Council hears concerns that CLT baseline numbers could disadvantage Washington manufacturers

Councilors discussed whether to include cross-laminated timber (CLT) in the materials table used for product-compliance calculations and whether the baseline Global Warming Potential (GWP) value under consideration accurately reflects U.S. manufacturers.

Todd (chair) said he has "a lot of concern over this number," noting the Carbon Leadership Forum baseline mix includes Canadian manufacturers and that U.S. manufacturers — particularly in Washington — have reported higher GWP figures in the council's dataset. "So my concern here is you immediately disadvantage Washington manufacturers," he said, urging further review of the CLF figures before codifying a numeric baseline.

Roger Haringa and others supported including CLT as a covered product but asked staff to investigate and verify the appropriate regional baseline number before adopting it into the table. Roger emphasized the structural significance of mass-timber in calculations: excluding CLT from the table could make the whole project-level calculation "relatively meaningless" if a major structural component is omitted.

The council agreed to split CLT-specific discussion into its own amendment and to research the correct numerical baseline before finalizing the materials table.