Working Session - Climate Week NYC | Wed. September 20th, 12:00 - 17:00 (EST)
Hosted by: Wood at Work, Bauhaus Earth, and Built by Nature
Venue: Silman Associates offices, 32 Old Slip. Lower Manhattan

Event Summary

A half-day working session - by invitation - designed to bring together members of the Built by Nature (BbN) Community of Practice (CofP) and guests to examine and elaborate new modes of systemic collaboration and transdisciplinary, trans-sectoral intervention.

Format

A roundtable working session covering three, interrelated content areas that underpin a systemic response to the challenges of nature-based climate solutions in the building sector. Each session is opened with framing remarks by designated participants designed to prompt general discussion. Breakout sessions will end with rapid fire reporting of group recommendations. Closing remarks by a designated participant will raise critical concerns and expose potential opportunities. Chatham House rules will apply to the day’s event.

Background

Recent assessments have challenged a “wood only” approach to meeting the forecasted demand for global building by 2050, citing risks of deforestation, competition over land use, and inefficiencies in current processing and manufacturing practices by the wood products industry.*  These circumstantial factors have called into question the net decarbonization potential of a bio-based building material transition as an effective climate restoration strategy. 

The intrinsic benefits of wood and other plant-based building materials – the carbon storage capacity of biomass, the stabilizing role of regenerative forest management during a period of extreme ecosystem disturbance (due to anthropogenic and climate factors), the advent and rapid evolution of a new class of “mass timber” products and assemblies that can readily substitute for structural steel and reinforced concrete in urban mid-rise structural applications – raise a fundamental question as we approach a terrestrial tipping point: how can we ensure that an engineered wood revolution will not deplete or destroy global forest ecosystems in a rush to meet the demands of human population growth and urbanization?

Agenda - 12:00 - 17:00 (EST) 

Systemic Interventions, Critical Substitutions, Enabling Environments
What can we expect from forests? Are there limits to what they can provide?

Opening Remarks: (15 mins)
Scott Francisco, Wood at Work; Alan Organschi, Bauhaus Earth

Session 1 (12:15 EST)
Ecological Silviculture/Resilient Forests: An End to Industrial (Unsustainable) Forestry?    

Framing Remarks: (10 mins) Greg Paradis, University of British Columbia

Dialogue: (40 mins) TOPICS:            

New objectives for sustainable forest management:

• Biodiversity Enhancement 
• Carbon Sequestration 
• Resilience to Extreme Disturbance (invasive species & pathogen control, wildfire, drought...)
• Soil Remediation and Watershed Protection
• Safeguards, Assessment, and Certification 

Breakout: (10 mins) 4-5 groups addressing specific topic areas
(10 mins)  Summary of findings by designated reporters  (2 mins ea.)

Concluding Remarks: (5 mins) Mark Wishnie, Chief Sustainability Officer, BTG Pactual 

–––––––––––––    BREAK 15 min (13:30 EST)   –––––––––––––

Session 2 (13:45 EST)
End of Waste? Circular Substitutions | New Forms & Sources of Raw Material
How much “wood” do we need? Rethinking and reducing demand for raw materials

Framing Remarks: (10 mins) Mae-Ling Lokko, Centre for Ecosystems and Architecture, Yale School of Architecture

Dialogue: (40 mins) POSSIBLE TOPICS:       

Innovative Bio-Material Production: Manufacturing Waste Reduction:

• Efficiency of production (e.g . conversion of trees to building area)
• Cascading manufacturing “systems”
• End-of-Waste Criteria

Circular Bio-Economic Applications: 

• Agricultural Waste 
• Invasive Species 
• Building Design for Disassembly & Reuse (end-of-life scenarios for wood & non-biobased construction waste reuse over multiple lifecycles) 

Staunching waste through new product development: 

• Consumer Waste
• Industrial by-products
• Building Demolition waste

Breakout: (10 mins) 4-5 groups addressing specific topic areas
(10 mins)  Summary of findings by designated reporters  (2 mins ea.)

Concluding Remarks: (5 mins) Barbara Reck, Centre for Industrial Ecology, Yale School of the Environment                                                   

–––––––––––––    BREAK 15 min (15:00 EST)   –––––––––––––

Session 3: (15:15 EST)
Enabling Environments: Critical Levers for System Change
Leadership and levers for systems change (influence vs. control)

Framing Remarks: (10 mins) Philipp Misselwitz, Bauhaus Earth

Dialogue: (40 mins) POSSIBLE TOPICS:

• Policy, Regulation, and Governance 
• System Finance Strategies
• Valuing and Monetizing “Externalities:” Carbon, Biodiversity, Social equity 
• New Educational formats: Workforce reskilling, whole-system professional curricula, public outreach
• Indigenous Knowledge and ecosystem management 

Breakout: (10 mins) 4-5 groups addressing specific topic areas
(10 mins)  Summary of findings by designated reporters  (2 mins ea.) 

Concluding Remarks: (5 mins) James Drinkwater, Laudes Foundation

Closing: (16:30 - 17:00 EST)
Look Ahead, Collaborative Action Plan 

Wrap-up Moderation: (5 mins startup + 5 mins conclusion)  Alan Organschi, Scott Francisco

Discussion / Proposed Actions: (20mins)

• Immediate: a jointly drafted Statement of Systemic Intervention (for publication COP Dubai)
•  1-1.5 years: joint publication and communication of methodologies, findings, and policy recommendations.
•  3 years: building pilots as demonstrations of regenerative and circular bio-economic building 

For more information please contact woodatwork@pilot-projects.org.