For the last hundred or so years, new construction has always followed two paths: concrete, or steel & glass. Most of the new high-rise public buildings poking up amongst the London skyline favour shining steel-glass composition. However, in Scotland, things aren’t quite the same.
An estimated 85% of new homes in Scotland are built using timber frames, outfitted with timber cladding, or otherwise heavily feature timber as a part of their construction. Despite this, only one third of the timber being used in these new developments is sourced locally, and the U.K remains the second largest net importer of wood in the world, with only China importing more. Why is this?
Choosing not to source your wood locally ultimately comes down to two factors: variety and cost. Ordering wood from international markets gives you options for species that wouldn’t grow (or grow as well) in your domestic market; meanwhile, wood shipped internationally can take advantage of economies of scale and use predetermined sizes and frames to sell for a lower cost than bespoke local timber manufacture.
While these factors might be significant, the first is on relatively shaky ground, as there’s plenty of variety in UK timber, and lots of room for diversification. As for the cost, not only are post-Brexit complications raising the price of international timber, but there are also a wide number of other factors you should consider when choosing timber for your project. It’s here where locally grown timber can not only thrive, but offer you benefits you never even expected.
Climate Awareness
While we won’t fully go into climate change in this article, it’s a fairly open-and-shut case that buying lumber that’s been internationally shipped is supporting an industry that’s doing irrevocable harm to the plant, natural ecosystems, and the broader environment.
On an international scale, shipping as an industry contributes an estimated 2.5% of overall C02 emissions in the average year – and that’s not even getting into trucking and ground-level logistics.
The closer your timber is harvested to the mill where it’ll be processed and sold, the better it is for the environment. No materials are ever fully sustainable, but choosing to use your influence as a consumer to support materials that are more sustainable can illustrate to major firms that this really is an issue you care about.
Managed Woodlands
Not only is shipping an issue, but investing in local, sustainably sourced timber will also pay back dividends to local woodlands and nearby ecosystems to the mill. Much like the Native American practice of controlled burning to help manage wildfires, sustainably harvesting wood can have a more positive climate impact than leaving the wood where it is.
This is because, when left to its own devices, the wood from dead trees rots, releasing the C02 the plant would otherwise store. But when the wood from those trees is harvested, new trees are planted in their place, the old wood is turned into new products, those new products store C02 again, and the newly sprouting tree actually absorbs more carbon than an old tree does. If mills are encouraged by market trends to source their wood locally, they’ll be incentivised to help keep those woods as healthy as possible, which in turn keeps the cycle efficient and the carbon capture rate higher.
Benefits to Local Economies
If you care about your local community, ensuring that people across multiple sectors have profitable jobs and nice places to spend their leisure time is surely a net positive. As such, you’ll be pleased to hear that as the Scottish Government’s sustained replanting initiative has taken hold, and Scottish woodland has grown and strengthened, we’ve seen a comparable and stable rise in revenue generated by these woodlands.
Not only does Scottish timber contribute roughly £1 billion to the Scottish economy overall, that income is spread across two different sectors – forestry and timber processing, and forest-based recreation and tourism. Between them, forest-based jobs in these two sectors support over 25,000 people, with the bulk of these new, well-paying jobs often cropping up in rural areas that have benefitted greatly from the attention and investment.
An apprenticeship or job in the lumber trade is also a fantastic means to get a young tradesperson started in their career, as it can be both accessible from where they live, and give them a variety of skills and in-roads to other positions in the conservation or construction industries.
Between 2018 and 2021, almost 66 million trees were planted in Scotland, creating roughly 33,000 hectares of new woodland. As well as being above the baseline estimates that climate scientists recommend when it comes to replanting , these new areas of woodland will create strong incentives for mills to expand their efforts to new areas of the country, encouraging new investment and supplementing other local industries, such as craftspeople and artisans.
Design Versatility & Benefits
In addition to locking in carbon, a timber-frame design can be the perfect way to lock in a unique new aesthetic for a modern build. While the concept itself might be very traditional, a lot of modern architecture firms, especially those with an eye towards sustainability (or those looking to attract eco-conscious clients), have taken up timber-frame design in recent years.
Here at Logie Timber, we’ve been working frequently with architecture firm Makar. Makar has been keen to incorporate sustainable sourcing with its eye for innovation, and as such has often used sustainably sourced, strength-graded timber provided by us for work in its projects. In those projects, like the Dunsmore House (an experimental project built entirely using locally sourced timber), we can see the useful qualities timber can provide for a designer.
Some of these qualities are strictly practical. Timber is a very lightweight material, meaning you can transport more at a time. It’s also very modifiable, meaning you can quickly alter the proportions on-site with standard tools and minimal fuss, should environmental factors or unseen complications require it. If that wood is local, it also means it’ll withstand the kind of environmental factors, insects, or fungal infections common to that region better, as its natural defences will be adjusted to that climate.
Lumber Aesthetics
But among those practical benefits, we also shouldn’t forget the psychological and the aesthetic qualities. Put simply, wood just looks nice; it’s pleasant to be around, and there’s a reason wooden furniture tends to be associated with luxury.
Numerous psychological studies have proven that spending long periods of time in a domestic setting with wood can aid in decreasing stress levels, in relaxation, and in minimising anxiety, with the effects even more amplified if that wood is a major visual element (such as a supporting beam or exposed wall). It can even help improve the air quality inside the house.
Making sure the wood you use for these projects is locally sourced not only aids in factors like cost and shipping, but also means the build sits more comfortably in its environment; blends into the background of surrounding woodland; and just generally feels more at home.
Woodn’t It Be Nice
With all this considered, you can easily see how prioritising local lumber when you next think about a wood-based project isn’t only going to help you; it’s going to help your local area, your neighbours, the economic future of the region, the health of the planet, and it’s going to make sure that the end product is as nice, clean, and aesthetically vibrant as it can be.
If this article’s inspired you to prioritise local lumber and to focus on getting your wood from community-based sawmills that practice sustainable forestry, feel free to contact our team here at Logie Timber. Our experts will be more than happy to field any other questions you might have about the industry, find some timber in our range right for your project, and help hash out any other issues you might have with the build.
Feel free to message us on Facebook or Instagram, give us a call on 01309 611769, or e-mail us at info@logietimber.co.uk.
