James Jones & Sons hosted the PEFC annual stakeholder field trip at its Lockerbie site this week. This year's topic was 'Growing the future - certified timber for low carbon construction'.
Professionals were welcomed from across the industry and the programme included a visit to a PEFC certified forest and a tour of our Lockerbie sawmill. Participants learned more about why certification matters and how their procurement decisions can support responsible producers. Delegates were also invited to participate in an informal, roundtable discussion on certification and timber procurement to enable PEFC to better understand the UK construction sector’s needs.
Architects, designers, and those specifying building materials for construction projects are increasingly turning to timber as a key element of the building structure, for interior fit out, and as a way of delivering energy efficient and sustainable buildings. Timber is renewable, increasingly recyclable and has the lowest embodied carbon of any commercially available building material. However, when buying timber, specifiers need to be assured that it comes from legal and sustainable sources. PEFC certified timber products provide such assurances. PEFC is the world’s largest forest certification programme, with almost 50 countries able to supply materials from certified forests. Its global sustainable forest management and chain of custody certification schemes provide the UK construction sector with assurances of responsible timber sourcing.