MONTREAL – On September 14, in Bordeaux, France, representatives at Woodrise 2017, a congress dedicated to midrise and tall wood buildings, made a formal call to take one step closer toward carbon neutrality by strengthening the share of wood used in building construction.
Alain Juppé, former French Prime Minister and president of Bordeaux Métropole, made a special appeal to representatives from governments, federated states, NGOs, and companies; elected officials from rural and urban areas; architects; foresters; promoters; scientists; and everyday citizens to create a community committed to promoting wood as a solution to reduce the environmental impact of construction, to store carbon, and to develop an ecosystem based on short and traceable paths between harvest sites, eco-friendly processing, and innovative use of wood in urban tall construction projects.
Alongside Alain Juppé, about 20 officials signed the Alliance, including Stéphane Dion, Canada’s Ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the European Union and Europe.
The work of the Woodrise International Alliance will focus on three areas:
- Encourage international synergy;
- Identify good practices in terms of wood usage, from the forest to recycling buildings;
- Evaluate quantitative and qualitative evolution in wood usage of construction worldwide.
During the Woodrise 2017 event, the Woodrise Paper was distributed. This is a compendium of international best practices in economic, industrial, urban, and architectural development encouraging wood as a material, from the forest to the city, with a commitment to sustainability and biodiversity;
A memorandum of understanding between six national research centres was also signed. The research centres are located in Canada (FPInnovations), Brazil, Finland, France and Switzerland.