Ep 141 - The vision for WoodSolutions

Adam Jones (00:03):

Well, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. Kevin, can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and WoodSolutions?

Kevin Peachey (01:14):

Great, thanks Adam. Thanks for having me on the podcast. So, my name's Kevin Peachey and I'm the manager at FWPA Forest Wood Products Australia. I'm the head of Built Environment programs. One of the key roles that is in that job is to be the manager of the WoodSolutions program, which undertakes a whole range of activities including supporting this great podcast prior to joining Forest & Wood Products Australia. I've worked in the forest industry; I've been lucky enough to work in the industry ever since I left University. I did a forestry degree many years ago now I should say. And I've worked as an executive officer for Timber Towns Victoria, the National Timber Councils Association. I've been on the director for the Forest Stewardship Council in Australia and most recently for the Australian Forest Products Association. I was a policy manager there and now I'm at FWPA. So, a long line of jobs in the industry, but really happy to have now moved more to focus on the built environment, the great things that people do with timber throughout that tree growing and store milling process that we see all around us every day.

Adam Jones (02:35):

Yeah, amazing. And what is… for WoodSolutions and FWPA in the context of construction, what is the vision for what lies ahead from us and is there any shifts from the previous stewards if I'm using the word in the right context of the brand?

Kevin Peachey (02:55):

Yeah, absolutely. So, as you'll know, WoodSolutions, an industry initiative to design and provide independent non-proprietary technical information, education and resources about timber and wood products to professionals and companies involved in the building design and construction of timber buildings. And it was started in 2010 as a comprehensive source of information for all of those stakeholders. And we have a website, we have technical design guides, other technical publications, seminars, webinars, et cetera, and it's all great stuff and we've really seen the brand grow as a great resource for all of these stakeholders. But as we focus and we now look to 2030, we have made some changes. Most of the recipes, right? Most of the recipe is great, but we have found that when back in 2010, some elements of the timber construction sector was relatively young and WoodSolutions was designed to have a process to deal with that relatively young market.

(04:00):

But the market has matured. We now have a lot of knowledge out there. It's really great to see and hope to think that WoodSolutions played a part in that, but moving into the future, WoodSolutions needs to, I suppose, mature as well. So what we're trying to do in our new strategy in many different ways is to recognize that we've not, I suppose I divert to an old, someone was explaining to me the other day and the world of policy we're not really policy, but there's carrots and sticks, everyone knows about them and there's tambourines as well, the people that say how great something is and maybe I think WoodSolutions previously was a bit of a tambourine, but because we're now dealing with a mature market, we're going to be less of a tambourine and really more focusing on what we see that are the more commonly experienced pinch and pain points that the builders, architects, engineers face when building with timber. So that's really the crucial change is us attempting to communicate more effectively with a more mature market, hence maturing ourselves as well.

Adam Jones (05:08):

Right. Or might as well double click on that. I mean, what is the process to, or do we know what the pain points are? Do we know what these things are or is there a process to sort of weed down and dig up as much as we possibly can find there?

Kevin Peachey (05:23):

Absolutely. We've always had our ear to the ground in some way, but I think WoodSolutions has been a bit of a mouth from the timber industry out to all of the building professionals, but we really do aim to be an ear to the market now as well. So, we have great interaction with a huge database of members who keenly look at our resources and use them successfully in their jobs, but we do have opportunities for feedback. So, we host our own seminars, webinars, we get a lot of information through and even the way in which people interact with our website, we understand and know what are the most important topics based off that information. Finally, we have best practice forums where we can tap into, and we do a specifier survey annually. So one of the other changes for our strategy moving forward is that we will annually take all of that information in and then generate a report which will effectively create an operational plan for the next year that will be spitting out a few of those really high focus pinch points or pain points, whatever you want to call them, or opportunities I should say as well and turn our guns to those issues really.

(06:41):

So, we haven't undertaken one of these processes yet, but we do know a couple of issues that are floating around. So, we, in response to that, releasing a condensation technical design guide, we are creating an insurance design guide for mass timber buildings and that will create and flow through our pipeline of activities, through our website, through our seminars, our webinars, our podcasts eventually as well when these resources are released. And that will change every year.

Adam Jones (07:11):

That's excellent. Yeah, we've had a few discussions on the podcast on insurance and moisture does seem to be the two biggest pain points. They're not the highlight pain points or the sexy for the pain points for a lack of a better term, but they are the ones that really stop projects going ahead and will hopefully move the needle forward. So, Kevin, in terms of opportunities as well, there's mega trends in construction. What are the major opportunities and how are we looking to capitalise on what the advantages are there?

Kevin Peachey (07:46):

Yeah, thank you, Adam. I speak to so many people and go to so many events now and people seem to really have a good handle around the issue of operational carbon in new buildings and existing buildings. And once that has been tackled, it seems like people are starting to say that they have beaten this problem. The remaining elephant in the room is embodied carbon, and I suppose timber's been around for a long time, but that embodied carbon issue really plays into the strengths of timber as a building material. So, I see that there's going to be a huge opportunity for us there. I like to say that timber is solid sunlight and carbon drawn down from the atmosphere to create a building material. And while that building is standing, that carbon drawn out of the atmosphere is in that building for life. I think we have some real inherent advantages using timber for construction and the challenge that lies ahead is about embodied carbon, so it really plays well into our material.

(08:53):

There are other drivers as well. I think we see incrementally internationally and within Australia, those environmental policies are slowly being tweaked to help and move the dial and push everyone forwards in this space. And also, the drivers for construction are changing as well in some ways. Having a conversation around build to rent and the superannuation finance that flows through to support those products. The superannuation product itself, advertisers as an environmentally sustainable product and that is underpinned by its investments. So, I think into the future it's going to be more and more important that those buildings that are created are net zero hopefully, and timber can be a big part of that.

Adam Jones (09:43):

Yeah, a hundred percent. One of the other goals, reading the strategic plan, is improving timber competency. And you may have touched on this a little bit already, but can you elaborate on the specific strategies on achieving competency and maybe even touching on the education sector as well to be prepared to design properly?

Kevin Peachey (10:04):

Yeah, absolutely. We've got a range of ways in which we touch on the education sector. We have ACTEN, which is a timber education network for all of the university professors that teach students about timber in the built environment. So, architects, engineers, et cetera. And we ensure that we create this network for them so that they can come together, compare notes, but also so that we can funnel the information. It's a bit of a two-way exchange. Of course we get a lot of information from them, but we like to think we provide some information back to all these great teachers out there. It's really important. We recognise that, I think as the adoption of mass timber buildings continues to pick up some of the shortage, it won't be a timber shortage, it's going to be a shortage of people who are really learning in the space of using timber.

(10:59):

So, it's really important to support those educators who are creating all of these great practitioners. We have a Campus WoodSolutions campus as well, which is a whole range of different educational materials that you can subscribe to jump on. We know that there's a lot of companies from the processing and forest sector as well as the construction sector that access those resources, so they have a greater understanding of timber. That's another resource we are looking to update over the next few months, but there's already a vast amount of information there. And I think finally we look to support best practice forums. So, whether that's directly or indirectly, there are groups popping up of these builders, architects, designers, engineers who are focused and really interested in timber. So, it's our role to ensure that these groups are healthy and they're a great forum for us to humbly get feedback on the work we do, but also provide information out as well.

Adam Jones (12:03):

Yeah, it's a massive strategy and it's an incredible vision of where we're heading and where the WoodSolutions brand's going. As you move along, what are the measures of success and how are you looking to measure that?

Kevin Peachey (12:18):

Well, ultimately reflecting back on taking all this information in annually to point our lasers of the issue at hand or the top three issues, for example, we want to see the lasers hit the target, I suppose to continue on a corny turn of phrase, but we want to see in the order of issues that we pick up from the built environment sector that those issues change and move around. We want to see the investment that we make in communicating and providing research and information through to the sector, addressing those concerns. So hopefully moisture condensation won't be such an issue in a couple of years after we've really focused on it for this year, for example. We'll see how we go, but that will be the measure of success. We don't have a latent set of issues in front of us. We have a continuously evolving, I'm no fool. I'm sure there'll be other issues over the horizon and if anything, that's going to support my role here with solutions because that's really what we do. But I'm hoping to see a change in the issues for us to attack new topics.

Adam Jones (13:22):

Yeah. Oh, that's excellent. And now, I mean, looking ahead now, Kevin, and even just yourself, you've been in the industry for a while in different parts, the forest side I believe, before and now it's the wood looking ahead across everything. What gets you the most excited about our future at the moment with all this change that's actually happening? What's the most exciting for you?

Kevin Peachey (13:46):

Well, I think there's things that are exciting in all industries, and I'll probably just point back to WoodSolutions. Firstly, we're doing those standard things like updating our website, but one of the more exciting things we're looking at at the moment is using that sort of chat GPT large language model technology to create access, more immediate access to all of these resources we've developed. We've got, I think we've been numbering technical design guides that we've developed. We're up to number 60 something now. We may remove the numbers. It's starting to become too much of a vast library, but we know that people use the WoodSolutions website to find information that might be on one page of those 60 design guides. So, with large language models, we're currently in beta testing phases, but we are looking at having a product that is going to just bring someone straight to the point that they're after with references back to the various technical design guides.

(14:46):

So that's really, I feel, going to be a bit of a breakthrough in communicating and responding quickly to the queries people have when they want to build with timber. But they have hit a challenge. And more broadly, I think, I feel personally that we have the wind at our back. If you look overseas, I was lucky enough to go to a WoodSolutions study tour last year to Scandinavia, and in many ways they're a different society, but in many ways they're more advanced than us. They've been dealing with a lot of similar challenges around construction and what they're doing with timber over there now is sensational as well. As far as modular construction, mass, timber buildings, Europe seems to have picked up this bug as well, and it's spreading. So, I just like, I hope that I'm on the crest of the wave as we move to shore. I think the wind is at our back

Adam Jones (15:44):

Here. Yeah, a hundred percent. Well, it's a great note to end it on, Kevin, if people want to find out more about yourself, and I feel like the website needs no introduction. I think it is one of the most visited in the world for timber design. But in any case, if people want to find out more about yourself and the things we've been speaking about, where should they go?

Kevin Peachey (16:05):

Yeah, please go to the website and you'll find my details in there. And feel free to reach out to me as well. I will be able to have a conversation. I'd be interested in the opportunities or pain points you may be picking up. So, feel free, reach out. I'm based in Melbourne, but I move around the country, come to a WoodSolutions seminar, I'll be there, and we can have a chat in person.

Adam Jones (16:28):

Yep. Thanks so much Kevin. We'll leave it there. That was awesome to have you on the podcast.

Kevin Peachey (16:32):

Thank you, Adam.