Favourable exchange rates also play an important role in customer decision-making processes and during this period the exchange rate balance has generally been in favour of the Scottish timber processing sector.

Wood for Good, the timber industry’s generic wood promotion campaign continues to promote wood as the material of choice in terms of its low carbon properties. In comparison with other building materials timber has one of the lowest embodied energy scores. By using timber architects and designers perpetuate the storage of carbon over the life of the building/construction. All of this contributes to Government policy aimed at promoting a low carbon built environment not only in the construction but also in the performance of the building.

Considerable research effort also goes into developing modern methods of construction involving offsite construction. Timber frame housing is the obvious example of this but there are other construction products made of wood which provide great opportunities to promote the use of wood in construction. Edinburgh’s Napier University is the home of the Wood Product Innovation Gateway where companies with new product ideas are encouraged to engage with the research community.

Some of the larger supermarket chains now use wood extensively in their modern commercial property developments. Whilst obviously tied to corporate social responsibility policies there is also ready acknowledgement that customers like the look and feel of buildings using timber extensively in their construction. Additionally strong economic benefits to using wood in construction have been identified on a number of projects.

Given the pent up demand for housing throughout the UK, the outlook in the medium to long term has to be extremely positive for all elements of the supply chain. In particular the timber frame sector, having weathered the current storm, should be in a good position with some high performance systems to take advantage of any raise in demand.

In theory this should not be an issue since we have a Scottish Forestry Strategy, supported by the Scottish Government, which has a target of planting 15,000 hectares of additional woodland each year. Unfortunately, our current performance is considerably poorer than required to achieve this and the balance between productive and native woodland in terms of what is being planted is of great concern. Ideally we would like to see up to 10,000 hectares of productive woodland being established annually to allow the industry to develop and expand, and to continue to provide meaningful and well paid jobs in the rural communities.

The Timber Trade Federation whose members are generally involved in the importation of wood and wood products now have to comply with a responsible purchasing policy (RPP) which requires detailed quantification of risk of illegal activity from all sources of supply.

It is worth noting that the bulk of illegally felled timber in the Tropics is aimed at producing wood and wood products, rather it is perpetrated to produce bare land for agriculture or palm oil production. Unfortunately, on many occasions the timber industry unfairly carries the weight of the criticism for these activities.

The UK Government has also established an organisation called CPET (Central Point of Expertise in Timber Procurement) where the emphasis is placed on education, training and certification to ensure inspectors and building standards professionals understand and can address the issues.

The process of photosynthesis is the original carbon capture and storage system.

The processes associated with producing timber products involve some of the lowest embodied energy amongst all of the construction products. The amount of energy consumed in producing steel, concrete and aluminium is considerably greater than timber. However in most buildings timber is used in conjunction with other building products and I would advocate we optimise the use of our scarce resources to reduce our impact on the environment. In some cases, perhaps to optimise performance this will favour steel but in other situations it may favour timber. The important issue is to give the design proper consideration. This is why Wood for Good has been working with Hackney Council in London to develop a regulatory/guidance framework which encourages developers, where technically possible, to consider timber in their designs.

One particular area being pursued right now is a complete upgrade of data related to Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of timber and timber products. This information can be used in conjunction with Environmental Product Declarations (EPD’S) to give customers hard data on environmental performance of specific building products. Much information already exists, but this will be the first attempt across the industry to produce open source data available to all who may want to use it. Hopefully this information can ultimately be combined into computer models, BREEAM and the Green Guide to assist architects and designers in their quest to utilise more timber in their designs.