Welcome to our April 2021 newsletter.
Lots of things have recently ended - the financial year, the current Senedd term, lockdown (nearly), the test phase of the Forest Nation Centre project and the thing that’s occupied most of my time over the past 33 months, the research phase of the Home-Grown Homes project.
New beginnings await.
The next chapter of the
Home-Grown Homes project has already begun - the implementation phase. We've run a first series of training courses on building performance evaluation, embodied carbon, zero carbon design solutions and retrofit to help transfer research insights into practice. We're shortly issuing guidance and training on procurement routes to net zero as well as briefing papers to help with woodland investment decisions.
We're continuing existing collaborations and developing new partnerships across the supply chain. We’ve recently held a first workshop with development professionals in local authorities and housing associations to discuss priorities for action in delivering net zero carbon in new homes (
see article). If you missed the workshop and would be interested in working with us, please get in touch.
On 6th May we're running a workshop focusing on retrofit, refurbishment and major repairs and zero carbon priorities for asset managers in social housing. Please contact us to book your space.
The 6th of May is also
voting day. Housing, timber and trees are well represented in the manifestos and I’m confident that whatever happens, it’ll be an exciting time for Woodknowledge Wales and our members. We can certainly expect to be the focus of much policy attention. Please see below for my speedy take on what the different political parties are saying.
The test phase of the
Forest Nation Centre initiative involved creating course content building on the themes of our net-zero whole life carbon framework. We ran a series of courses during February and March which were enthusiastically received. We've also started to explore how augmented and virtual reality can support our mission to make Wales a high-value forest nation. We're going to take some time to evaluate the outcomes and then start to plan the next phase of this exciting project.
We continue to strengthen our capacity to deliver our mission and better serve our rapidly expanding membership. We’re very fortunate to welcome Diana Waldron to our
team, joining us from Cardiff Met University. Diana is an architect and building performance specialist and has led the building performance element of the Home-Grown Homes project. She is pro-active and knowledgeable and has a passion for timber. Diana will work closely with David Hedges to lead on our collaborations with the social housing sector.
We're expanding our working groups or ‘Communities of Practice’ as they now seem to be called. We already have a thriving timber frame manufacturers group and a joinery group. We are starting up a designers group and a social housing developers group – and maybe an asset managers group too. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to get involved in any of these forums.
Finally, I’d like to welcome our
new members Hiraeth Architecture, Construction Wales Innovation Centre (CWIC), Rhondda Housing Association (RHA), Pontrilas Sawmills, Ty Pren and TRJ ltd.
Gary Newman
Chief Executive, Woodknowledge Wales Ltd
