Building a Sustainable Future With Mass Timber

Discover how New England can use mass timber to fight the climate crisis, particularly when mass timber is made with climate-smart wood grown in our region’s forests. This colorful and easy-to-understand video is specifically designed to be accessible to a variety of audiences, and can be embedded in other organizations’ websites. Please make use of it if the video would be helpful with your own audiences.

Mass Timber Regional Dialogue Webinar

Members of the Mass Timber Regional Dialogue hosted a webinar to share the latest information about the potential for building with mass timber in the Central New England and Eastern New York region and its many associated benefits for climate change, housing production, and forest sector growth.

Forest-to-Cities Climate Challenge Kickoff Event

Watch on Zoom’s hosting platform: Session 1 and Session 2

In April 2021, NEFF held the first virtual gathering of the Forest-to-Cities Climate Challenge community, which explored actions to link sustainable forestry and mass timber construction in New England. Participants joined to get inspired, connect with others, and help inform a strategy for climate action that connects our rural and urban communities in a common goal.

The first session included an overview of the Forest-to-Cities vision, a guest speaker presentation with follow-up panel discussion, and a bird’s eye view of how the program fits into the growing number of initiatives focused on the carbon footprint of forestry and the built environment. That deep-dive set the stage for the second session, which solicited input and insights from participants. We discussed the challenges for accelerating climate-smart forestry and mass timber in the region and asked for input on a set of strategies the program can implement in the near-term.

Mass Timber and Housing Affordability

A NEFF Forest-to-Cities Climate Challenge Webinar | Watch on Zoom’s hosting platform

How can locally sourced mass timber construction help achieve sustainable development and housing affordability goals for states and municipalities? Presenters in this Forest-to-Cities webinar share their insights on leveraging mass timber’s attributes to achieve cost savings and their reflections on developing the regional supply chain in New England.

Forest Proud Featuring Michael Green

A leading voice on mass timber architecture, Michael Green joins forces with ForestProud to highlight how tall-wood construction could help cities become more sustainable and more beautiful.

GUARDIANS | Michael Green from forestproud on Vimeo.

Climate-Smart Forestry on Private Lands

Speaker: Deputy Director and Climate Fellow Andrea Colnes, New England Forestry Foundation

In the final session of the fall 2023 Yale School of Environment Series on Climate Smart Forestry, the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) brought multiple elements together to provide a view on how to implement, test and scale this essential concept. NEFF Deputy Director and Climate Fellow Andrea Colnes spoke about NEFF’s approach to defining, modeling and codifying climate-smart forestry through our Exemplary Forestry standards and offered insight into our regional implementation of climate-smart forestry through NEFF’s USDA Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership, through which we are working with New England forest landowners on large commercial forests, smaller family woodlots and First Nation woodlands. Andi also explored the intersection with markets and how climate-smart forestry can underpin a growing bio-economy. Finally, she considered mechanisms to bring climate-smart forestry to scale through leveraged public/private financing approaches.

Using Forests and Forest Products to Combat Climate Change

Hosted by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, NEFF Climate-Forest Specialist Jennifer Shakun presents on the climate change mitigation potential of tall-wood construction and exemplary forest management.

Presentation to the Maine Climate Table, “A New Idea for Forest Carbon Offsets in Maine”

At the Maine Climate Table, NEFF Maine Representative & Senior Advisor Alec Giffen discusses how forest carbon offset incentives could help Maine landowners to simultaneously store more carbon in their forests and practice exemplary management.

Presentation to Smart Growth Rhode Island, “We Need the Forest to Fight Climate Change”

NEFF Chief Operating Officer Frank Lowenstein presents to Smart Growth Rhode Island on the role of forests and forest products in fighting climate change.

In support of the global Sustainable Markets Initiative, Prince Charles launched a video platform called RE:TV in September 2020 that showcases inspiring stories of sustainability innovation and ingenuity, including NEFF’s Exemplary Forestry work. While our Exemplary Forestry standards are tailored to specific regions, the concept behind them—top-notch sustainable forestry that maximizes forests’ ability to mitigate climate change, produce wood products and support wildlife—is one that can be applied worldwide. Watch NEFF’s RE:TV video blow.