Pearls. That’s what you get for 30 years of marriage. Sadly it’s only pearls of wisdom on offer to celebrate Hayes’ union with the timber trade in September 1979. A trainee, subservient to a dour Scotsman who, in that Private Fraser tone, would say “one mistake on a contract boy and that’s it – yee’ll be sackeddd”. Many mistakes later and somehow alive to tell the tale.
Structural timber was wet, rough sawn, imperial and sold with the caveat “over-size no defect”. If the contract said 17/8x8in and 21/4×8 1/2in turned up, you took it on the chin. Some was stamped 2 & Better to distinguish it from inferior 3 Common. How we’ve moved on. Today that 17/8x8in joist is metric, kiln dried, stress graded, regularised 45x195mm, treated against decay and installed as fit for purpose. It’s certified and has to look good too. Dizzy heights indeed.
Haven’t we done well? We can pat ourselves on the backs. But what of the future? Amazingly, we are somehow still able to improve on our natural resource. It continues to evolve as customers become more demanding and products more specific to end use markets. Indeed competing materials and their strong marketeers dictate that we keep up with the pack or lose the race.
God has smiled on us. A nuclear sized weapon has been added to our armoury just as the going gets even tougher. It will help all our products. The Low Carbon Economy is here to stay. At some point governments will ensure the carbon factor is built into the cost of goods and services and it will impact us all.
What an opportunity! We must ensure the timber industry and our products are perceived worldwide as the massive carbon positive we know they are.
How do we do that? It started a few weeks ago with the launch of the new wood for good campaign, Wood CO2ts Less. The TTF is at the forefront as always. Don’t miss out, get behind it, it is our industry’s future. It’s the first and possibly the biggest challenge of the next 30 years.
Kevin Hayes is president of The Timber Trade Federation.
