The Wood Protection Association’s (WPA) annual awards for wood protection excellence will be staged live online on Thursday October 15 at 1.00pm.

Now in their sixth year, the Awards have become a popular annual event that showcase wood protection technology as a relevant and vital part of the timber industry.

“Staging the 2020 Awards as an online event means that our industry, in spite of Covid-19, can still gather together safely to recognise and reward excellence,” said WPA chief executive and virtual awards host, Gordon Ewbank.

The winners of the five award categories will be announced live in a 30 to 40 minute Zoom programme that includes a review of the shortlisted nominations in each category. Entertainer Richard Pinner will also be raising the spirits with his unique brand of virtual magic.

The operation and staging of the WPA annual awards is funded by sponsorship. The main sponsors for the 2020 Awards are the four major wood preservative manufacturers: Impra, Koppers, Lonza and Wolman.

Accsys Technologies, the manufacturer of Accoya modified wood is also an award category sponsor.

The winners will receive a unique award created from Abodo, a modified wood product from New Zealand now available in the UK. Production of the Awards was sponsored by Glenalmond Timber, WPA member and UK distributor of Abodo products.

The 2020 Award categories are:

Wood protection project of the year

Sponsored by Wolman, this award recognises the vital role wood protection plays in enhancing the durability or fire performance of wood used in a construction, engineering or landscaping project. The WPA says that it has a record number of entries this year with projects featuring preservative and flame retardant treated wood and panel products.

Quality Excellence

Sponsored by Lonza, this award is for WPA accredited treaters producing either preservative or flame retardant treated wood or wood-based products in accordance with the standards of the WPA Benchmark quality assurance scheme.

“As interest in the use of independent quality assurance schemes for treated wood starts to grow in the UK, being shortlisted for this Award is highly prized commercially,” said Mr Ewbank.

Innovation

Sponsored by Accsys Technologies, this award showcases creativity, new ideas, new products and more effective ways of doing things in the wood protection sector that add value from a customer’s perspective.

Treated Wood Trader Of The Year

Sponsored by Impra, this award is all about customer service, best practice and those qualities that differentiate a business in building and retaining customer loyalty.

Outstanding Contribution

This annual Award recognises the achievements of people who, year in year out, make an outstanding contribution to the success of a wood protection business and/ or have enhanced the reputation and profile of wood protection technologies in the timber supply chain over many years.

There are no shortlisted names in this category – the Award is conferred on an individual by the WPA management team.