Watch the webinar replay here, or scroll down for a summary and a preview.
Terms like biogenic carbon, embodied carbon and carbon equivalent are clear to some people yet bamboozling to others. Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) has developed a set of three comprehensive guides to help different stakeholder groups to understand complex carbon and greenhouse gas emission concepts relating to wood products. They have been downloaded hundreds of times.
Sarah Downey, Head of Marketing and Communications at Forest & Wood Products Australia (FWPA) and thinkstep-anz’s Stephen Mitchell, discuss why they have developed these guides for FWPA’s members, policymakers and building and design professionals and how they went about it.
Here's a preview of our webinar:
In the webinar we learned:
Identify the big picture
The Australian government has set ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions - 43% by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. Sarah says the guides have helped the industry contribute to these goals and are ‘a shared understanding of what it is exactly we're talking about.’
Have a clear purpose
Sarah describes the importance of creating a single source of trusted information that’s:
- based on evidence,
- fact-based,
- written in a way that's easy to digest and apply.
Involve experts
Each of the three guides has a different target audience. Depending on the audience and purpose for each, a range of experts developed and reviewed the guides, such as thinkstep-anz’s green building experts, building design professionals and forest scientists.
Sarah says knowing the information has been researched and validated gives a great level of comfort for communicating complex topics.
Reap the benefits
The guides have proven useful in advocacy work by industry associations, fact-checking by members and educating the next generation of architects, designers and engineers about the carbon benefits of working with timber. They make it easier to communicate complex carbon-related topics more effectively and can be downloaded for free here.
