The first of the workshop series will center conversations around North American forest certification programs. Panelists of foresters representing small, medium, and large-scaled operations, will candidly speak about forest management practices in the Pacific Northwestern United States and Canada. Their “boots on the ground” perspective will provide invaluable insight on how the AEC’s desire for wood building products impact local ecologies, economics, and overall forest sustainability. The complexities of what it means to select wood from certified forests vs non- certified forests, costs with running certified forests, and the misconceptions and understandings of what our design decisions mean when we select structural wood and wood products will be covered from forestry perspectives. There will be a Q&A period following the panelist presentations.

The second of the workshop series will explore large scale implications of forestry practices, such as extensive or intensive harvesting, on surrounding communities, interrelated ecological networks, and global climate change. Members of the AEC industry seek clarification on how their roles and decisions in these various practices will impact the environment. The panelists represent a variety of backgrounds all unified around the questions of economics, equity, and ecology regarding the use of timber and wood building products. The facilitated conversations hope to distinguish between idealized scenarios and actual realities when it comes to advancement in forestry practices and the regulations of forested lands.  There will be a Q&A period following the panelist presentations.

The third workshop will address the comparative carbon analysis of three common structural materials, concrete, steel, and mass timber, and will explore the complications associated with hybrid structural systems. All three industries producing these materials advocate for the use of their material to reduce carbon in the built environment, each drawing on data and assumptions to support claims. The conversations will investigate these claims across all modules of Whole Building Life Cycle Analysis to understand the at times divergent narratives of building carbon estimation. The purpose of the panel discussion is to discuss the nuances, assumptions, and missing data points with experts studying these carbon models. There will be a Q&A period following the panelist presentations.

The fourth workshop in the series will center around lesser understood topics of Life Cycle Analysis that often provides an incomplete picture on global warming potential. There are assumptions made within LCA that do not consider regional differences or only look at a portion of the life cycle of the material leading to results that provide a short-term solution. The panelists will explain these lesser understood topics and the conversations will explore the time scales of carbon and climate neutrality.  There will be a Q&A period following the panelist presentations.

The final workshop will explore the topic of designing for a building’s end of life material flows. Frequently, only cradle to gate is considered when selecting a building material for its carbon content; however, WBLCA carbon content depends upon the longevity of a material, a building and an uncertain future. Concrete, steel and mass timber structural systems all claim recyclability and re-use potential but these are impacted by initial design considerations and market forces. The panel will consist of researchers and practitioners working to shape future material pathways through decisions made at the outset of a project and also bring together European and North American perspectives.