I went to a sort of focus group session last week between senior representatives of the timber trade and executives representing large building contractors.  The idea was to investigate what more could be done by our industry to promote the use of timber in building.  It went something like this;

We could write more technical manuals about timber frame.

Naa, simplify environmental certification

We could create a technical helpline to guide customers on selection of the right species

Naa, improve your environmental performance

We could sell our timber cheap and offer free chocolate bars with every order

Naa, really we love timber (and chocolate) but can you guarantee to keep green protestors off our projects?

And so it went on...and on...and on.  Every discussion came back to environmental issues.  One has to ask, as a trade, are we stumped? If it isn't enough to try and explain the very complex point that deforestation and usage of timber are not necessarily linked it is almost impossible to navigate busy people, with better things to do, through the quagmire of competing certification schemes that are supposed to offer the solution.

It would be helpful if environmental campaigners could just stop for a moment and target other rival building materials.  Fat chance!  Timber, the only genuinely renewable building material, is a sitting duck, especially hardwoods. 

The only way forward for the timber industry is to promote itself with professional marketing efforts - like Wood for Good (www.woodforgood.com) - that can effectively counter these very negative impressions.  Without a large budget WFG has little chance.  In these tough economic times it takes some courage to sponsor grand scale marketing but that is what we must do if we are ever to move on from meetings like last week.    If you run any kind of timber related business and you want to honestly promote the only truly sustainable building material you had better get your cheque book out!

Once again it’s timber industry award time.  I am not the Oscar type so I never attend but it's always nice to hear of a win.  I have rarely been left disappointed.  It was especially rewarding a couple of years ago when government trade minister and former head of the CBI, Baron Jones of Birmingham (better known as Digby Jones) suggested that the industry had much to learn from Timbmet.

When ones peers and competitors acknowledge that one is doing well it feels good but does it actually change anything commercially?  Trust me; the answer is not that obvious.  Importing forest products is complex and challenging but my feeling is that it's a backroom service; essential but largely hidden.  Rewarding excellence to timber importers is on a par with say 'Power Generator of the Year' or 'Top Refuse Collector'...who really cares unless the lights go off or the garbage piles up in the street?

For a timber industry award ceremony of real meaning look to the Wood Awards.  When the creative manufacturing genius of some of our customers is combined with fantastic design and the natural beauty of wood then we have something to shout from the rooftops about.  The Wood Awards showcases the best in timber.  With some good marketing for the winners (and some of the other fantastic entries) it opens the eyes of the whole population to the timeless splendors of wood. 

It always tickles me that amongst those who get credited for these amazing creations are the timber importers...as though they/we created the wood!  Best, I think, to credit Mother Nature and confine the suppliers to their own award ceremony, which outside the timber industry raises precious few eyebrows.