Hi everyone! Let’s use this thread to start to list strategies for climate smart forest product procurement that you’re actively using in your work, have used, or know of.
Here are the ones that were brought up on our last call (more detail in the Existing Strategies Doc)
On the Meyer Memorial Trust example, Sustainable NW just developed a great case study: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eab584a296dca09a66e85a6/t/600758af235754419b717516/1611094195998/Meyer_HQ__Using_Wood_Procurement_to_Achieve_Community,Equity__Conservation_Goals+FINAL.pdf
As we look at linking to evaluating ecological forest management sourcing options and mills involved in federal forest restoration I would like to offer this podcast. Podcast
Here is a video on the collaborative from Oregon Public Broadcasting called Working on Timber Peace Video
Here is the website for the Blue Mountains Collaborative: https://www.bluemountainsforestpartners.org/
Ochoco Lumber is the mill involved in the restoration named in the above podcast. Vaagen Brothers and other mills play a similar collaborative role for other public land restoration. Without these mills some of the economic viability needed to do public lands restoration would not be possible; not to mention the jobs and economic values they represent to rural communities.
Thanks, Brad and Paul!
I saw the the City of Portland has a Sustainable Procurement Policy (2020) but I’m not familiar with the details - is anyone else able to share more information on that?
Hi Lindsay
The City of Portland has sustainable wood procurement named as a pilot within their Sustainable Procurement Policy
Brad, this is great!- thanks for sharing. The outline in the google doc was also very helpful. To build on this, and perhaps to bolster the discussion about best practices it may be interesting for our group to study a mass timber project that took a more “typical” design and construction path- perhaps with a team that lacked the key forestry expertise and flexibility in decisions by the client. Where did those projects land? What governed the decisions? How may they have been different? What resources are available to guide these decisions? Then we can compare project paths and understand what happens in the scenario where there is less focus on procurement and where we have opportunities to have a greater impact. I have a few projects in mind, maybe others do as well if we agree it is worth exploring.
on Certification I just found this document
For procurement using certified wood, most folks don’t understand that it is a lot like Green Power. The mill knows how much wood comes from certified forests and they can sell up to that amount and label it as certified. I believe this is the methodology for all system we have discussed. When you buy a individual board it may or may not have come from a certified acre. It gets mixed up in the mill just like power gets mixed on the grid. Green power is the same way, a power company can sell you a portion of their green power production (based on their total green production) but the electricity that comes into your business may or may not have come directly to you from a solar farm.
Also please look at this site which is the proposed SFI standards.
Look at the forest management standard and find the revised and/or combined material on ‘climate smart forestry’ found in objective 9 of this standard. The SFI guidance document has 5 or more pages of backup material on climate smart forestry beginning about page 25. These standards are in the process of revision and this website will be updated probably in March with additional changes.
Hi Kristina,
I think that’s a great suggestion! This may connect with research that ThinkWood has done (or is currently doing) on why mass timber projects have failed. The presentation I listened in on was focused on the Northeast, but key factors were often cost, not deciding on mass timber early enough in the design process, and a lack of understanding of designing and construction with mass timber. I’ll see if I can find that report if it’s been published. You could perhaps provide the flip side to this research!
Hey all, I just want to flag the resources that are on the Knowledge Hub that are specific to procurement in case you haven’t had a chance to check them out. There are 3 videos in the Climate-Smart Wood Procurement & Case Studies section that are all well worth watching. And section 7 of the reading list is devoted to Supply Chains, Policy & Procurement.
Hi all, I just added a comment in our working document in the Procurement Guidance section about including reclaimed wood as an option for responsible procurement. If you haven’t seen, there’s some really interesting research on this that’s presented in a video on the Knowledge Hub:
