Timber Cities: Transforming our cities from carbon emitters to carbon sinks

Construction event

PEFC invites you to watch this engaging webinar where we explore the transformation of our cities from carbon emitters into carbon sinks. Register here to receive the recording.

It is estimated that by 2050 two thirds of the global population will live in cities. The world will therefore need to build enough dwellings to accommodate this growing urban population. But if we are to build sustainably, the choice of materials matters.

Increasingly, the built environment sector is turning away from traditional construction materials such as steel and concrete and opting for renewable, recyclable wood. Building with certified timber is good for our planet, our well-being, and our economy.

Timber is THE renewable building material, requiring less energy to produce in comparison to concrete, steel, and aluminium. It therefore has a key role to play in helping mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Rather than emitting carbon, timber stores it, so switching to timber will help society meet its Net Zero commitments. But in addition, building with timber, using wood that has been sustainably sourced, will help support a healthy future for the world’s forests.

In our webinar Timber Cities: Transforming Our cities from Carbon Emitters to Carbon sinks we explored the benefits of using timber to build the cities of the future. The webinar should be of interest to built environment professionals keen to learn more about the benefits of building with timber – from architects, specifiers and developers to structural engineers, contractors, house builders and their suppliers.

To explore the concept of timber cities, we brought together a panel of three knowledgeable speakers, who are all keen advocates of building with wood.

Our expert speakers covered these key topics

• Advancing Low Carbon Construction in Cities
• The Emergence of Mass Timber in the US
• Wood cities and restored landscapes: a system solution for climate, nature and people

Florian Steierer, UNECE/FAO

Florian Steierer is an Economic Affairs Officer at the joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section in Geneva, Switzerland. A trained forest engineer, Florian studied at the Universities of Freiburg and Nancy. Before taking up his current role, Florian worked as a Forestry Officer with expertise on wood energy at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome.

Susan Jones, atelierjones Architects

Susan Jones (FAIA) is founder of Seattle-based practice, atelierjones. Keen advocate of mass timber construction, her award-winning firm drives new lower-carbon pathways within architecture and construction. Advancing new, prefabricated mass timber systems for the United States, the firm has completed eight mass timber projects, and has designed over twenty, from large-scale urban housing to urban infill housing, missing-middle housing to rural mass timber modular housing. atelierjones’ leadership in multiple international collaborations has created sustainable change at scale on multiple levels, from forest health to LCA collaborations to fire testing to broad, US-based regulatory building codes, to award-winning design projects that introduce immersive, biophilic experiences for all.

Aaron Kaplan, Eco-innovation Foundation

Aaron Kaplan is a Director of the Eco Innovation Foundation. He has an academic background in international business, sustainable urban systems, and entrepreneurship. He founded the Stockholm Cleantech business network in 2008, focusing on leading small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs, and has acted as facilitator to city developers of green profile city districts. Before this he coached corporations on strategy, inclusivity and sensemaking. Over the past ten years, Aaron has been a driving force in founding and developing the Eco Innovation Foundation, focusing on the global opportunity of bio-based cities as drivers of landscape restoration and rural development.