AHEC shows architects the way

It has been a busy few weeks for AHEC even by our standards. After months of planning and execution we have delivered two very exciting high profile installations in the Victoria & Albert Museum as part of the London Design Festival (LDF). The first working with acclaimed professional designer, Martino Gamper and the other, with Design Product students from the Royal College of Art (RCA). AHEC is no stranger to the LDF and since our first collaboration in 2008 they have introduced us to some very influential designers and architects.

I am often asked why we do these projects and what do they achieve? Our marketing objective is to prove the environmentalcredentials and performance potential of US hardwoods, challenge perceptions, profile less known species and inspire more architects and designers to specify hardwood. We believe that increased awareness and sharing of knowledge with this target audience can only have a positive outcome for the US hardwood industry and indeed the wider timber industry.

Our shift away from traditional marketing has been very successful. Last year's Timber Wave generated unprecedented levels of publicity, well beyond the means of our advertising budget and the exposure gives us much greater penetration into the design community. We have learnt that the best way to influence architects and designers is through projects and case studies; that's often how they learn about new products and materials, and the capability of those materials.

With all the projects we sponsor, it is essential for us to be involved from the beginning and develop a relationship with the designer, helping to shape the outcome. Every project must set out to deliver new information or highlight key messages that will help us inform and educate.

This year's project with RCA Design Products students Out of the Woods: Adventures of 12 Hardwood Chairs was truly ground breaking for s. Sean Sutcliffe of Benchmark Furniture invited the 15 students to camp for a week at his workshop and make their prototypes with the support of his skilled craftsmen. As Sean says, "the best designers understand making" and this awareness of manufacturing processes and woodworking made the project so exciting for the students. But the project was given added poignancy as it was able to draw upon brand new, ISO conformant Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) research into 19 American hardwood species. During the making process the students recorded all inputs and energy consumption, allowing them to create a Life Cycle Impact assessment for each chair.

By introducing the science of life cycle into the project we deliberately did not try to make environmental comparisons with other materials. Comparing environmental performance will come later as more industries create LCA tools in response to "green" policy development. Out of the Woods gave us an insight into how our LCA data can be practically applied to product design and manufacturing. In addition, the impact assessments for the 12 chairs provide us with a tangible message that can now be taken forward to the wider industry as an indicator of just what can be assessed and achieved with relatively simple modelling, provided accurate data exists for the primary raw material. This kind of investment needs to happen across the wood sector and other industries so that policy makers can establish environmental frameworks that have real meaning and therefore deliver real change.

We believe this collaborative demonstration is essential if we are to provide meaningful criteria for assessing true sustainability and continue to successfully market our products and inspire architects and designers to specify wood.