Invasive Species as a Hot Commodity - WholeTrees Contributes to Scale.

Cities from Los Angeles to Boston are mandating zero-carbon footprints for new public buildings. New York is even setting carbon limits on the private sector. Concurrently, designers and manufacturers alike are seeking alternative materials to create buildings and structures." So begins Timothy A. Schuler's in depth study of three entities envisioning the radical re-utilization of low value timber in high value construction markets. We are proud to be included in this eco-cohort containing After Architecture (Knoxville, TN) and the Albizia Project alongside WholeTrees Structures.  

Writes Schuler, 'Whole timbers are the original mass timber', Baxter says. Standard mass timber products such as CLT, she adds, typically require a 'predictable, non-variable tree, meaning monocropped agriculture, so it still points to a paradigm of mining an agricultural resource.' The small- to medium-diameter trees that WholeTrees sources come from forest thinnings, which not only maximize the growth of the remaining trees, thus increasing profits for landowners, but also enhance biodiversity and wildlife habitat and may reduce the likelihood of wildfires...The company uses its 3D scanning technology to inventory trees slated for removal on project sites, choreographing their reuse with local sawmills, and maintains an online database of its inventory, as well as a CAD library full of beams, columns, trusses, assemblies, and connections in order to simplify the specification process.

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