Timber iQ October - November 2017 // Issue: 34 | Page 47

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12-storey building, you have regrown all the lumber you've
used,” he says.
Then there is also the critical issue of
carbon sequestration.
Carbon dioxide is a by-product of converting lime to
cement. With timber, the trees are sequestrating carbon as
they are growing. So, as a tree grows it absorbs carbon. If
you leave the tree to rot – or burn it – the same amount of
carbon is given off again, so it becomes carbon-neutral.
“If you harvest that tree, chop it up and make planks or
any product with it, you are locking that carbon away. So,
you are reducing the carbon problem of the world by
using wood.”
SUSTAINED ARGUMENT
Cronje says the sustainability argument has become
hugely important as more information becomes available.
The American Hardwood Export Council is completing
programmes to make people aware of American hardwoods
specifically. The general trend all around the world now is
to use Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT).
He adds CLT is used in Sydney and London; everyone is
building multi-storey timber buildings with CLT as you
need less foundation work, in addition to the
environmental benefits (carbon credits and sustainability).
CHIPPING IN
designers to demonstrate how good design and US
hardwoods can leave a light environmental footprint),
asked us to design products for some buildings and they
calculate the time that it takes for that timber to reproduce
itself, because they know at what rate each species
is growing.
“Many trees are replanted and so you can't compare
timber to anything else. You are literally growing a
material and while you are building something, you are
growing more. In the first 15 minutes of building a
Cronje says there are some companies in South Africa that
import CLT, for example Novatop, which brings it into the
country from Czechoslovakia.
It's in soft woods where the major drivers are for
sustainability. “The South African Forestry Company
Limited (SAFCOL) is driving CLT in South Africa. There is a
big conference in October where it will attempt to
introduce CLT and get it going in South Africa because pine
is an ideal CLT candidate.”
According to Cronje, discussions started a few months
ago, which are headed up by SAFCOL. “It is not so much
legislation; it is more about creating awareness and trying
to find a way of marketing this knowledge and increasing
the use of timber. It is a project that is in its infancy.
Nothing has come out of it yet.”
The word is out though, and CLT use is popular in most
of the first world. There is a bigger drive overseas toward
timber sustainability than in South Africa, where we are
just trying to ensure that people have basic services like
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// OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2017 45