Just when you thought predictions for climatic catastrophe couldn’t get any worse, global warming experts start warning of the environmental “flipping point”. This is even more dire than its predecessor, the environmental tipping point.
The latter entails our emissions causing climate change to go into automatic so that, however much we cut our carbon footprints, it won’t reverse. At the “flipping point” the same happens, only the change is far more sudden and severe.
Such nightmare scenarios, albeit theoretical, are now in the public consciousness and influencing politicians. Once cagey about it, prime minister Gordon Brown, for instance, has now committed the UK to meet EU targets for generating 20% of energy from renewables by 2020. We’re also pledged to cut CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050.
So with government and the market ever more driven by environmental considerations, what role, responsibilities and potential rewards lie in store for the timber trade?
Speakers at the TTJ Wood Futures conference, run in association with the Medite 2016 Forum, highlighted some of the opportunities for timber to contribute to and capitalise on a low carbon economy. In particular, its low embodied energy and renewability make it the natural material for construction of “sustainable” housing and developments for the London 2012 Olympics, the “green Games” as they’re being billed.
But, the conference was told, the trade has to apply itself to make the most of its environmental benefits. Sustainable sourcing is a given, with no room for slip-ups. One piece of suspect timber in an Olympic project, for instance, would be PR poison. And if the industry wants customers to accept a range of certification schemes, it has to convince them that’s the way to go.
Timber also has to argue its green case in terms of how it satisfies the latest environmental codes, standards and regulations.
Most importantly, it has to be aware where the eco-market place is headed next and plan and adapt accordingly. The timber industry has to be in the predictions game every bit as much as the environmentalists.
