According to the US Forest Service, 36 million trees are removed from urban areas every year. These trees offer a tremendous opportunity to reduce some of the demand on forests. But, this quality wood that could be used in furniture or the built environment, is more commonly chipped, incinerated or landfilled. Luckily, there are people working to change that.

Paul Hickman, founder of the urban wood consultancy company Urban Ashes, is one such person. Through Urban Ashes, he's working with municipalities throughout the country to create the systems that maximize the life and value of fallen urban trees.

In this episode, Paul shares how going from a design project manager in the Midwest to a forklift driver in the Bay Area opened his eyes to urban lumber and the impact it can have on the planet.

What do a battery-operated induction range, hemp insulation, a straw-based structural insulated panel (SIP), a whole-life carbon visualization tool, and product transparency software have in common?

Well, for starters, they were all at this year's Greenbuild conference. But more importantly, they're all key pieces of the puzzle when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment––and making it healthier and more resilient.

From the products and solutions on the expo floor to the session topics at Greenbuild this year, it was clear that there is a resounding urgency to adopt whole lifecycle design thinking, and simplify and streamline the specification and procurement of sustainable, healthy materials. And Copper, Green Fox, Verdant Panel, C. Scale and Sustainable Minds are some of the innovators working to pave that path.

In 2009, the American Institute of Architects launched the AIA 2030 Commitment, a strategy and framework that takes direct aim at reaching net-zero emissions in the built environment.

Naturally, design and building materials are bedrock to achieving that goal. And so, in 2018, the AIA introduced the Architecture & Design (A&D) Materials Pledge and formally adopted it in 2020. Since then, more than 300 firms have committed to improving their material selection process across the pledge's five impact areas: human health, social health and equity, ecosystem health, climate health and circular economy.

And holding true to the old adage, "You can't manage what you don't measure," in 2023, the AIA opened voluntary reporting to signatory firms with the goal of tracking trends and better understanding optimization strategies to help the industry as a whole progress.

And as Melanie De Cola, director of climate action pledge programs at the AIA, explains, despite only having two years of data to reflect on, their still starting to see some insightful patterns emerge.