\n Research Engineer, Carbon Leadership Forum<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
In April 2020 we launched the Wood Carbon Seminars<\/a>, an 8-week webinar series that invited wood experts to answer the building industry\u2019s common and critical questions about wood carbon.\u00a0 Over 400 people registered to receive access to the webinars, with 100-200 people attending each session.\u00a0 These numbers exceeded our initial expectations, but perhaps we shouldn\u2019t have been surprised, given the building industry\u2019s growing interest in using mass timber and other biogenic materials in buildings.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] Leading up to the release of the Embodied Carbon and Construction Calculator<\/a> (EC3 tool) in November 2019, many wood experts pointed out issues with how we were presenting wood LCA data in the tool.\u00a0 We needed a crash course in wood, and if we needed it, then others probably did, too.<\/p>\n Over the years, we at the CLF have observed that sustainability-oriented AEC professionals were interested in using wood for its environmental benefits, but they were also wary of the negative consequences of logging and didn\u2019t want to drive deforestation.\u00a0 We also heard again and again that designers wanted to understand how to specify wood that best promoted climate-smart forestry, but it was not easy to understand and use wood LCA data.\u00a0 Furthermore, wood experts were often frustrated by the frequent misconceptions about wood carbon and the forestry industry.\u00a0 Clearly, all of these issues were confusing to navigate and there was a need to bring clarification to the topic of wood carbon. \u00a0The CLF, with its mission of education and outreach on embodied carbon and its connections to wood experts in academia and industry, was well-positioned to bridge the gap between the building industry and the forestry world.<\/p>\n In early 2020, the CLF developed the Wood Carbon Seminars with the help of the American Wood Council and Google, who were the main sponsors of the project and served on the advisory committee.\u00a0 The goal was to bring forest science to AEC professionals and help figure out how to present wood data in the EC3 tool.\u00a0 The advisory committee helped the CLF pick the speakers for the webinars corresponding to their area of expertise.\u00a0 This selection of speakers could (and did) lead to claims that there was a pro-industry bias in these webinars, but we asked the speakers to focus on the data so that the data could speak for itself.<\/p>\n And present the data they did.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.19.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] Monica Huang<\/p><\/div>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”92025298-fff8-4a7d-a3fc-b880d61f14e6″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Monica Huang is a research engineer for the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington and Organizer for the Wood Carbon Seminars, with expertise in environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). Recent research topics include the environmental impact of housing, optimizing tall wood structures, and developing data on the environmental impact of earthquake damage. She was also the lead author for a guide on the use of LCA in design and construction practice. Past research experience includes diverse topics such as astronomy, electronic waste, and sea level rise. As a graduate student, she developed the Port of Seattle\u2019s first study on the impacts of sea level rise on seaport structures.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_3,1_3″ _builder_version=”4.19.5″ _module_preset=”71ec4c3d-39eb-4479-a760-0015d42fc7bc” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”4.19.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n There was a wealth of information presented in these eight webinars, which were focused on North American forestry practices and wood products legally harvested from working forests (see the Notes section below).\u00a0 Here are some high-level take-aways:<\/p>\n In the first session (\u201cBackground and Basics\u201d), we learned that forests in the U.S. have been re-growing steadily for the past hundred years following the end of the Industrial Revolution (see Cynthia West\u2019s presentation<\/a>).\u00a0 We also learned that some unmanaged forests can become overstocked, which leads to an increased risk of forest fires and disease.\u00a0 We learned that forest owners are incentivized to practice sustainable forest management because healthy forests last longer and produce more wood, so sustainable forest management is good both for the environment and forest owners (see Kent Wheiler\u2019s presentation<\/a>).<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Growing stock figure” _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] This figure shows that while timberland area (right) has remained fairly constant since the 1950s, forest stocks (measured by volume) have been gradually increasing over time (left). Produced by Mila Alvarez, U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, available at www.usaforests.org<\/a>, based on Oswalt et al 2019, from Kent Wheiler\u2019s presentation<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.19.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”92025298-fff8-4a7d-a3fc-b880d61f14e6″ custom_margin=”20px||20px||true|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cEmpirical evidence and modeling studies of the U.S. indicate that demand for wood increases forested area [and] encourages more productive forest management.\u201d \u2013 Reid Miner (see presentation<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_3,1_3″ _builder_version=”4.19.5″ _module_preset=”71ec4c3d-39eb-4479-a760-0015d42fc7bc” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”4.19.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In the second session (\u201cLCA and Wood\u201d), we dove into the calculations behind wood carbon accounting. We learned that we should avoid the terms \u201ccarbon-neutral\u201d or \u201ccarbon neutrality\u201d because they can be potentially misleading. Instead, we should examine the actual carbon flux of a forest along with the methods and assumptions behind the calculations (see Reid Miner\u2019s presentation<\/a>). We also learned about how ISO 21930 handles biogenic carbon and how to understand the cradle-to-gate biogenic carbon results in upcoming wood EPDs (see James Salazar\u2019s presentation<\/a>). We also did a deeper dive into forest science to learn more about why proper forest management matters (see Elaine Oneil\u2019s presentation<\/a>).<\/p>\n In the third session (\u201cTracking Carbon in North America\u201d), we learned about forest certification and how forests can still be responsibly managed even if they\u2019re not certified and some of the challenges of certification for small landowners (see Lauren Cooper\u2019s presentation<\/a>). We learned that the U.S. Forest Service has been physically measuring sample plots across the country in the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program, which informs the national greenhouse gas reporting to the IPCC every year (see Grant Domke\u2019s presentation<\/a>). We also learned about the challenges of modeling biogenic carbon in LCA software and databases (see Maggie Wildnauer\u2019s presentation<\/a>).<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]In the fourth session (\u201cWood and the Building Industry\u201d), we learned about the economics of the forestry industry and reiterated that demand for wood products drives investment in forest planting and management (see Pat Layton\u2019s presentation<\/a>). We also explored the potential to bring forest carbon changes to the product-level and learned about the difference between climate-smart vs carbon-smart forestry (see David Diaz\u2019s presentation<\/a>). At the end of the webinar series, we took a step back to review how much we had learned (see Edie Sonne Hall\u2019s presentation<\/a>).[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”David Diaz graphic” _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] From David Diaz\u2019s presentation<\/p><\/div>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.19.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n During the planning stages of the Wood Carbon Seminars, we collected questions from the prospective audience to help us shape the content of the webinars. After the webinars commenced, we continued collecting questions from the audience and asked the speakers to write a response to as many questions as they could after the end of the webinar series. The result of this massive Q&A effort was: (1) a master list<\/u><\/a> of approximately 160 questions answered by the speakers, and (2) a top 10 Q&A document<\/u><\/a>, which contains the top ten most basic and popular questions curated by the CLF. We hope that these Q&A documents can be helpful to you, especially if you submitted a question to the speaker during the webinar series.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”92025298-fff8-4a7d-a3fc-b880d61f14e6″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Q: What can concerned builders do to support higher carbon storage in forests and help keep forests as forests?<\/p>\n A: Use wood products more to encourage landowners to keep forests as forests and to manage those forests. Do a better job of using the wood you get. Ask for certification. Think local.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/carbonleadershipforum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/trees-looking-up-1024x684.jpg\")
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\nWhy did we launch the Wood Carbon Seminars and what did we learn from it?<\/h3>\n
How it began<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/carbonleadershipforum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Monica-CLF-45-768x768-1.jpg\")
What we learned<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/carbonleadershipforum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/timberland-area-stock.png\")
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/carbonleadershipforum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/carbon-smart-friendly-forestry.png\")
Q&A’s<\/h4>\n
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