$2.26 million to promote wood design

Forestry Minister Jim Anderton today announced an investment of $2.26 million (GST excl. $2.009 million) over the next five financial years to help promote excellence in wood design in the construction sector.

"Excellence in design is an essential ingredient in New Zealand's economic development, especially as we move more of our products beyond commodity trading. Nowhere is this truer than in the forest industry," Jim Anderton told the Better by Design conference in Auckland.

"Wood is a very sustainable construction material. We know it is used widely in residential construction but wood is used in only a handful of multi-storey non-residential buildings even though recent research suggests it is highly suitable for buildings up to six-stories tall.

"Research also suggests wood results in less greenhouse gas emissions, and is highly competitive compared with other building materials," the Progressive leader said.

Two reasons for the low use of wood in such construction have been identified as the poor availability of specialised design tools, software and manuals compared with other materials and a lack of comfort from many New Zealand designers in designing in wood, especially as steel and concrete have greater emphasis at university and polytechs.

"This Budget 2005 initiative will help address this issue by supporting two timber design professorship positions at two of New Zealand's engineering schools, plus assistant support.

"Funding will also be available to develop supporting software for timber design," Jim Anderton said.

"This initiative has many potential benefits, in terms of increasing our use of sustainable building materials and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Creating top-class design capability in New Zealand will also help develop domestic and export markets for our increasing volumes of sustainable radiata pine products," he said.

The investment announced today is part of Budget 2005.