Mass Timber Transparency Pledge Letter

Hi Dave, Glad to hear your firm's spec includes reference to ASTM D7612-10.  That's a great start, since it breaks sourcing down into 3 categories of Non-Controversial (Legal), Responsible, and Certified.  As some of you may know, illegal logging has been considered to be one of the largest transnational crimes by volume and value, so ensuring sourcing of more exotic sources is especially important and this ASTM is especially helpful there. Specifying certified wood is also certainly great, especially when you can point to more rigorous certifications. However, what's interesting is that determining that timber has been sourced within a given country and/or with certifications attached doesn't actually tell us more precisely where our wood is coming from.  Even FSC Chain of Custody essentially tells us that the wood came through a certified supply network, but it doesn't actually say where it came from.  Our effort is meant to make better sense of the mass timber value chains by reaching back upstream of the mills that are cutting the lamstock, which can be very challenging.  We believe that greater transparency will eventually enable greater intentionality when it comes to specifying mass timber products (or even other wood products), allowing projects to help advance other environmental and/or social goals in their origin forests.  Of course, doing this on a project-by-project basis is not the most efficient way forward, but it's a start.  The American Wood Council played a big role in creating ASTM D7612-10, and our hope is that this framework could be expanded over time to dig in a bit more on what constitutes "Responsible" sourcing and help us to know when we're sourcing from large industrial forests vs. small family-owned forests vs. forests owned and managed by Indigenous communities, etc.  Knowing the specific forest or stand may not be necessary, and there are concerns by some about the potential for doxing, so even zip code or other regional identifiers may be sufficient enough.  Learning if the wood was cut as part of wildfire mitigation or as part of long rotation management regimes would be amazing too.  Striking the right balance of top-down requirements through standards or regulations will take time, since there is inertia on the part of industry to avoid dredging up this info.  We believe that promoting more transparency is actually a distinct opportunity for industry to share more and showcase how "their wood" is differentiated in the market.  So, for now, we're hoping this pledge by manufacturers coupled with the transparency tools we've been developing could serve as an initial push toward a consistent reporting framework. We've spent a lot of time with a template spec section, and I think it will still need to be adapted by each firm to fit their standards and their specific project needs.  Determining how much reporting is required vs. optional will also be a conversation that will probably need to be had on each project, since it can add time (money) for design and construction teams to manage.   Circling back to your specific question, Dave:  for now we'd hope you'll be willing to sign this letter to show that the AEC industry would like to know more about where the timber in mass timber is coming from.  In the longer term, it would be great if you'd be willing to pilot or fully integrate the Disclosure Form we've developed into your spec as well.  The ASTM D7612-10 reference is still a good one, and should be kept, but asking for slightly more fine-grained information in a consistent way across our industry is a productive supplement in our opinion.  

Hi Everyone, Quick reminder that we'd like all firms that want to be signatory to this pledge letter to sign up by this Friday, August 30th.  To sign up, fill out this super brief form.   We already have a list of impressive, thought-leading, firms signed up... Bora Architecture & Interiors Brockman Climate Strategies LLC CannonDesign Chapman Construction / Design EHDD EUA Handel Architects HED isgenuity LEVER Magnusson Architecture and Planning Mithun OPN Architects Payette Sasaki SERA Shawmut Design & Construction Stantec Architecture Studio Gang ZGF ...but we know there are more of you out there!   Thanks again for your consideration!