National Forest Products Week is celebrated during the third week of October each year as a time to recognize the many products that come from our forests, the people who work in and manage forests, and the businesses that produce these products. One company celebrating and honoring our forests is Structurlam, the leading North American manufacturer of innovative mass timber solutions for the construction and industrial markets.

Although mass timber has been used for over 25 years in Europe, the North American market is only now earning itself a well-deserved spotlight in the continent’s mainstream construction industry, offering a more sustainable way to build without compromising on quality or structural design. Replacing steel and concrete with mass timber could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 15-20% and by some estimates, the near-term use of mass timber could have the same emissions control effect as taking more than two million cars of the road in one year.

A new way of using wood has put the material back in the spotlight following decades of the construction industry primarily using concrete and steel. Mass timber encompasses a variety of products, including cross-laminated timber, a multi-layer, cross-directional timber product, and glulam, a glued and laminated engineered wood product bonded together with waterproof adhesives.