East Ballarat House, the treehouse in the goldfields, has been featured in ‘Winning Homes’ – the 2020 Master Builders Victoria Excellence in Housing Awards.
A finalist in the 2019 Australian Timber Design Awards – Australian Certified Timber, the custom-build showcases Responsible Wood-certified Silvertop Ash hardwood cladding and Stringybark decking.
Responsible Wood is Australia’s largest forest certification scheme and is used by specifiers to demonstrate the sustainable origin of timber from the forest.
Jason Ross, Responsible Wood Marketing and Communications Officer explains:
“Forest certification is a must, when a timber based product is sold with a formal claim, it provides architects with security that the timber is sourced from a legal and sustainably verified source,” he said.
“As it stands PEFC is the largest forest certification scheme in the world and Responsible Wood, who manages the endorsed Australian Standard for Sustainable Forest Management, provides mutual recognition and international endorsement for timber products sourced globally.
And with Responsible Wood certified forests in abundance, resource availability is not an issue for environmentally conscious architects seeking to do the right thing.
“More than 11.2 million hectares of defined Australian forests are certified under the Responsible Wood certification scheme with more than 320 million hectares of global forests certified under the PEFC certification scheme.
“As it stands 9% of global forests are covered under the PEFC International umbrella, a commitment by foresters to support social and environmental benchmarks.
“These benchmarks originated from the Montreal Process, a multilateral commitment to preserve and manage global forests sustainably and for future generations.
“In the simplest terms, PEFC and Responsible Wood is a systematic approach ensuring that wood is sourced from legal and responsible forests, protecting the lungs of the planet for future generations,” Mr Ross said.
