competition for architects, designers and their partners in timber construction, manufacture and supply, has attracted more entries and seen its profile rise. It has highlighted wood becoming a more central material in construction and design and being used with greater flair, ambition and in ever more technically demanding applications.
However, the competition’s Achilles’ heel has been funding. The recession seriously depleted the number of backers from the industry, and recently it has had to rely on its most ardent core supporters.
But now, there is some seriously good news. Canada Wood has decided to join The American Hardwood Export Council, Carpenters’ Company and Wood for Good as one of the major sponsors. Its funding will enable the Awards to increase its marketing and generate more case studies on entries, which, in turn, will further promote the performance and potential of timber to the wider market. Canada Wood and the other sponsors also hope the extra funding will act as a magnet for more from across the industry.
Turning to the environment, third-party timber certification, proving legality and sustainability, is of course now firmly established. The ongoing problem has been market confusion about the relative validity of various certification schemes, often seriously complicating life for timber suppliers, who have had to be in a position to meet a range of different environmental specifications.
The government’s Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET) helped simplify the picture by assessing FSC, PEFC, the US SFI, Canadian CSA and Malaysian MTCS certification as equally acceptable proof of legality and sustainability. Then the Olympic Delivery Authority significantly advanced the cause by adopting the CPET guidelines for the London Games timber procurement. Now, inspired by the latter and input from the timber industry and certification schemes, the UK Contractors Group has followed suit. This comprises the biggest names in UK building and, where they go, the rest of the sector follows. The move should overall make specifying certified wood easier in construction, and selling and ensuring sufficient supplies of it more straightforward for the timber trade.
In timber sector training, a major milestone was reached a month ago with the launch of the first of the industry’s new National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), developed in conjunction with the timber Sector Skills Council Proskills..
A shadow hanging over this hugely positive development, however, was that Proskills earlier this year lost its government SSC funding, throwing its future into doubt. But now it has announced that it has restructured and will be able to continue to work with the industry, pushing on with development of the next NVQs, a new apprenticeship framework for the sector and its MakeIT! Wood schools liaison programme. The industry’s act will be more together than ever.
