Growing Green Industry and Innovation: Mass Timber

Workforce Wednesdays
Find out more about the briefings in this series below:
Sept 2	Preparing High Schoolers for Green Careers
Sept 9	A New Spin on Conservation Corps
Sept 16	Energy Transitions in Coal Country
Sept 23	Growing Green Industry and Innovation: Mass Timber
Sept 30	Low-Carbon Small Business and Post-COVID Recovery
Overview of the Workforce Wednesdays series

The United States can lower domestic and global greenhouse gas emissions by supporting innovation and expanding low-carbon industries. Mass timber provides a prime opportunity to diversify the American economy and lower emissions while providing steady, family-sustaining employment for a skilled workforce. Panelists discussed the environmental and workforce benefits of mass timber, from manufacturing to construction. Representative Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), forester and sponsor of the Trillion Trees Act, provided opening remarks.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a series of online briefings on workforce development and policies and programs that can support a low-carbon recovery from the COVID-19 economic crisis. Speakers discussed major challenges faced in each area and solutions providing economic and environmental benefits to communities across the country.

 

Supplemental EESI materials:

• Oregon Lumber Company Showcases New Mass Timber Product, Invests in Sustainability
• Nation’s Largest Mass Timber Building Opens at University of Arkansas
• GOP Leaders Branch Out with One Trillion Trees

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.)

• There are a number of benefits to using cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction.
• Building panels in factories, shipping them to the job site, and putting them in place with a crane allows for efficient construction projects.
• Wood is a carbon sink as long as the wood stays intact (40-50 percent of wood, by mass, is carbon).
• CLT is also a good insulator, it is fire resistant, its elasticity makes it a good material to use in a seismic zone, and it has a high weight to strength ratio.
• In Arkansas, two University of Arkansas residence halls are built of CLT, and Walmart plans to construct its new corporate headquarters with CLT manufactured in Arkansas.
• The future is bright for mass timber, which is also good for forests because markets can drive sustainable forest management.

 

 Jennifer Cover, President and CEO of WoodWorks

• Mass timber provides workforce benefits across the entire supply chain: forestry, manufacturing, architecture and engineering, construction, and installation.
• A recent report from Forest Economic Advisors highlights the importance of softwood manufacturing to the economy. The report estimates there are 775,000 jobs and $46 billion tied to industry. There are 515 sawmills in 470 mostly rural communities across 32 states.
• WoodWorks focuses on growing the mass timber market by educating the industry’s “specifiers” (i.e., architects, engineers, developers) who determine which wood to use for a project.
• WoodWorks’ programs produce 35,000 practitioner education hours annually and have supported 400 building projects. These educational services are funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service, so they can be provided at no cost.
• The market demand for mass timber projects is growing across the country. There have been 921 mass timber construction projects initiated in the United States to date, of which 384 have been built and 537 are in the design stage.
• Focusing on the hurdles that prevent projects from advancing, WoodWorks has found that a lack of familiarity with mass timber on the construction side is the main reason why projects get stopped. With the increased uncertainty, there is more risk, and higher contingencies are tied to the projects.
• WoodWorks has designed resources to help with the training of management and installer workforces with the goal of transforming these workforces from hurdles to champions of the industry, thereby moving the market forward.
• WoodWorks trains the construction management workforce to estimate costs and to assess how the overall project will function.
  • Using connections within the industry, WoodWorks has experienced professionals create a curriculum and teach courses in a peer-to-peer training format.
  • The construction management training program started at the end of 2019, and so far there have been four in-person workshops (216 participants) and two online workshops (440 participants). Even during the pandemic, there remains a lot of interest in learning more about mass timber.
• There are already training centers across the country for installers, so WoodWorks partnered with the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters and the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute to improve their services. WoodWorks provided mockup models for training sessions and gave feedback on training content used at these training facilities.
• WoodWorks also connects trained professionals in this market together through its Woodworks Innovation Network. This networking website serves architects, engineers, contractors, installers, and developers (some of whom have been trained by WoodWorks), and helps them find jobs in their local regions.
• WoodWorks is currently carrying out a study to assess what prevented certain projects from advancing, and they have identified a recurring problem: a lack of training and familiarity with mass timber at the general contractor and installer level.
  • WoodWorks has started developing a three-year program that will create a mass timber construction manual and a 16-hour installer training package; enhance partnerships with 10 training centers; connect with 10 community colleges; provide more workshops; and engage with 50 general contractors.
• WoodWorks recognizes the large mass timber market growth opportunity and wants to help the industry achieve its potential. The organization estimates 17,000 buildings annually could use mass timber, according to building codes, but are not.

 

Tyler Freres, Vice President of Freres Lumber CO., Inc.

• Freres Lumber Co., Inc., employs 430 full time people, sustainably manages 17,000 acres of timberland, and has gross annual sale revenues of $150 million from products such as lumber, plywood, and veneer.
• They also operate a 7.2 MW cogeneration facility, which produces enough power for 5,000 homes.
• Freres Lumber has developed a patented product, Mass Plywood Panel [a type of mass timber that uses veneer instead of lumber slices], which has resulted in a $40-million investment into the community. This mass timber product can be used as a flat platform as well as beam and column elements for buildings, which enables the company to create every single wood element for a multi-story wood structure.
• The Beachie Creek Fire in Oregon has forced the company’s facilities to temporarily shut down due to poor air quality and the displacement of their workforce.
  • The fire has burned over 192,000 acres, and 100 million board feet of timber on the company’s land has been impacted. This volume represents a seven-year supply at their historical rate of sustained harvest.
  • When the fire is under control, the company hopes to salvage and use most of this impacted timber in the short term.
• Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) inserted Section 207 into the 2018 Farm Bill which created 20-year stewardship contracts that give innovative contractors, like Freres Lumber Co., Inc, preference to access and manage federal lands.
  • This could enable the company to invest more in its workforce and community and could provide opportunities for the local workforce to train in special harvesting techniques to manage the local landscape, but that section of the Farm Bill has not been implemented.
• Veneer wood processing promotes more sustainable use of timber products. The company can promote forest thinning and better forest management because their product allows them to use thinner logs that may otherwise be fuel for wildfires.
  • Non-saleable wood products are used in their cogeneration facility to produce electricity, so the entire process can be considered zero-waste.
• The company’s largest hurdles are timber and labor. The supply of available timber has been federally constrained and has limited the company’s growth. Additionally, the local workforce is not large enough to staff all the positions the company needs.
• The federal government owns 60 percent of forestland in Oregon, but only a small percentage is harvested. Large private landowners own only 20 percent of forestlands but contribute to 63 percent of timber harvest. Currently, private landowners cannot expand production without compromising their sustainable harvest rates, but overgrown federal lands represent an opportunity to expand the timber industry and promote better forest management.
• Based on growth, mortality, and harvest charts, private landowners are better stewards of the land than other landowners, so Freres argues that expanding their access to timber will result in overall better forest management and potentially reduce fire risks.
• The timber limits in the Northwest Forest Plan have led to reduced timber output and fewer timber jobs. The limitations on forest harvesting have contributed to a sharp rise in tree mortality and prevented growth in the local economy and timber workforce.
  • Timber harvest programs that used to invest back into local communities have been replaced by federally-subsidized programs like the Secure Rural Schools Program.
• Some solutions include:
  • 20-year stewardship contracts: while these have been signed into law, there has been almost no effort to properly implement the contract program, and there has been no guidance on how to move forward.
  • Managing forests: Increasing access to timber will boost rural economies while contributing to better forest management and reduced fire risk.
  • Encourage locally-sourced products: Although access to the local timber supply has been limited, the demand for timber is still high, resulting in large imports of wood products from South America and Asia. The government can increase timber access and allow for locally-produced timber products.

 

Carter Sterling, CEO of Sterling Solutions

• Sterling Solutions produces TerraLam cross-laminated timber (CLT) mats. The company caters to the energy infrastructure space such as pipelines, power lines, and renewable energy, particularly solar farms and wind farms.
• The company employs over 500 employees at two facilities that can manufacture up to 800,000 cubic meters of TerraLam CLT panels per year. The company has grown rapidly since 2014, increasing from 112 employees to 530.
• The facilities’ locations were chosen in relation to the distance to the lumber supply and points of distribution. Sterling Solutions was also interested in the characteristics of the local workforce. The facilities were purposefully located in Phoenix, Illinois, and Lufkin, Texas, both of which are formerly successful manufacturing towns.
• Sterling Solutions has prioritized strengthening its interactions with local communities, and has targeted youth, mainly at high schools and community colleges.
• The company has developed a workforce educational program called Sterling University. Since its founding, 185 employees have graduated from the program. Courses include English as a second language and budgeting. The training program helps employees be successful within the business and also within their local communities.
• The company has recently partnered with the National Football League to help vulnerable communities in Chicago access healthy foods by supplying CLT panels to act as flooring for pop-up farm stands.

 

Q&A Session

 

Q: Can you speak more on how your products are made? What kinds of skills are needed to work in these facilities?

• Sterling: We need families to help develop a strong work ethic in their kids, where they respect others and themselves. From there, the company can train workers with the skills they need to be successful.
• Freres: Employees need to make themselves essential. The company will send certain employees to school to get trained in more technical skills needed within its facilities. The company does need some more skilled trade workers to help customers with their specific project needs.

 

Q: Do trees continue to sequester carbon after harvesting? What is the relationship between timber and carbon sequestration? What are other environmental benefits associated with the industry?

• Cover: As a tree grows, carbon is pulled out of the atmosphere and locked into the fiber of the tree. Once trees are cut, the tree no longer removes carbon from the atmosphere, but the stored carbon is locked into the timber for its entire lifetime. Additionally, with mass timber in particular, you can use smaller diameter trees, which may otherwise become fuel for forest fires. Overall, the mass timber process incorporates carbon sequestration with forest management and fire mitigation, while producing high value products.

 

Q: Can you use diseased trees, insect-infested trees, and damaged trees in CLT?

• Sterling: The application that we are using Sterling CLT panels for, namely temporary roads and construction platforms to protect soil, allow us to use almost anything because we do not have to meet the structural strength requirements needed for building construction. We can use almost any species and any grade, so we can be very opportunistic.
• Freres: At some period of time after a tree has died from disease or bugs, it will affect the design characteristics of the fiber and will not be usable. We should be able to use most of the fiber from salvaged logs impacted by wildfires if processed within the next 12 months or so.

 

Q: What is the role of building codes in your industry’s growth potential? Are they updated enough to drive market expansion?

• Cover: The role of codes is huge in terms of market growth because they can open doors for architects and engineers to be able to design buildings by providing guidelines for comprehensive safety standards. WoodWorks will seek guidance from the 2021 International Building Code (IBC) for how to design up to 18 stories. We should adopt the most advanced codes in each region to increase safety and expand building options.
• Sterling: My business in the mid-north is in Cook County, Illinois, which is a challenging environment. They do not want to adopt new codes and are taking the path that leads to the least risk. Sterling Solutions has been working with the Chicago Carpenters Association, which can play a big role in promoting codes and products using their voice and reputation.
• Freres: Almost all West Coast states have approved an alternative path towards preapproval of the new 2021 IBC. West coast states have been very progressive in adopting many of these new codes.

 

Highlights compiled by Hamilton Steimer