Farewell Wood for Good: Celebrating two decades of success

The Wood for Good campaign was established at the turn of the millennium, with a brief to bring the message of building sustainably with wood to architects, specifiers, contractors and clients.

The Wood for Good campaign was established at the turn of the millennium, with a brief to bring the message of building sustainably with wood to architects, specifiers, contractors and clients.

At the time, being environmentally friendly meant recycling cans, glass, paper and hard plastics; electric vehicles were still largely in prototype form and the concept of net zero was unheard of.

Following a successful 20-year campaign, we have achieved our original goal and the carbon and environmental benefits of timber are now commonly acknowledged to be synonymous with using wood in construction.

We have therefore taken the decision to close the Wood for Good campaign and hand the baton to others within the industry who will continue to build on our success to ensure that timber remains at the forefront of the drive to design, construct, retrofit and operate more sustainable buildings.

A clear message

This message of building sustainably with timber was core to the Wood for Good campaign and over time we increased the focus on embodied carbon, a niche concept back in 2000. As an independent campaign that worked together with supporters for the good of the whole industry, we forged strong links with influential individuals and organisations within design and construction, bringing the positive message of building with timber into the mainstream.

In 2020, we launched Wood C02ts Less, a high-profile PR and advertising campaign backed and supported by sponsors and industry champions. We used this campaign to take the message to a broader political and influencer audience in the run-up to and including COP26 in Glasgow.

As the environmental benefits of building with wood became more mainstream, the campaign started a second focus on the health and wellbeing elements of building with wood.

In tandem, over the last few years biophilic design has become a more well-known concept and with the effects of Covid, there is increasing focus from educators, health professionals and social scientists on the impact of our built environment on our mental wellbeing.

An in-depth campaign

Many of you will have been subscribers to our monthly e-newsletters where we shared carefully researched, original content which examined in depth many of the issues and questions surrounding timber in construction and brought them to our audiences in an easy to digest, informative manner.

We explained why sustainable forestry is different to deforestation; we attempted to bust the jargon in explainer articles looking at embodied and operational carbon; we delved into the science of engineered timber and its growth in providing the structures of the future; we looked at the health and wellbeing benefits of timber and the science behind biophilic design; we examined the role of timber in addressing the housing crisis. A decade’s worth of articles remain freely available to read and share in our Views section here.

We also took the Wood for Good campaign to readers of the timber, architectural and construction press with a swathe of features, opinion pieces, fact-based articles and case studies highlighting the benefits of designing and building with timber and showcasing how it has been successfully used for a range of different projects.

Bringing Wood for Good to you

Over the years we had a strong presence at industry events such as Ecobuild and Futurebuild. We also ran a series of WoodFest events from Cardiff to Newcastle and Sheffield, bringing together architects and construction professionals from around the country to a series of in-person regional events.

We remained a great advocate for the Wood Awards and sponsored the annual RIAS Chapter Awards to reward excellence in timber design. And supporting improved education and learning around all aspects of designing with timber, in recent years we also helped to promote the annual TRADA / TDUK University Design Challenge.

More recently we hosted a series of successful webinars together with BE-ST, with a focus on the health and wellbeing benefits of building with timber.

A social campaign

We joined Twitter in 2011 and have steadily grown our followers to almost ten thousand, taking the core messages of sustainability, low carbon and healthy buildings to a growing follower base and sharing the debate with architects, developers, engineers and contractors.

LinkedIn has also grown into a core channel for Wood for Good and in 2021, we joined Instagram and quickly built a loyal following with our catalogue of striking visual content and imagery.

A supportive campaign

The Wood for Good campaign could not have existed without a band of loyal supporters and contributors working alongside us. With the help of our timber suppliers, architects, engineers and academics, we collectively created and delivered a campaign for all.

We also developed materials and content for our supporters to use in their own promotions – and we helped to promote supporter businesses through the Wood for Good website, events, case studies, feature articles and e-newsletters.

A library of resources

Over the years we have built a huge library of timber success stories that is freely accessible to the whole industry, covering all manner of buildings from tiny one-bedroom homes to schools, office buildings and health centres.

More than 250 case studies showcase the broad applications of timber including internal and external carpentry and joinery, structural timber, insulated panels, wood fibre insulation, timber cladding, and more. These remain available for you to access here.

A series of explainer videos using clear visuals to tell the story of the tree, and to explain how carbon is sequestered in timber products, have also been very popular. These remain available for you to use and can be viewed here.

Developed in 2014, the Wood for Good Lifecycle Database was the first of its kind – a free resource that encourages the industry to measure the total carbon created from the creation, construction and demolition of a building.

A strong foundation for timber construction

During the last two decades, the need to conserve our finite natural resources, to reduce our reliance on carbon-emitting technologies and materials and instead to switch to renewable and re-growable resources has moved firmly into the mainstream.

In our sector, commercial developers are switching to building and extending with engineered timber rather than concrete and steel, as customers demand more sustainable buildings that are low in both operational and embodied carbon.

Architects and engineers alike have grown in knowledge and confidence with designing and building in timber to offer sustainable, beautiful and healthy buildings.

Moreover, timber is recognised as the perfect material to meet the government drive to increase offsite construction and build modular schools, hospitals and homes. It also offers a solid alternative as we rethink how we build, heat and ventilate our properties to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Together with our supporters, we have taken these messages into the industry and into the wider public arena where they have become well-known and understood. We have built a strong foundation for the wide and varied benefits of timber construction.

While the Wood for Good campaign will no longer be active, our website materials and resources will be adopted by our partners, and we trust that our supporters and champions in the wider design and construction industry, together with trade bodies such as Timber Development UK and Confor will continue to carry the Wood for Good message into 2023 and beyond.