Wales’s commitment to reaching net zero emissions has brought greater focus on building with low-carbon materials, sustainable forestry, and strengthening the local economy. Timber is an important part of this shift, offering benefits such as reducing the overall carbon footprint of buildings, making structures more energy-efficient, and supporting local jobs and communities.
However, the timber and housing industries face some difficulties, including complicated supply chains, limited options for training, tough competition, and a lack of cooperation between different sectors.
Wood Knowledge Wales (WKW) works to support teamwork and shared efforts across forest-based industries to boost prosperity and wellbeing in Wales. The Low Carbon Timber Networks project aims to tackle these challenges by creating strong partnerships that bring together housing providers, forest managers, manufacturers, designers, builders, researchers, and other key groups to work together and develop shared solutions.
The approach
The Low Carbon Timber Networks project delivered an ambitious program of sector-wide engagement:
- 28 Community of Practice meetings, held both online and in person, covering topics such as forestry land use and contractors.
- Engagement coordinated with over 95 organisations, including social housing developers, architects, timber frame manufacturers, sawmillers, contractors and land‑use experts, helping to improve and strengthen the supply chain networks.
Impact
The Communities of Practice (CoPs) created a variety of practical and strategic benefits. The Strengthened Networks built a thriving network of 60+ Welsh organisations, expanding to over 95 participants during the project. This work enhanced collaboration across forestry, manufacturing, construction and housing. The Communities of Practice (CoPs) created a variety of practical and strategic benefits. Additionally, the network was able to create and benefit from training and skills development sessions, based on the specific needs of the industry, and provided valuable skills and knowledge.
The Communities of Practice (CoPs) served as advice-sharing spaces for Welsh Government projects. They provided valuable insights for the Welsh Government’s Timber Industrial Strategy and played a part in major programmes like Tai ar y Cy. This project helped develop ideas for procurement that align with net zero goals and encourage greater use of Welsh timber. By promoting the use of low-carbon building materials and supporting housing providers to cut down the amount of carbon embedded in buildings, the initiative helps strengthen local supply chains that are vital for Wales’s sustainable future.
This joint effort across different sectors helped to bring about new ideas and solutions that covered all parts of Wales’s supply chain.
Challenges
WKW identified several challenges and responded proactively:
- Engagement capacity varied, especially among small businesses. To manage this WKW increased outreach and used site visits to maintain participation.
- Competition across the sector sometimes restricted collaboration. However, Neutral, trusted facilitation helped overcome this.
- Gaps in training and future workforce pipelines were evident. WKW fed into skills‑development planning and influenced sector education conversations.
Looking ahead
Wood Knowledge Wales aims to build on the success of the Low Carbon Timber Networks by:
- Expanding CoP membership to new sectors and disciplines.
- Strengthening the forestry education network to address long-term skills needs.
- Continuing to support government and industry in scaling low-carbon construction.
- Developing new opportunities for locally owned businesses within the Foundational Economy.
- Acting as a central enabler of sustainable growth through Welsh timber.
Wood Knowledge Wales is strategically positioned to enhance its impact and contribute to the development of a resilient, low-carbon built environment in Wales. This project underscores the importance of building trust-based networks and maintaining flexibility in engagement strategies across all sectors of the Foundational Economy. Through initiatives like this, Wales is progressing towards its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions.
