Perception of Timber Report

Globally, the use of engineered timber in multi storey construction is on the rise. Governments, the construction sector, and the real estate market are evolving to enable the use of mass timber, and other low carbon technologies, to respond to urgent societal challenges such as climate change and the housing crisis.

Incremental change won’t be enough to accelerate this transition, aligned multi- stakeholder action will be key. The real estate and construction sectors, local communities, policymakers, investors, developers, asset owners, designers and insurers will need to work together on a journey to unlock systemic change.

In early 2022, a consortium of partners led by Climate-KIC, Lendlease, and Waugh Thistleton Architects and including Politecnico di Milano, Arup and StoraEnso launched Perception of Timber at MIND Milan Innovation District (PoT@MIND), an initiative aimed at unlocking the adoption of mass timber construction in the Italian context. The initiative, sponsored by Built by Nature and co-funded by Lendlease, engaged more than 50 multi- stakeholder organisations in workshops and activities. The main outcomes include identifying the value-chain barriers to building in mass timber in Italy, which stakeholders could work together to unlock these challenges, a list of clear priority actions for this purpose, and the creation of the first Italian Timber Living Lab.

This report describes our journey to understand the ‘Perception of Timber’ in Italy and how we can work towards transforming it. We are excited about what we, as an ecosystem of value-chain stakeholders, can do to address some of the most pressing challenges of our and future generations.