President Donald Trump is promising to unleash the US timber industry by...

CNN Climate 1 year ago

President Donald Trump is promising to unleash the US timber industry by allowing companies to raze swaths of federally protected national forests. The executive order — which calls for the ramping up of the domestic timber production to avoid reliance on "foreign producers" — was followed three days later by sweeping 25% tariffs on Canadian products, including lumber. The United States has an "abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs," the executive order says. However, it's more complex than simply swapping out Canadian imports for homegrown timber, said industry experts, who warned tariffs could end up increasing lumber and building costs — and even push up housing prices for consumers. Meanwhile, environmental groups say clearcutting national forests will pollute the air and water, endanger wildlife and exacerbate climate change. "Trump's order will unleash the chainsaws and bulldozers on our beautiful, irreplaceable federal forests," said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "This is a particularly horrific move by Trump to loot our public lands by handing the keys to the kingdom over to big business," Spivak said. Tap the link in @cnnclimate bio for more. 📸 : Amanda Loman/AP/File, Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis News/Getty Images, Mario Tama/Getty Images

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 1 hour ago



Barcelona’s push to scale affordable low carbon housing marks a turning point for sustainable construction, where sustainable building design is judged by delivery, whole life carbon, life cycle cost and the capacity to provide net zero carbon buildings that people can afford. The market is focusing on whole life carbon assessment, embodied carbon, embodied carbon in materials and low carbon design, with eco-design for buildings, sustainable design, lifecycle assessment and circular economy in construction shaping environmental sustainability in construction. At Tameside General Hospital, a £14m heat-pump retrofit expected to cut emissions by 2,000 tonnes a year shows that decarbonising the built environment now depends on energy-efficient buildings, electrified operations and strong building lifecycle performance. Approval of the Springwell solar project in Lincolnshire, billed as the UK’s largest solar scheme, connects housing, retrofit and green infrastructure in a financeable model for low carbon building, net zero whole life carbon and a lower carbon footprint of construction, driving carbon footprint reduction across sustainable urban development.

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