December 2018 - U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities, Inc.

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (December 20, 2018)

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) applauds the International Code Council’s (ICC) unofficial voting results released this week on building code changes, including the passage of all 14 tall mass timber code change proposals. Official results are expected during the first quarter of 2019 and the code development cycle will continue through 2019. The new provisions will be included in the 2021 International Building Code (IBC).

Partnering with the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and the American Wood Council (AWC), the Endowment has worked for more than four years to stimulate and grow the market for “mass timber construction,” by actively working to update building codes to allow for new types of construction that leverage the value of wood. AWC provides details on the 14 code changes that can be found at: https://www.awc.org/pdf/tmt/TMT-ProposalsReviewGuide-180308.pdf

Endowment President & CEO Carlton Owen noted, “These changes foretell a new era of forest products that will spur retention and more sustainable management of forests while growing the number of family-wage jobs in forest-rich rural communities.” He added, “The collaborative effort and investment by partners with shared interests and objectives shows the power of the forest sector to advance what many considered impossible.”

“Mass timber has been capturing the imagination of architects and developers, and the ICC result means they can now turn sketches into reality. ICC’s rigorous study, testing and voting process now recognizes a strong, low-carbon alternative to traditional tall building materials used by the building and construction industry,” said AWC President & CEO Robert Glowinski.

In addition to addressing the restrictive building code, the Endowment collaborated with the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory in funding and conducting research to fill a host of knowledge gaps necessary to gain code changes.

# # #

For more information contact:

Carlton N. Owen
President & CEO
+1-864-233-7646
carlton@runslikeclock.work

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (December 10, 2018)

Greenville, S.C. and Bethesda, Md. – The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) today released a new Request for Proposals for the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund. Up to $500,000 is available for 2019 grants to protect bottomland hardwood and other wetland forests in northeast North Carolina and southeast Virginia.

This is the fourth year of a $5 million, 10-year program launched by Enviva Holdings, LP (Enviva) and the Endowment in 2015. Not-for-profit organizations, government agencies and tribes are eligible to apply for grants. The deadline for proposals is February 28, 2019. The RFP and additional materials are available on the Endowment’s website and at https://www.usendowment.org/rfps/envivafund.html

“Over the past three funding cycles, the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund has contributed to the protection of vital lands that contribute to the health of entire ecosystems,” said Carlton Owen, President and CEO of the Endowment. “Bottomland hardwoods serve a critical role in our southeastern watersheds. One of the most valuable contributions of the bottomland hardwood ecosystem is its capacity to serve as our best natural filtration system. As we continue to encounter severe storm and flooding challenges, these landscapes are key to water management and will lessen the severity of flooding to downstream communities by providing areas to store floodwater.”

Since its inception in 2015, the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund has supported a total of 10 projects with over $1.5 million dollars. Once completed, these projects will protect 15,000 acres across North Carolina and Virginia. These protected forests help provide a clean drinking water source, act as a buffer to infrastructure during storms, and provide critical habitats for many species of wildlife, while at the same time providing jobs and economic opportunity for rural families and private landowners.

# # #

For more information contact:

Alicia Cramer
+1-864-233-7646
alicia@runslikeclock.work

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (December 7, 2018)

The nation’s largest public charity dedicated solely to keeping forests as forests and advancing family-wage jobs in forest-rich rural communities plans to showcase a new type of concrete infused with cellulosic nanomaterial at its headquarters.

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) and its national partners the USDA Forest Service, Oregon State University and Purdue University have been studying a product that can enhance the performance of concrete through the addition of cellulosic nanomaterials (CN) produced from wood. The team is conducting three field applications around the nation: a small sidewalk in Madison, WI; a county bridge deck in northern California, and, the largest commercial test in the world, the Endowment’s parking lot in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.

The Endowment will showcase this emerging innovation with a rebuild of the 100 by 40 foot parking lot. The project will involve head-to-head comparison pours of 32 tons of CN enhanced concrete side-by-side with an equal amount of traditional concrete. The long-term goal is to test how well the CN compares to traditional concrete when it comes to reducing carbon emissions, materials used and cost.

“The Endowment is proud to be taking part in this project,” said Carlton Owen, the organization’s president and CEO. “Our goal is to help make future development more sustainable.”

Cellulosic nanomaterials are produced by breaking down wood to its tiniest, strongest components through mechanical and chemical processes similar to making paper. For example, a human hair is approximately 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide. The head of a pin is one million nanometers wide. Cellulosic nanomaterials are approximately six nanometers wide.

At the nano scale, materials take on novel properties, said Dr. Alan Rudie of the U.S. Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory. In the case of cellulose, nanomaterials are as strong as steel with only one- fifth the weight. Among other features, they can be used as reinforcing in transparent materials.

“Researchers are testing these cellulosic nanomaterials in a wide range of applications from substrate for flexible computer chips, to composites for car and airplane bodies, lighter and stronger than steel,” said Dr. Rudie. “Our team expects that concrete will be among the first commercial applications.”

The addition of CN to concrete produces a stronger product which has significant advantages over traditional mix, said Dr. Jason Weiss of Oregon State University. By adding CN, there is a 15 percent gain in product strength. Thus, products could use fewer raw materials and perform just as well.

Addition of these materials could have significant positive benefits for the environment as well. Concrete is largely a mix of small rocks (aggregate), sand, water and cement. Manufacturing cement is an energy intensive process that constitutes about 4 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. The cement and concrete industries are actively working to reduce the carbon footprint of their products with CN being among the most promising options.

By adding CN to concrete the mixture causes more of the cement to react than in a traditional mix thereby enabling less cement to be used resulting in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions with equivalent or increased strength. There are other benefits as well, as these materials are not particularly expensive. So, it could be possible to have a win for the planet and for the pocketbook.

But there are even more wins in the forest, said Dr. Rudie. Forest managers are working to restore forests and reduce the risks of catastrophic wildfire and other threats. These management activities largely target low value wood with few markets.

“Removing low value wood is expensive, so finding markets is critical to forest health and sustainability,” he said. “Products made with CN could provide one of the most important answers to keeping our forests as forests and ensuring their health and sustainability.”

# # #