October 2020 Newsletter

Dear <<First Name>>,

Welcome to our October 2020 newsletter.

The WoodBUILD 2020 Autumn webinar series got off to a great start with an exploration of the location and species composition of future Welsh forests within the context of a changing climate. In the second webinar we previewed our new Building Performance Evaluation Guidance. The purpose of this guidance is to help social housing providers deliver better performing low energy buildings.

There are lots more webinars in the WoodBUILD series so remember to register - and if your organisation is a member of Woodknowledge Wales you can register for FREE! Join us on 14 October for our next webinar on Decarbonising your housing stock. Session 1. How to reduce embodied carbon emissions.

In this newsletter you will find:

A personal reflection on "Valorising the potential of the Welsh green gold reserve" by Dainis Dauksta
Updates from the Home-Grown Homes project
A graphical guide on how to get to net-zero and
How your choice of building standard affects compliance with net zero operational outcomes.

As always, do please contact us if you'd like to get involved in any of our activities.

Gary Newman
Chief Executive, Woodknowledge Wales Ltd

News

Valorising the potential of the Welsh green gold reserve

Conifers grow superbly across many of the microclimates and soil types found in Wales, producing a widely varying range of wood types. However, Wales is caught in a paradox because tropes, assumptions and misinformation still dominate discussions about using Welsh softwoods in construction. Read more here.

Which standard should you use?

This paper commissioned by Good Homes Alliance and Woodknowledge Wales seeks to illustrate how the choice of a building standard affects the amount of renewable energy generation that is required to comply with a net zero operational outcome. Read more here.

Home-Grown Homes Project Updates

Background Project Information Here

Minister updated on project outputs

Julie James, Minister for Housing & Local Government has been updated on initial findings of the project and a follow meeting has been agreed to delve further into some of the results. With coronavirus, Brexit and the climate crisis some of the project findings could help shape future housing supply chains in Wales. More about what's been happening over the last two months here.

Delivering Zero - Yes we can!

Minimise embodied carbon, energy requirements and the performance gap and then off set to below zero is the way forward to delivering net zero and whole life carbon in housing. Building on the work of the UKGBC and LETI, the Home-Grown Homes Project have developed a graphical net-zero guide with a set of targets & principles that we believe are achievable within a Welsh context.

Events

The Autumn Series - has started!

Our autumn series of webinars covering aspects of forestry, manufacturing and housing is now underway with events in October and November coming up.

Membership

Woodknowledge Wales is an independent for-public-good membership organisation committed to the development of wood-based industries to benefit the economy the environment and the people of Wales. Our work would not be possible without the support and collaboration of our Members. To get involved and to find out about member benefits please contact us today timber.info@woodknowledgewales.co.uk

Get in Touch

Thank you to all of you who have been in touch. If you have a story, some news, a new product please get in touch.

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