How We Work: Why Mass Timber?

It all started when…

We learned that mass timber was this unique climate solution in that it introduces a renewable resource, known and very simple technology, and highly sophisticated design and construction techniques to a sector that has been historically very difficult to decarbonize: Tall buildings, and with them, the highly polluting and land-destroying materials we use to make them. We also learned that North American forests are most threatened with loss through “conversion” - i.e. developed into something else, like a sub-division. Vast tracts of working forestland in Maine, for example, are at risk of loss now that the pulp and paper industry has gone belly-up. But development is one of the highest impact industries with an important role to play in creating more density near cities - another climate solution. But they are also, for very good reasons of being a very high risk industry, among the most resistant to change. And there won’t be enough investment in manufacturing mass timber products without demand from the cities.

So a number of us in the Boston area and around the country started working very hard to advance mass timber construction as a climate solution. It’s such a great project, engaging so many industries and expertise and uniting our rural and urban economies in a way very few segments do.

At Olifant, we thought: Why not use the fact that cities are setting the most ambitious climate plans to create a market for mass timber? Why not create incentives for early adopters as we do with other climate solutions? And why not develop mass timber as a climate solution so we can generate longer-term forestry for longer-lived forest products? That’s our part in this network of advocates, both in and out of the building industry, across the country, who are trying to make mass timber a go-to building solution. And help our working forests stay forests and continue to create jobs, while upping the game of how well they can be managed.

And once we get that done, we’ve got some thoughts about getting the solar industry onto parking lots and big box stores…