The Government Timber In Construction Roadmap – Exploring the detail! |
Our December newsletter focuses on the Timber in Construction (TiC) Roadmap, launched by DEFRA on Monday 11 December, with great anticipation from STA, TDUK and Confor and the rest of the structural timber industry. We have been updating you on the TiC working group to output for around two years and it is rewarding to see the culmination of this collaboration between industry and Government, focusing on identifying the important steps that need to be taken to encourage wider adoption of timber as a construction material.
STA contributed research and data to help address the impact that timber can have on the reduction of CO2, and worked alongside the other members of the TiC to identify where barriers exist in the expansion of timber in construction and the solutions that the Government and the wider industry should look to implement. The Roadmap focusses on the following 7 priority themes: - Improving data on timber and whole life carbon
- Promoting the safe, sustainable use of timber as a construction material
- Increasing skills, capacity, and competency across the supply chain
- Increasing the sustainable supply of timber
- Addressing fire safety and durability concerns to safely expand the use of engineered mass timber
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Increasing collaboration with insurers, lenders, and warranty providers
- Promoting innovation and high performing timber construction (late addition to the content)
DOWNLOAD ROADMAP HERE We have aligned our strategy to these key themes and will these will cascade to our various steering and working groups for evaluation and recommendations.
The Roadmap lists a number of actions to be taken by Government in addition to actions required by industry. We would like to draw to your attention to some of those actions, which we feel are particularly pertinent to STA. |
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Industry will: -
continue voluntary work to measure and reduce embodied carbon through the Future Homes Hub Delivery Plan and through initiatives such as the Built Environment Carbon Database
- encourage the inclusion of data, on projects that use timber, in the Built Environment Carbon Database once it launches in 2024, to enable improved benchmarking and information sharing on the carbon performance of timber construction projects
- improve the quality of timber environmental product declarations (EPDs) by 2028 including through creation of a new, free to use timber EPD database being developed by Timber Development UK
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Industry and Government will: explore the feasibility of creating a risk register of anonymised data relating to mass timber buildings, including international data by 2028 work together to facilitate greater dialogue between the insurance sector and developers to foster collaboration during and post construction by 2028
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Industry will: - map routes to competency for each relevant timber occupation, including training and qualification requirements, current levels of training and education provision, and grant and funding availability by 2025
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based on mapping, review curriculums and explore what further training or educational provision (for example, CPD, T Levels, Skills Bootcamps, Apprenticeships, Institutes of Technology engagement, etc.) may be required, including considering the potential merits of creating a timber in construction apprenticeship trailblazer group
improve its CPD offering to up-skill and re-skill the existing workforce by 2027, including through: development of a new toolkit for designers to support and promote timber in efficient design launching a Transforming Timber website platform to support the specification of timber construction products
providing expertise and resources to architects and engineers looking to build with timber via the Structural Timber Association’s technical helpline improving timber competency levels across wider stakeholder groups, such as fire risk assessors, fire engineers, building control officers and insurance, warranty and lending professionals
continue to promote timber-related careers in schools, colleges and more widely, for example through the British Woodworking Federation’s ‘WOW! I made that’ initiative, Go Construct!, Amazing Apprenticeships and the next phase of the Timber Industry College Hubs programme (ongoing)
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Industry will: identify blockers that are preventing the use of more homegrown timber
endeavour to plant and manage productive tree species that will increase the future supply of wood products to the construction sector and contribute to the long-term resilience of productive forests provide guidance to construction professionals on the use of homegrown wood-based construction products (for example to support better use of strength grades)
invest in manufacturing of new wood-based construction products where there is a viable market opportunity (for example in the areas of mass timber and insulation) invest in the additional capacity or infrastructure needed for processing homegrown timber in line with increased production from UK forests
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Industry will: continue to support the Fire Safety Hub web platform to promote data sharing and best practice guidance on timber construction and fire safety that aligns with building regulations (ongoing) develop and share best practice from demonstrator projects which meet functional building regulations, expanding the evidence base of domestic construction using mass timber (ongoing)
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The launch of the TiC Roadmap is the biggest opportunity our sector has ever seen and we must capitalise on this! We have already started our marketing campaign for promotion of the Roadmap in the press and on social media – make sure you follow us on LINKEDIN. Click to view STA Press Release.
The official launch by the Forestry Minister, Rebecca Pow took place on her visit to Harris Academy, the first Passivhaus school in the UK which is constructed largely of timber. Andrew Carpenter was there to support the launch on behalf of the timber industry and was able to discuss the next steps where Government and Industry will meet every quarter to ensure the actions required are on track. Watch the video here.
We will keep you updated on progress each month via e-news and look out for content on the website too! |
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