Timber is made for Ecobuild

In less than five years Ecobuild has managed to identify a market, start up, and consume its largest rival, leaving the construction industry with an annual exhibition that showcases everything it could possibly need, with an emphasis on strong environmental credentials. That’s an amazing achievement.

For the timber industry, Ecobuild is a dream come true – it allows any responsible timber product or service company to shout out, loud and clear, about how timber is the best option.

Ecobuild puts timber on the front foot against competing building materials. This is a fantastic opportunity and the timber industry has grasped it and made Ecobuild its shop front to the construction industry.

As you walk around the show, you’ll see timber structures towering above you; amazing stands showcasing the latest options; companies from across the world showing how timber can do what their clients want.

Timber has a prominent place, right in the heart of the show; there are lectures and seminars; people presenting at various events running alongside, all promoting the case to a huge range of visitors. Students, engineers, architects, specifiers, contractors (from white van man up to the largest in the UK) will all be looking at us, listening and deciding if we’re really up to the job.

You may have noticed that I haven’t even mentioned the environmental credentials of timber yet – I don’t plan to! This is probably the most important point of the lot: timber needs to stand on its quality, service, technical and price points, not just its environmental ones.

We have reached a point where sustainability is a given for timber; we need to keep telling our customers that they don’t need to ask that question any more – “the answer’s yes; now what’s the next question?”

We need to move beyond a reliance on sustainability alone and take advantage of our uniqueness, particularly when shows like Ecobuild – and, of course, Timber Expo – set out a stall that plays so beautifully into our hands.

Let’s keep ahead of our competitors by telling all those students, engineers, architects, specifiers, contractors and their clients how we can do what they want, when they want, at the price point they want, with sustainability written through it like a stick of rock!

If you’re visiting Ecobuild this year, I hope you enjoy it and take heart from seeing what this amazing industry of ours can do. If you’re not, perhaps this might just nudge you towards a visit (or even exhibiting) in 2013, or supporting Timber Expo in September and, of course, our industry’s generic campaign, Wood for Good.

And, if you’re an architect, engineer or other building professional reading this at Ecobuild, please drop by the many timber exhibits. You’ll get a warm welcome and see some very interesting, sustainable and high performance products and materials.

Who knows, with the enthusiasm and commitment that we’ve seen within Ecobuild, timber could be top of the tree in five years’ time – now that would be really exciting; and a dreadful pun too!

Enjoy the show, or at the very least celebrate what the exhibitors are doing for our industry.