TRADA’s 2008 In Touch with Timber conference in May will look at timber and wood products’ potential contribution to a sustainable London Olympics.
The event for architects, designers, specifiers and suppliers will spotlight where the construction sector can use wood in developments for the Games and how the timber industry can give it not just the products, but also the information it needs on technical issues and sustainable sourcing.
And the “strapline”of the conference, “beyond 2012”, highlights that its focus goes further than the Games’ closing ceremony. A key stress of the London Olympics is that it will have a ‘legacy’. Primarily this means it must leave behind facilities and infrastructure that have a post-Games life.
For construction, the ‘legacy’ also has more wide-ranging implications. The Olympics project will be on such a scale, many believe it could lay down a template for UK sustainable building into the future. Small wonder then that the timber sector is being urged to act decisively now to determine what it can contribute and to communicate that to the decision makers.
November’s TTJ Wood Futures Conference, run in partnership with the Medite 2016 Forum, picks up the torch on the critical topic of wood and low environmental impact building. The title of our event targeting the timber trade is “2016 – Countdown to Zero”. The government’s demand that all new UK housing must be zero carbon from 2016, with commercial building following suit in 2019, gives construction another push down the path to sustainability. Wood Futures will look at the key issues involved. What exactly is zero carbon building? What products and services will it demand from the timber trade, and how will it impact on suppliers’ own carbon footprints? Proof of sustainable sourcing will be a given, but will timber products also need to be backed by life cycle analysis, carbon load data and more?
So, two events asking critical questions for the future of the timber sector – and hopefully giving some valuable answers.
