We’ve broken the mass timber value chain into three broad segments that also serve as our vision for the Forest-to-Cities Climate Challenge: Grow, Build, and Live. Mass timber stakeholders usually fit in one of these segments. “Live,” for example, includes the environmental and housing advocates who can call for change in how we design the built environment, as well as the people who will live and work in tall wood buildings.
Currently, 124 individuals and business have signed the Forest-to-Cities Pledge. Take a look at the participants below and read why this program matters to them.
Harvard Forest, Harvard University
“I support this effort in order to increase recognition of the value of forests—both wildlands and woodlands—and to keep them intact across New England.”
Senior VP Timberland | LandVest, Inc.
“As a professional forester I, and our company, recognize the importance of forestry and the use of sustainably managed forest to produce forest products that will contribute to building resilience to climate change.”
Consulting Forester, Vice President | New England Forestry Consultants, Inc.
“This effort will be a significant climate change mitigation program if it is implemented across the forested landscape. We must begin to apply meaningful changes to “business as usual.” This approach has the potential to do just that.”
Architect | Wiederspahn Architecture, LLC
“We are facing a climate crisis, and the building industries contributes a disproportionately large amount of carbon into the atmosphere when producing, operating, and demolishing buildings. Mass timber construction types are the best alternative to current building practices since wood can actually capture carbon from the atmosphere and contain it in the form of building materials. Wood is renewable, regenerative, recyclable, and eminently endearing.”
Professor of Wood Mechanics and Timber Engineering | University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“Building with wood, especially local wood, is a smart and clear way to mitigate climate change. I am joining the challenge because I want to lend my 30+ years of engineering, researching and teaching wood structures, to affect change in a way that it really counts.”
Senior Natural Resource Strategist | Sonen Capital
“Climate is the key issue of our generation. Natural solutions are the low hanging fruit. Forests are the most cost effective way to make progress in the short-term.”
Manager, ALPINE | Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
“Our dependency on concrete and steel to build homes and offices, stadiums, etc., has a large environmental cost—concrete is responsible for 4-8% of the world’s carbon emissions, 85% of mining emissions globally. Building with wood from sustainably managed forests could mitigate carbon emissions—wood stores carbon.”
John Manganello, President & CEO | baskahegan.com
Rick Alfandre, President, AIA, LEED AP BD+C | alfandre.com
Matthew E. Tonello, P.E., Project Executive | consigli.com
Ron Rideout, Principal Engineer | dirigobse.com
Eric Hansen | fwforesters.com
Alexander Evans, Executive Director | foreststewardsguild.org
Geordie Elkins, Operations Director | highstead.net
William B. Hull | hullforest.com
Lee Burnett, Project Director | localwoodworks.org
Christopher Egan, Executive Director | massforestalliance.net
Bryan Wentzell, Executive Director | mainemountaincollaborative.org
Edwin R. Kimsey, Jr., President | nilesbolton.com
Rick Weyerhaeuser, Senior Natural Resource Strategist | sonencapital.com
William Bentley and Ann Wilhelm, Co-Owners | wilhelmfarm.com
Timber Owners of New England, Inc.; (NEFF Board)
Architect, Gensler
President, PCW Management Center
Director of Research, EPFR; NEFF Board
Woodlands Manager, Baskahegan Company
LEED AP BD+C
Esquire Attorney
Associate Principal, Grimshaw
Principal, Leers Weinzapfel Architects
New England Forestry Foundation
Owner, Wendling Farm; MFA
Owner, Holiday Brook Farm/Dicken Crane Logging; MFA President
DeNormandie Cos.
Associate Professor, Brandeis University
Urban Forester
Hanover Conservancy
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Forester and Environmental Consultant
Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut
Forester, NEFCo
Senior Consultant, R.S. Berg & Associates
NEFF Board
Principal, ZH Architects
Associate Extension Professor, University of Connecticut
President, Wolfworks, Inc.
Civil Engineering Student, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Chief Scientist, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
Northeast Forest Conservation Director, Ruffed Grouse Society/American Woodcock Society
The Rohatyn Group; (NEFF Board)
Conservation Project Manager, New England Forestry Foundation
Manager, Spiritos Properties
Student, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Forester, NEFCo
Executive Director, Mahoosuc Land Trust
Architect, WRNS Studio
Design Director, Stantec
Forester, NEFCo
C.M., MBP
Retired CF, CWB
Grimshaw Architects
Student, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Environs Strategies, LLC
Partner Seder & Chandler, LLP; (NEFF Board)
President/CEO, Roberts Brothers Lumber Co., Inc.
Consulting Forester
Owner, Conservationist, and Forester; Sweet Birch Consulting, LLC
Forester, NEFCo
Student
Climate Adaptation Specialist, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science
Forest Technician, NEFCo
NEFF Board
Board Chair, Baskahegan Company
Essex Timber Co LLC
Ecologist, Private Consultant
Consulting Forester, NEFCo
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Manager/Forester, NEFCo
Co-Owner, Moss Hill Tree Farm/Moss Hill Family Trust
Conservation Attorney
NEFF Board
NYCDEP
President, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC
(NEFF Board)
Forester, NEFCo
President/CEO, NEFCo
Senior Conservationist, Highstead Foundation
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
President, The Irland Group
Professor, Southern Maine Community College
Forester, NEFCo
Consulting Forester, NEFCo
Forester, NEFCo
A sibling initiative to NEFF’s Forest-to-Cities Climate Challenge, Build It With Wood and its standalone website provide in-depth resources for experts like construction firms and forestland owners. Members of the general public are also encouraged to explore the website, and to help us build a climate-secure future with wood.