Well done @brucespringsteen.net good to see you using your powerful voice to call out the rising tide of Fascism in the USA.

“This is a significant milestone in Glennon Brothers history, which dates back to 1913." FULL STORY: www.forestryjournal.co.uk/news/2580589...

Most impressed by Bellway’s new timber frame facility opened today at Sutton-in-Ashfield. The timber frames both substitute for more carbon intensive materials & themselves store carbon = a climate win-win. @forestryjournal.bsky.social @marycreagh.bsky.social @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social

Heading to Nottinghamshire for the opening of Bellway's new timber frame facility. All part of the southward march of timber frame into England, a well established construction practice in Scotland accounting for 92% of family homes, compared to less than 10% in England.

I spent a few days in Paris last month and I can vouch this is indeed the case. A big change in a short time. Impressive. 🚴🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️

Time to join the Canadian public and decline to buy anything from the USA and not to visit either. Boycotts work and they can work fast if the majority support. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1...

Delighted to have been awarded an honorary fellowship by the Institute of Chartered Foresters. www.linkedin.com/posts/instit...

Wall Street’s biggest banks made more money financing green projects than they did from working with fossil fuel companies for a fourth straight year, even as they faced ongoing pressure to pull back from the business

The decision to go for bio-based construction is usually very easy. Especially in 2026. Why do I say that? These building material samples here are already 10 years old.

Receive a book for Xmas? Then thank a tree. No commercial forestry = no trees = no wood pulp = no paper. PS the forestry should be done sustainably as per the Forestry Commission.

I’ve been appointed as a Non-Executive Commissioner to the Forestry Commission. Very much looking forward to this additional role given more wood in more buildings is predicated on planting and felling more trees. www.gov.uk/government/n...

‘Timber! How wood can help save the world from climate breakdown’. Now on its fourth print run in 18 months. Still time to order for Xmas. www.waterstones.com/book/timber/...

Keir Starmer: "I have a Christmas message for Reform. If mysterious men from the east come bearing gifts...this time, report it to the police."

'Timber as a Climate Solution' Thanks to Operation Noah for giving me the opportunity to write a guest blog. Yes, we have a climate problem but we also have climate solutions. www.operationnoah.org/timber-as-a-...

Study: Wood is a more cost-effective building material than concrete when emissions are monetised. www.aalto.fi/en/news/stud...

Pallets are a vital component of almost of every distribution system. In the U.K. many of them are made of Sitka Spruce 🌲 - it’s light weight but strong enough, holds a nail and because it’s a pale colour it is easy to paint.

Quite breathtaking story - military grade drones at Dublin airport which flew on the path Zelensky's plane took. The drones reached the flight path of his plane exactly the time it should have been there, but just missed it because Zelensky arrived ahead of schedule:

Almost everything you’ve ever eaten or owned sat at one point in time on top of a wooden pallet. Pallets are essentially invisible, yet they're vital to transport logistics. In the UK there are approximately 250m wooden pallets in circulation. For more see: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

I've signed. We need 100,000 signatures. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

Good to see an academic paper linking tackling the housing crisis with tackling the climate crisis. Both the EU & UK currently addressing them as separate issues - in the main - at present. www.bruegel.org/analysis/sol...

George Orwell’s statue outside the BBC’s London HQ is accompanied by the quote “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”. I hope the BBC goes on telling people, especially the rich & powerful, what they don’t want to hear.

They are going the extra kilometre with their street trees in Vienna. Extensive wild flower planting around the tree and a fence that clearly signals ‘This is not a toilet for dogs’.

Since folks are talking a lot about democratic socialism this week, just gonna re-up this thread on how MLK voiced religious support for democratic socialism — but most folks aren't aware of when he did so most explicitly. That was in an obscure, little-known speech he gave in Frogmore, SC in 1966.

We suspected it, now we know it. Time to act. Time to close down Musk.

X effect: How Elon Musk is boosting the British right

Remind me. Who’s that well known far right media mogul who owns the New York Post? If Mamdani is assessed to be a communist then de facto Murdoch is a fascist. You can’t have one defined as extreme if the other you decide isn’t.

Dear GBNEWS "What's good for the goose is good for the gander" so looking forward to your future headlines that will read " 'Fascist' Nigel Farage " which can clearly be justified by using quote marks because that's what some people say about him.

Some situations and simply black & white.

Disappointed to hear @craigbennett3.bsky.social scare mongering about the possibility of “intensive conifer plantations” on the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland on the Today Programme. Maybe he should listen to Sir David Attenborough www.youtube.com/watch?app=de... especially at the 4 min mark.

Now this absolutely what we should be doing - renovating existing buildings with nature based materials. Demolishing the old should be consigned to the dustbin of construction history. Take note M&S who now have changed their minds and advocate for a Plan B. www.dezeen.com/2024/12/05/m...

I’ve lost count of how many sawmills I’ve visited in the last 11 years but this is the first where a whole production line is to be found inside a new 100% timber building. Great use of Cross Laminated Timber by BERGENE HOLM AS in Norway. It smells great too!

Wood a key ingredient in this year’s Stirling Prize win. “The building also used construction materials such as cross-laminated timber to reduce its carbon footprint”. www.bbc.co.uk/news/enterta...

Today, 35 years ago, we had to have a word with Mike Gatting. @aamarchives.bsky.social m.youtube.com/watch?v=LYsz...

An information board at Arklow station, south of Wicklow. Brilliant last line reads “After 20 years as a training college for forestry students, it was established as an open prison”.

Did you know that IKEA sources 84% of its wood from Europe with Poland being its biggest single country supplier? So while IKEA is as Swedish as ABBA your wooden bookshelf, wardrobe, bed etc is proportionately 29% Polish, 13% Lithuanian and only 10% Swedish.

In ten minutes time.

I'll be speaking on a webinar for Meshwork by Mesh Energy on Wed 8th Oct, 12 - 1 pm. Pros & cons of insulation from a climate perspective will be discussed. Please follow the link below if you'd like to join. Select meshwork.mesh-energy.com/events/timbe...

Good to see this new campaign that champions British-grown C16 timber. Too often people are unnecessarily choosing to buy C24 which is almost certainly will have been imported. www.forestryjournal.co.uk/news/2551362...

Exc - Labour is in a fight against “global network of right-wing billionaires” who want to undermine net zero for their “vested interests”, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has said. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

How do we build homes without damaging the climate? At Labour's conference Andrew Orriss of the Confederation of Timber Industries made the climate case for timber as a low carbon construction material at a @labourhousinggroup.bsky.social fringe meeting, see sitemanagerpro.co.uk/learn/qualit...

Why isn’t this a bigger story? It’s not there on the top 12 BBC political stories. It was obvious during my time in the European Parliament that Farage & his fellow MEPs like Gill were ‘Putin’s little helpers’ but the media weren’t interested. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Canada has built another large outstanding mass timber building. Part of George Brown College its 10 storeys can hold 3,400 students & staff and houses classrooms for the college’s School of Architectural Studies and its Brookfield Sustainability Institute. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

This by @jamesomalley.co.uk is good.

Timber’s role in tackling climate change explained.

Canada makes a significant move for factory-built & prefabricated construction with the creation of Build Canada Homes who will facilitate the building of affordable homes at scale. www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news...

Commissioned by the Irish Gov’s housing agency ‘Embodied Carbon & the Climate Impact of our Housing’ considers the housing & climate crises. Easy wins by swapping high carbon, fossil fuel materials for bio-based. www.housingagency.ie/publications...

. @paulbrannenne.bsky.social and @garethdennis.uk in good company in the @riasbookshop.bsky.social in Edinburgh

I'm looking forward to speak at and taking part in the discussions at the Northern Forestry Conference next Thursday 11th September in my home city of Newcastle upon Tyne. www.northwoods.org.uk/events/north...