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Abstract

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is becoming global. New countries and regions increasingly realize its potential. As an example of a new market, this study analyses the current characteristics of the North American market, as well as its resident companies. Additionally, the historic development of the product is studied. There is the unique opportunity to learn from the existing Original Market in Europe and the companies that have been successful there for many years. The German-speaking alpine region of Europe is the cradle of CLT innovation. Using qualitative methods, specific lessons learned are identified. The combined findings give an enhanced understanding of what can be done to effectively foster and fast-track implementation of CLT in North America. This study also aims to provide interested parties, such as architects, engineers, owners, developers and academics with insights regarding the development of CLT in North America, while also providing a foundation for future academic research.
Abstract
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is becoming global. New countries and regions increasingly realize its potential.
As an example of a new market, this study analyses the current characteristics of the North American market,
as well as its resident companies. Additionally, the historic development of the product is studied. There is the
unique opportunity to learn from the existing Original Market in Europe and the companies that have been
successful there for many years. The German-speaking alpine region of Europe is the cradle of CLT innovation.
Using qualitative methods, specic lessons learned are identied. The combined ndings give an enhanced
understanding of what can be done to eectively foster and fast-track implementation of CLT in North America.
This study also aims to provide interested parties, such as architects, engineers, owners, developers and academics
with insights regarding the development of CLT in North America, while also providing a foundation for future
academic research.
Keywords: Digitalization; digital transformation; wood products industry; customer value; service logic
Cross-laminated Timber in North
America: What can we learn?
1 Department of Wood Science and Engineering, Oregon State University, 119
Richardso n Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331.
2 Salzburg Un iversity of Applie d Sciences, Campus Kuchl, Au stria.
* Corresponding author: Email: Eric.Hansen@oregonstate.edu; Tel.: 541-737-4240.
Acknowledgements: This project w as conducted with s upport from the TallWoo d
Design Institute and funding from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural
Research Se rvice (USDA ARS Agreement N os. 58-0202-5 and 58-020 4-6).
Gabriel Schwarzmann1, Eric Hansen1*,
and Gunter Berger2
BioProducts Business 3(7), 2018, pp. 81-91. ISSN 2378-1394. http://biobus.swst.org.
https://doi.org/10.22382/bpb-2018-007
1. Introduction
In recent years, cross-laminated timber (CLT ) has experi-
enced huge growth in international awareness and inter-
est. North America, for example, is veritably booming,
where CLT is a trendy topic in the construction industry
and even, at times, in public discourse. But what role
does CLT really play in North America?
Architects and engineers, as well as interested parties
like developers and owners often encounter uncertain-
ties and false expectations concerning the use of CLT.
There is much more to a market than excitement and
publicity; there is a highly complex process of producing
CLT, realizing projects, and establishing the product as
a competitive building solution. Gathering information
about the situation can be a long and wearying process
for new market players. Our results provide lessons
learned from Alpine Europe relevant to advancing the
North American CLT market. In doing so, we provide in-
formation and insights for professionals with an interest
in becoming involved with CLT in the US or Canada. This
information can facilitate implementation and growth
of the market compared with historical development
in Europe.
Considerable work exists documenting the views
of US architects and engineers regarding CLT, includ-
ing opportunities and barriers in the market (Mallo
and Espinosa, 2014, 2015) and the characterization of
global manufacturer characteristics and capabilities
(Muszyński et al., 2017). Thus far in the development of
CLT, no work has considered the development of the
marketplace from the perspectives of both experts in
the marketplace and manufacturers in both Europe and
North America. Considering this, our study provides les-
sons learned from more experienced markets, especially
in the German speaking alpine region of Europe. Market
82 BioProducts Business 3(7) 2018
characteristics and lessons learned are placed into the
context of the North American industry. Specically, we
focus this study on the following two objectives:
1. Identify how threats and weaknesses can be dealt
with, and opportunities and strengths can be used
to foster the implementation of CLT in the North
American market.
2.
Identify lessons, especially from the development of
CLT in the Original Market of the German-speaking
alpine region in Europe, that North America can
benet from.
2. Theoretical Background
In order to develop a comprehensive overview of the
two CLT markets, data collection in this research relies on
a framework of categories, based on theoretical models
from the literature. One of the most common is the PEST
model (i.e., political, economic, social and technological
factors). Together, these categories describe important
external inuences aecting a company (Yüksel, 2012).
Hansen and Juslin (2011) adapt this concept specically
to forest products marketing and create a structure to
guide information gathering, using the Information
Environment Model. The authors divide all aspects that
inuence a company into two main areas, the macro
environment and the micro environment. The macro envi-
ronment includes Demand, Supply and “Other, primarily
describing impacts on the rm from the context of the
economy or marketplace. The micro environment, on the
other hand, contains aspects that describe the behaviors
or context of customers, competitors, and systems of
distribution (Hansen and Juslin, 2011). In this research,
we make use of the categorizations of PEST analysis, with
the addition of the Information Environment Model to
guide the process of gathering information for drawing a
comprehensive understanding of the context surround-
ing the CLT marketplace. An additional category is intro-
duced, Existing CLT Structures, which captures projects
that have already utilized CLT within a certain market.
A second framework of categories was used to collect
comprehensive information about the business models
of individual companies, relying on the Nine Building
Blocks by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010), including
the additional category Strategies. Osterwalder and
Pigneur developed the Business Model Canvas with its
nine categories as a shared language, which can be
used to describe virtually any company and its business
model. Because of its universal and complete nature, this
system can be used eectively to collect information as
a basis to describe and analyze companies within the
CLT industry.
The last framework we utilized is concerned with the
results, dividing them into two stages, each following
one of the research objectives. The rst is concerned
with the current status of the North American CLT mar-
ket, compared to the Original market, and is structured
around the four pillars of a SWOT analysis. This widely
used theoretical model describes external opportunities
and threats, giving information about what is happening
within a market, as well as internal strengths and weak-
nesses of each company, in this case, CLT manufacturers.
The second stage contains all results concerning lessons
that can be learned from the development of CLT espe-
cially, but not exclusively, in the Original Market.
3. Data and Analysis
The data collection process is focused rst on CLT markets
themselves (including everything but CLT manufactur-
ers), and second on companies that manufacture CLT.
Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework with a market
side (green) and a business side (blue) that was used to
guide data collection and presentation of results.
Muszyński et al. (2017) refer to the alpine cluster in
Europe as the Original Market. We divided our study
area into the “Original Market, the geographic region
where CLT was initially developed and implemented,
and North America. Within this research, however, the
term “German-Speaking Alpine Region was used to de-
ne this area. Figure 2 shows the approximate area of
the Original Market.
Within these two regions, personal interviews were
conducted as a primary source of information. Following
the overarching research structure, informants were
divided into two groups. Experts were dened as indi-
viduals with a high level of knowledge about a certain
CLT market (external), and manufacturers as companies
that produce CLT (internal).
When selecting experts we attempted to engage
a large variety of participants. The rst few interview-
ees were chosen through convenience sampling.
Subsequently, snowball sampling was used, where
every interviewed person was asked for references of
other potential informants (Patton, 2002). Following
Schwarzmann et al. — Cross-laminated Timber in North America: What can we learn? 83
Figure 2: The German-Speaking Alpine Region of Europe
Figure 1: Conceptual framework
ity of analysis of written transcripts suers since the
researcher’s memory of the interview will fade over time.
Another signicant threat of having a large number of
pages of transcriptions is that the researcher might fail
to see the forest through the trees and consequently
miss or overlook important ndings. Addressing these
issues, Clausen (2012) developed The Individually Focused
Interview (TIFI). The TIFI methodology omits the need
for the widely-used audio transcription process by re-
lying on veried eld notes, allowing a larger number
of interviews to be conducted. After the interview, the
eld notes are shared with the respective interviewee
to ask for comments or changes. All veried eld notes
are then combined to a data set, which is used for data
these methods, a large variety of
CLT experts, such as university pro-
fessors, trade journal editors, archi-
tects, engineers, etc., were identied
and interviewed. Secondary research
showed that North America has only
seven operating CLT manufacturers.
Therefore, we invited all of them to
participate. The Original Market has
more manufacturers and was ap-
proached with criterion sampling,
where manufacturers had to be in
operation for at least 5 years to be
considered. Following that, conve-
nience and snowball sampling were
also used.
Our sample size was not dened
in advance. Instead, we stopped in-
terviewing when data saturation was
reached, which means that new inter-
views no longer provided signicantly
new information. In total, we con-
ducted 19 interviews, including six
experts in North America, ve experts
in the Original Market, three manu-
facturers in North America, and ve
manufacturers in the Original Market.
Personal interviews were conduct-
ed using a semi-structured approach.
We used four open-ended ques-
tions, closely arranged around the
two study objectives (see Appendix).
Two interviews were conducted by
telephone, while all others were conducted in person.
The length varied between 45 and 210 minutes. To make
sure interviews covered the most important topics, the
research framework categories were utilized as a guide
for additional probing questions. Every time quotation
marks and italics are used in the results, the quote comes
directly from an interviewee.
According to Gillham (2007), transcribing and analyz-
ing recorded interviews are the most time-consuming
steps of qualitative research. Clausen (2012) sees a sig-
nicant disadvantage in the time-consuming nature
of traditional techniques, as they limit the researcher
to a smaller number of interviews. Also, if a long time
passes between data collection and analysis, the qual-
84 BioProducts Business 3(7) 2018
analysis. Considering its advantages, we chose the TIFI
methodology for this study and adapted the process to
ensure data reliability. Instead of only relying on veried
eld notes, every interview, with the permission of the
informant, was audio recorded. Afterwards, we listened
to the recordings and created an additional set of audio
notes, which we then compared and merged with the
eld notes to create a set of nal notes.
For data analysis, we took a simple structured ap-
proach. At rst, all information gained through data
collection was combined to a complete database by
distilling all nal notes down to individual information
blocks, where each block contained a specic theme.
In the subsequent data analysis, the market charac-
teristics stage and the lessons learned stage make use
of slightly dierent approaches. The rst divides the
respective information blocks into the categories of the
SWOT analysis. Within them, the Original Market and the
North American market are compared to each other to
create awareness about the dierences between them.
This builds the basis for the lessons learned stage. To
help assure reliability only those information blocks that
are mentioned by more than one independent source
(number of occurrences >1) are included in the results.
4. Results
4.1 The North American Market in Context
The culture around construction and building diers
from North America to Europe. CLT as a product, system,
and global industry is more developed now than it was
in its early days in Europe. Because of this, the develop-
ment of CLT in North America will likely dier from the
example in Europe. The following four points illustrate
the dierences between the two markets, to put the
lessons learned into context.
4.1.1 Strengths
We discovered that many companies consider similar
virtues to be their strengths. For example, most compa
-
nies in North America as well as in the Original Market
say that providing additional services is very important
to their success. This is because nearly all manufactured
CLT is part of a custom order (Muszyński et al., 2017).
Therefore, companies must support customers with
design capabilities and custom fabrication of raw CLT
panels. Muszyński et al. (2017) also found that manufac-
turers see their additional services as the second most
important competitive advantage, after high quality.
Very few companies produce commodity-type pan-
els that are subsequently customized by carpenters or
specialty rms.
Almost all large manufacturers in the Original Market,
and about half of North America’s producers, are verti-
cally integrated in production. Interviewed companies
consider this to be one of their biggest strengths and
state: “You can only provide price stability, in combination
with your own saw mill. Then you can set average prices
for the next year or so. This is a great advantage for both
the manufacturer and the customer, because the cost
of a project can be held stable in the time between the
oer and production. In the Original Market it is common
to provide annual cost sheets for CLT, whereas in North
America, prices are as volatile as the lumber market.
4.1.2 Weaknesses
Since the North American market is comparably young
and still in its development stage, the local industry
tends to be less ecient. In particular, the standards of
production facilities could be greatly improved, com-
pared to the Original Market. Most manufacturers: add
on there, and add on here, and it’s just never gonna be ef-
cient. Therefore, workows are less lean or quick and
more human input is required. This increases the costs
of the nal product signicantly. Also, the degree of ac-
curacy and precision, and therefore the quality of CLT
is lower in North America. The load carrying capacity is
not compromised, but for special applications, like visual
surfaces, special surface nishes, or art projects, this is an
issue. Currently, CLT producers from the Original Market
can oer cost-competitive and superior quality CLT in
the US and Canada, even with shipping costs included.
Post production and CNC machining of CLT is particu-
larly aected by this prevalent lack of eciency. The less
work input that must be done to a panel in production,
the cheaper it can be sold. Consequently, CLT in North
America is currently used primarily for ceilings and not
so much as wall elements, because cutting out doors
and windows requires more eort and cost.
4.1.3 Opportunities
Globally, population and resource depletion are increas-
ing (WWF 2016). This creates an opportunity for CLT con-
struction, as its high degree of prefabrication can provide
fast and ecient housing, its good strength-to-weight
ratio makes it possible to densify urban landscapes even
Schwarzmann et al. — Cross-laminated Timber in North America: What can we learn? 85
more, and being made from wood, CLT is renewable and
even sequesters CO2. Despite recent political events,
there is an increasing awareness of climate change, also
in North America.
From a practical point of view, CLT is very versatile.
Experts know that it can be used for public buildings,
schools, gyms, hospitals, hotels, apartment buildings,
oce space, industrial buildings, high-rises, multi-family
housing, single-family homes, boutique projects (beauti-
ful buildings), tornado shelters, wind turbines, bridges,
as T-beams or plate-beams or free-forms (e.g. artwork),
etc. One often-overlooked application involves utilizing
CLT as access mats, which are used to build temporary
roads on otherwise inaccessible terrain, without overly
impacting the landscape. CLT maintains its structural in-
tegrity considerably longer than, e.g., conventional non-
laminated hardwood mats. Therefore, CLT mats can be
used much longer. The oil, utility, and forestry industries
in North America use huge volumes of access mats, which
provides an opportunity for large production volumes
of CLT. Forest Economic Advisors (Schmon et al., 2017)
found in their study that the North American CLT access
mat market is growing more rapidly than architectural
CLT. According to their study, North America consumes
45,000 m³ of CLT for buildings, and 118,000 m³ for access
mats, which is only about 3% of their potential market.
Speaking of market potential, in North America “the
chances for CLT are huge. An especially promising area is
repetitive projects. If, for example, McDonalds decided to
make even a canopy for their restaurants out of CLT, or if
an insurance company would promote discounts for cus-
tomers who have a CLT garage in tornado-prone areas,
very large demand volume could result. Even modular
single-family housing could nd large scale application
for CLT, due to the high degree of prefabrication.
It is understood that the North American market is
growing faster than the Original Market did in its begin-
ning. There is considerable excitement around the prod-
uct. In 2011, a standard for CLT (PRG320 APA/ANSI) was
created, and the International Building Code (IBC) of 2015
in the US (must be adopted by every state individually)
prescriptively allows mass timber and CLT. In Quebec,
Canada, the oce of the local building code, the RBQ
(Régie du bâtiment du Québec), even made an ocial
design guide for mass timber projects up to 13 stories,
making the code approval process much easier and
faster. A “CLT Handbook” was created by FPInnovations
in Canada, which is a comprehensive guide on how to
build with CLT. Before 2015, Mallo and Espinosa (2014)
found that the fact that CLT was missing in the IBC was
the main barrier to the adoption of CLT in the US.
4.1.4 Threats
In North America, wood as a building material has an
equivocal image. In the US, more than 90% of single-
family houses are made with timber-framing (U.S. Census
Bureau, 2016). However, experts also explain that there
is a preconception that the use of wood harms forests.
Apart from the public, even many architects and engi-
neers have the perception that only certied wood is
sustainable, thinking that is inuenced by Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) build-
ing certication. According to our respondents, LEED
tends to discriminate against uncertied wood, whereas
Environmental Product Declarations (EDPs) can provide
a more comprehensive examination and show dierent
results.
The current design processes in North America are
inexible and old-fashioned. Very popular is the Design-
Bid-Build process, because it is seen as a tool to control
the price of a project. However, it is a threat for CLT,
because manufacturers must bid on a pre-made design,
which often forces a non-ecient use of CLT and mass
timber. This process also favors decisions mostly based
on cost-per-square-foot calculations, which do not con-
sider the savings that CLT provides through its speed of
installation. Architects say that within the current sti
planning processes in North America, collaborating
with manufacturers isn’t very easy. Further, the IBC of
2015 is using safety mechanisms around CLT that are
very conservative, which limits mass timber design and
makes CLT less ecient and cost-eective.
The mass timber industry in North America is not
yet using its full potential of eciency and know-how.
There is existing knowledge and skill in more experi-
enced CLT markets that can be learned from, but the
North American industry tends to ignore these existing
sources of knowledge. Many mistakes and experiences
would not need to be repeated in North America if more
cooperation was pursued. Most publications around CLT
and mass timber in the Old Market are also available in
English, and many European manufacturers are willing
to start collaborations internationally, some are even
actively looking for partners.
86 BioProducts Business 3(7) 2018
4.2 Lessons Learned
4.2.1 Wood Education
Experts mutually agree that it is highly important for CLT,
and mass timber construction as a whole, to foster educa-
tion since it is a great point for new professionals to enter
the industry. Aside from that, the related research in-
creases knowledge and fosters new developments. Most
needed is education for professionals that work with CLT,
something well-documented in previous work (Oregon
BEST, 2017; Mallo and Espinoza, 2015; Hemström, et al.,
2011; Kozak and Cohen, 2007). Firstly, architects must be
instructed on how to safely, eciently and sustainably
design CLT buildings. They have the power to choose
one material over another, so the more they are comfort
-
able with CLT, the more demand can be created. In the
Original Market, architects created the largest demand
for CLT in the beginning. Manufacturers know: “If you
can’t convince architects, you don’t have projects!. Also,
engineers must fully understand the properties and
characteristics of CLT so that they can plan eciently
and safely. The more engineers that know about mass
timber, the more they can increase the eciency, ex-
ibility and longevity of a building. The importance of
educating architects about CLT is consistent with Mallo
and Espinoza (2014). They identify a lack of education
about CLT as a barrier to the adoption of CLT in the US.
In the Original Market, education about wood construc-
tion is provided on many levels, including high schools,
apprenticeships, trainings, and universities. There even
are universities that teach in English language and have
comparably low costs of tuition, however, very few North
Americans take advantage of these study opportunities.
After the planning stage, a CLT structure must be in-
stalled, which also requires trained labor. In the Original
Market, carpenters nd it very easy to adapt to CLT,
but in North America this expertise is still scarce. Even
though assembling a CLT building is very straightforward,
if someone has not done it before, there is a sizeable
learning curve.
4.2.2 Water-Related Building Services
Experts in the Original Market say, the only big weak-
ness that is left in the development of CLT and mass
timber construction, are water-related building ser-
vices. Accordingly, new optimized solutions for building
services in CLT and mass timber buildings are needed.
Experts agree that design of mass timber buildings must
carefully consider the potential for moisture intrusion
(Wang et al., 2018).
Currently, it is common practice to use standard de-
tails and designs from other building technologies like
concrete, brick or steel in mass timber projects. It is, for
example, typical to route water-carrying pipes within
or underneath the screed of a oor construction. By
doing so, the biggest vulnerability of wood is ignored;
wood will decay when exposed to moisture over time.
If these pipes start leaking, water invades the structure
and it may be some time before the issue becomes vis-
ible on the surface. If it goes unnoticed for an extended
period of time, there is potential for signicant damage,
especially compared to a concrete or steel structure. This
is why it is very important to develop and use building
services that are designed for wood construction so
that any kind of abnormal moisture concentration can
be detected right away, and damage prevented. For
that reason, experts in the Original Market ultimately
demand: “No single water-carrying pipe should be routed
inside of the oor construction. No fresh water, no warm
water, no coils for oor heating. All water-carrying pipes
have to be accessible! One alternative solution could be
the proactive use of moisture detectors. These could
function like smoke detectors, announcing when an
abnormally high concentration of moisture is detected
in a mass timber building.
4.2.3 Tall Wood Illusion
There is an unocial ongoing race within the global
mass timber scene to build the tallest buildings in wood.
Even public media sometimes reports on the latest
achievements in wood construction and big plans for
the future. However, experts have mixed feelings about
this tall wood hype. The enormous publicity that tall
buildings in wood are generating is a benet for the
industry. Many people get excited about these proj-
ects and even the general public occasionally shows
interest. It creates excitement to watch taller and taller
wood buildings go up. However, the real drivers that
are needed to advance the industry at this point are: a
reliable and increasing demand, higher eciency, and
diverse market penetration with large volumes of CLT.
Tall wood projects do not provide these hard benets,
simply because the demand for high-rises, in general,
is comparatively low.
In North America, the term ‘mid-rise gap’ refers to
the situation in Canada and the US where wood frame
Schwarzmann et al. — Cross-laminated Timber in North America: What can we learn? 87
construction is only allowed up to 5-6 stories, depend-
ing on the regional code. Everything taller must be built
in concrete or steel. However, experts say that concrete
is not very ecient below about 10 stories. This opens
up an area between 6 and 10 stories, where an ecient
building material is needed. This oers a great opportu-
nity for CLT and mass timber construction, because in
that height range, they can be very ecient.
As a conclusion, the sweet spot for CLT and mass
timber construction in North America, lies in the mid-
rise gap, between 6 and 10, or optimistically 4 and 12
stories. North America’s commercial building sector car-
ries a lot of potential for CLT and mass timber. Potential
projects incluede warehouses, retail stores, large schools,
hotels, etc.
4.2.4 Holistic Design
CLT is not just another building material; it is a concept
which requires adapting conventional planning pro
-
cesses accordingly. Due to the nature of CLT and its high
degree of prefabrication, the design process must start
very early to be cost-ecient. Since CLT is a panel, forces
are conducted dierently, and the structure must be
designed dierently. In addition, dierent manufactur-
ers produce dierent products with dierent properties
and dimensions. Therefore, “With CLT, working with the
manufacturer from the beginning, is really important!. If
this is not the case, plans and 3D models, and structural
calculations must be changed to incorporate diering
new panel dimensions and performance characteris
-
tics. A good design team, where architects, engineers,
builders and manufacturers work together early on in
the design phase, is key.
With CLT, “You have to go slow to go fast!, meaning
more time must be spent on the planning phase, so
that the construction phase can be expedited. The more
planning eort that is invested beforehand, the higher
the degree of prefabrication, and the faster the installa-
tion will be, which increases time and cost eciency. In
the existing planning traditions in the Original Market,
this approach can be pursued more easily than in North
America. Processes beyond design-bid-build are needed,
and owners must be made aware that with prefabrication
a design must be nal when entering the production
and installation stage. Architects in North America see
CLT and mass timber as a potential catalyst for modern-
izing their existing old-fashioned planning processes.
More collaboration and more comprehensive planning
are needed.
4.2.5 Automation
CLT is a panel that can easily be machined and trans-
ported, which makes it possible to produce housing
quickly and eciently with much less skilled labor in the
factory as well as on the building site. Our informants
say this provides potential opportunity to modernize
the entire construction industry. This is precisely the
business model currently pursued by Katerra in the US
(Katerra, 2018).
Common practice in the Original Market and in North
America involves using a CNC to fabricate all CLT panels
individually o-site, turning a construction site into an
assembly or installation site. However, state-of-the-art in
prefabrication is already much further along. Instead of
transporting individual panels, entire cubicles and mod-
ules can be preassembled in the factory. Modularization
even makes it possible to preinstall interior construction
and facades so that an installation site can consequently
become a mere delivery site. The more that is done in ad-
vance, the more ecient and therefore cost-competitive
a CLT project can be.
Comparing the construction industry with, e.g., the
automotive sector shows that modern production stan-
dards could take eciency to an even higher level. In
a car factory, the human component is eliminated as
much as possible. CLT provides an opportunity to bring
this technology to the construction industry, taking it
beyond prefabrication, towards automation. Currently,
almost every CLT panel is custom-made. By increasing
the level of standardization, this could be changed. A
company could oer a few box types and a range of
interior features to choose from, similar to car models
and their optional features. Business models like this
can allow mass production of CLT. At present, at least
two companies are establishing large-scale production
facilities, planning to mass-produce modularized CLT
housing. If they succeed, this concept is very likely to
spread globally (Schmon et al., 2017).
The study from FEA (Schmon, et al., 2017) predicts
that decreasing skill levels and increasing productivity
are keys for the future of the construction industry be-
cause aordable housing is in high demand worldwide
and skilled labor is hard to nd.
4.2.6 Establishing new Production Facilities
Contemplating market entry as a CLT manufacturer
requires careful decision-making. Two things are es-
sential: having good production know-how about CLT
88 BioProducts Business 3(7) 2018
and knowing the construction industry within a market.
Wood products companies have an edge in terms of
technical understanding, however, glulam manufactur-
ers that have expanded to CLT production say it was still
challenging. One challenge documented in the literature
is the cultural gap that exists between wood products
manufacturers and speciers (Fernando et al., 2018).
In addition, glulam is often produced as a commodity
type product, or with low amounts of customization.
With CLT, nearly every panel is 100% custom-made
and a CNC panel machine is needed to be competitive.
Glulam-based CNC machines are unlikely suitable for
panels. Additionally, CLT manufacturers must do a lot of
planning work up front. They typically provide pre-static
calculations, technical detailing, 3D modeling, design
assist and optimization.
For a current glulam producer interested in entering
the market, the options are to extend current production
or invest in a new CLT production line. Experts are fairly
clear that a green-eld investment is the better choice.
A clean start allows use of state-of-the-art technology,
which is much more competitive than a patchwork of
old and new. A large manufacturer said: If the decision
is made to invest, why not invest into a proper production
right away?” Machine producers oer pre-planned CLT
production lines, however, launching and running a pro-
duction line successfully also requires skill. There is a lot of
ne tuning to be done and additional planning services
must be established. A potential slow progression for a
glulam producer that mostly does commodity produc-
tion could be starting to provide additional services, like
planning and engineering, rst. This intermediary step
can help to get to know the regional construction indus-
try in detail. Once this is second nature, the stretch to
manufacturing CLT is no longer overwhelming. Despite
the challenges, there have been numerous announce-
ments of new facilities and high interest within the
general wood products industry (Oregon BEST, 2017).
5. Summary and Conclusions
The North American CLT industry has already made
considerable progress, but the market is in its early
development. Manufacturers have room for improve-
ment in their operations. For example, planning and
customization services must be improved, as well as the
overall levels of production eciency. The newly created
product standard in North America, something that does
not exist in Europe, is likely benecial for development
of the market. Also, the International Building Code
prescriptively allows CLT; however, the current codes
are quite conservative, making it hard for CLT to be used
eciently and cost-competitively. The competitiveness
of CLT against other building materials in general is of
signicant interest (MacDonald, 2017) in the marketplace
and deserves the focus of future research. How much
does it cost, in comparison to light-frame, concrete
and steel construction? Current planning processes are
old-fashioned and mostly based on cost-per-square-foot
values. More interactive processes are needed. Another
barrier, especially on the west coast, is the belief that
using wood harms the forest and is only sustainable
when certied. Even within the construction industry,
this prejudice is an issue.
In terms of how wood construction professionals
are trained and educated, a lot can be learned from
the Original Market. However, reproducing the exten-
sive coverage that exists there is likely not feasible in
North America. Perhaps the best place to invest in the
North American education system is at the university
level, with a special focus on architects and engineers,
via close industry cooperation. This is an area that the
American Wood Council and the WoodWorks™ program
are currently active.
Global research must further focus on two other as-
pects. Production, design, and use of CLT must be more
ecient, using less material for the same functionality
and performance. Also, its highly important to develop
new solutions for all water-carrying building systems in
wood buildings, so that the only big weakness of mass
timber construction can be eliminated. Related to that is
the controversial nature of the ongoing tall wood hype.
High-rises in wood fascinate people, but they do not
keep production lines running across a market. They are
still too inecient, and demand is too little. The ‘mid-rise
gap’ carries much more potential for CLT in Canada and
the US. To increase the competitiveness of CLT, construc-
tion planning processes must be adapted and made
much more interactive, incorporating all parties that are
involved in a project early in the design phase. In the
Original Market, the level of cooperation is traditionally
much higher, and projects are more individual.
Automation may play an important role in the devel-
opment of the North American CLT market. Standardizing
and modularizing CLT construction can translate to
Schwarzmann et al. — Cross-laminated Timber in North America: What can we learn? 89
very ecient production and facilitate direct interac-
tion between manufacturers and customers/owners/
developers. This approach can allow mass production
of CLT and take the product to the next level of cost-
competitiveness. When establishing new CLT production
this must be taken in to account and a decision must be
made to either produce regionally and small, or large and
with a high degree of automation. Opposed to Europe,
the North American construction industry is traditionally
focused on standardization, repetitiveness, and large
scale, which suggests that CLT production and planning
are more likely to follow that path in North America as
the market develops.
A solid foundation for CLT is being established in
North America. Within the next few years, strong growth
is expected in the industry, especially once larger manu-
facturers begin producing. In Europe, there is a strong
regional concentration with Austria alone manufacturing
about 500,000 m³ annually, or around 65% of global CLT
production (Schickhofer et al., 2017). A similar trend is de-
scribed for North America by Schmon et al., (2017). They
claim the demand and supply of CLT will initially grow
in the “greenest US states. Lastly, new business models
are likely to emerge and CLT might help to modernize
the processes of how architecture is designed and built
in North America.
6. Limitations
Our results and conclusions are derived from personal
interviews and are based on veried knowledge from the
CLT industry in North America and the Original Market.
We chose a qualitative approach for this research, so
that a great variety of topics could be covered, which is
needed to provide a broad overview. While we are con-
dent that our results provide a good snapshot of the
industry, the reader should keep in mind the fast-paced
change happening in this market and that we were only
able to interview a relatively small number of experts
and manufacturers in the overall industry.
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90 BioProducts Business 3(7) 2018
Interview Guide
1. Giving informant an overview about research
2. Informing informant that interview is confidential and depersonalized
3. Asking informant for permission to audio record
4. Interview Questions
4.1 Questions for Experts in Original Market/North America
ICEBREAKER: How did your organization become an expert in CLT?
Q1: In your organization’s opinion, what are the main drivers and opportunities for CLT
manufacturers in the Greater German-speaking Alpine Region/North America?
Q2: In your organization’s opinion, what are the main challenges and threats for CLT
manufacturers in the Greater German-speaking Alpine Region/North America?
Q3: In your organization’s opinion, what developments and dynamics are to be expected
within the North American CLT market in the next years?
Q4: In your organization’s opinion, what lessons can be learned from the original
European market to help the North American CLT market to develop fast and ecient?
SNOWBALL SAMPLING:
- What other CLT experts could be helpful to this research?
- What important CLT companies could be helpful to this research?
4.2 Probing Categories for Expert Interviews
Political/Legal: building codes, environmental, regulations, standards, governmental
subsidies
Economic: GDP, raw material costs, housing starts, square meter prices
Social: awareness/perception, environmental awareness, relationship to house, CLT
education
Technological: IT adaption, construction methods, inventions, R&D, Health, Sustainability
Demand: advertising, growth, population, annual newbuilds, user trends
Supply: products types, additional services, raw material, value chain
Competition: big players, Importers/Exporters, Channel Power
Distribution: Sales, communication, marketing & advertising, transportation, value chain
Customers: Industrial customers, end-users, general contractors, value chain
Existing CLT Structures: residential, public, multi-family, multi-story
Appendix
Schwarzmann et al. — Cross-laminated Timber in North America: What can we learn? 91
4.3 Questions for Manufacturers in Original Market/North America
ICEBREAKER: How did your company get into producing CLT?
Q1: What are the strengths and the USP (unique selling proposition) of your company
and how did these aspects develop over time?
Q2: What are the most signicant weaknesses and challenges your company had to
overcome?
Q3: In your company’s opinion, what developments and dynamics are to be expected
within the North American CLT market in the next years?
Q4: In your company’s opinion, what lessons can be learned from the original European
market to help the North American CLT market to develop fast and ecient?
SNOWBALL SAMPLING:
- What CLT experts could be helpful to this research?
- What other important CLT companies could be helpful to this research?
4.4 Probing Categories for Manufacturer Interviews
Customer Segments: mass-customized, private-industrial customers, import-export
Value Proposition: customer needs, planning, design, prefabrication, R&D, brands
Channels: marketing, sale platforms, awareness, communication, transport
Customer Relationships: personal assistance, co-creation, customer/end-user
Revenue Streams: incoming-outgoing, CLT, additional services, licensing, advertising
Key Resources: physical (Raw material, production line, assembly equipment, trucks)
intellectual/human (formulas, parameters, assembly team), nancial
Key Activities: purchasing, production, customization, prefabrication, transport, quality
control, R&D, site assembly, planning, static calculation
Key Partnerships: suppliers, third party certication, private customers, general
contractors, architects, carpenters, structural engineers
Cost Structure: cost-driven, value-driven, xed costs, variable costs
Strategies: additional services, vertical/horizontal
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