Mass timber is coming to the boardroom, with the International Mass Timber Conference unveiling “The Boardroom: From Pitch to Capital,” a live dealmaking forum designed to connect mass timber developers with investors.

Wood Central understands that the Boardroom will showcase a curated group of mass timber projects, with developers presenting on stage before a panel of institutional and private‑sector investors. Each pitch will be followed by questions and constructive feedback from industry veterans, and the session will be open to all registered conference attendees.

Craig Rawlings, Chairman of the International Mass Timber Conference, said the new format reflects the industry’s growing need for capital alignment. “Mass timber is reaching a pivotal moment, and capital engagement is critical to scaling,” he said. “This forum brings the right stakeholders together on stage and in the room to move promising projects from concept to closing.”

The investor panel will draw from institutional capital, private equity, family offices, and specialist investment firms. Confirmed participants include Troy Harris of Jamestown, Jonathan Pearce of Hines, and Justin Preftakes of Barings. The session will be moderated by Erica Spiritos, a well‑known advocate for mass timber development, with support from industry veteran Jeff Spiritos, who is serving as Investment Forum Advisor.

According to Spiritos, the forum aims to demystify how capital evaluates mass timber proposals. “How investors evaluate mass timber is evolving quickly,” he said. “By creating a transparent, constructive environment for live pitches and feedback, we’re helping developers sharpen their proposals and helping investors access a high‑quality pipeline.”

Developers are now invited to submit projects for consideration: “Due to numerous requests to extend the deadline to submit your proposals, we have moved the submission deadline to ASAP (the sooner the better),” Rawlings said, adding that submissions for commercial, multifamily, mixed-use, large-scale single-family, industrial, and innovative concepts are all eligible. “Selected developers will be notified by the end of February and will have opportunities to meet with investors throughout the conference,” Rawlings added.

Registration is now open for the 2026 International Mass Timber Conference, with full‑conference passes priced at US $1,200 through the final early‑bird deadline of January 28, and includes access to The Boardroom, all programming, most meals, and on‑demand recordings of educational sessions.

According to Andrew Dunn, CEO of the Australian-based Timber Development Association, machine-trained robots could be an answer to Australia’s tradie squeeze, which saw 27,000 or more tradies exit the industry last year, at a time when Australia has a shortfall of more than 115,000 workers just to meet the Albanese government’s housing targets.

“It is clear where the world is going in manufacturing, and the tour saw a glimpse of it,” Dunn said. “Amazingly, not a single Allen key was to be seen. But unlike most IKEA furniture kit-of-parts, apartments built at these factories come pre-assembled, probably a huge relief for purchasers.”

Speaking to Wood Central, Dunn said that Australia’s push to embrace modern methods of construction (MMC) is gathering steam, with Dunn joining Wood Central publisher Jason Ross to lead a new study tour that shows how the world’s most advanced timber construction systems can work in Aussie conditions.

Starting in the United Kingdom, which Dunn said offers the closest parallel to Australia’s long-established timber-frame and truss supply chain, delegates will then travel to Sweden, where they will gain exclusive access to some of the world’s largest and most impressive prefab manufacturing facilities: “These are facilities and projects you simply cannot tour around,” Dunn said. “We’re talking about world‑leading timber modular fabrication plants — the places shaping the future of global timber construction.”

Learn more about the Wood Central European Study Tour.

The 10-day tour – the first to be co-hosted by Wood Central – is open for up to 25 delegates and will occur in mid-September, subject to an expression of interest period. “We are inviting interested groups to register through our booking website,” Ross said, adding that interest in the tour is expected to be oversubscribed. “That’s because interest in offsite and prefab construction is sky high in Australia, and we know that timber systems – whether lightweight or mass timber – are the ‘sweet spot’ for modern methods of construction,” he said.

In October, Wood Central revealed that the Albanese government and its forest products industry are backing a plan to turn forest fibre into prefabricated timber housing, betting that an IndustryEdge-led project, THE PRECINCT, can use MMC to solve its housing crisis.

Officially known as the “Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Strategy and Feasibility to Catalyse Large‑Scale Prefabricated Dwelling Adoption,” THE PRECINCT is a multi‑year, multi‑phase feasibility project backed by Australian Forest & Wood Innovations (AFWI) and is aimed at scaling engineered wood products, prefabricated dwellings and bio‑based co‑products so Australia keeps the value of its timber at home rather than shipping low‑value fibre offshore.

“IndustryEdge is grateful for the opportunity to lead development of The Precinct project, and we thank AFWI and the Federal Government for the commitment and major contributions,” according to Tim Woods, Managing Director of IndustryEdge. “Most of all, we want to thank the industry, research and community partners we have worked with over several years to bring this project into being.”

• To learn more about the study tour, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from last week.

Expressions of interest are now open for Wood Central’s ten‑day UK and Sweden timber off‑site manufacturing tour scheduled for September 2026. Limited to just 25 participants, the tour promises rare access to factories, robotics labs, mass‑timber plants, and construction projects that are otherwise strictly off‑limits.

Led by Timber Development Association CEO Andrew Dunn and Wood Central founder Jason Ross, the tour is designed for architects, engineers, developers, and construction professionals seeking a deeper understanding of industrialised timber construction.

Dunn said the tour comes at a pivotal moment for Australia as it grapples with a shortage of detached, semi‑detached, mid‑rise, and high‑rise housing. “The tour will give engineers, architects, and construction professionals a unique understanding of how industrialised timber construction happens overseas.”

He said the UK offers one of the closest parallels to Australia’s lightweight timber‑frame market, while Sweden “has been at the forefront of prefab and off‑site construction for decades.”

A veteran of international study tours — last year he led a delegation to Osaka’s World Expo — Dunn said the 2026 itinerary promises to be “a trip of a lifetime” for anyone working at the intersection of timber, design and advanced manufacturing.

And the tour’s timing could not be any more relevant. In October, Building 4.0 CRC CEO Mathew Aitchison warned that whilst modern methods of construction (MMC) offer “huge potential to boost productivity and lower costs,” Australia cannot simply import foreign systems.“We’ve got an immense amount to learn from other countries,” Aitchison said. “But we have to be very cautious about the way we apply those lessons in Australia.”

Inside Europe’s most advanced timber factories

The 2026 tour aims to bridge that knowledge gap by showing Australian professionals how industrialised timber construction works at scale. Participants are slated to visit world‑leading robotics and automation facilities, production plants manufacturing engineered wood products, modular apartment factories, robotic “house factories,” and a series of timber buildings across Sweden — including Växjö’s pioneering eight‑storey timber apartments.

Dunn said the tour will open doors that are usually closed to outsiders. “These are facilities and projects you simply cannot walk into,” he said.
We’re talking about world‑leading timber modular fabrication plants — the places shaping the future of global timber construction.”

The tour comes as governments ramp up investment in domestic timber manufacturing. Earlier this month, the Victorian and Australian Governments jointly backed THE PRECINCT, a feasibility project designed to accelerate prefabricated timber housing using plantation fibre from the Green Triangle.

The project — supported through the Albanese Government’s Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) program — aims to boost local engineered‑timber production and reduce reliance on imports. Victorian minister Ros Spence said prefab timber will be essential to delivering “faster construction, reduced waste and more affordable housing.” Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the initiative will help reshape Australia’s timber manufacturing capability, calling it “a win for jobs, innovation and sustainability.”

Titled ‘From Forest to Framework: Unlocking Timber Value in the Darling Downs and South-West Queensland,’ the event has been convened to address the need for greater product development, market diversification, and collaboration across sawmilling, harvesting, and processing operations. The forum will examine opportunities emerging from the Queensland Government’s new Future Timber Plan and explore how the region’s timber supply can better meet growing demand in construction, the bioeconomy, and infrastructure projects.

According to Mick Stephens, CEO of Timber Queensland, the cypress and hardwood industries remain vital employers in small regional towns, supplying essential products used in decking, flooring, cladding, joists, structural beams, and joinery. “These sectors are often the lifeblood of jobs in regional communities, producing the materials that help put roofs over the heads of people across the state,” Stephens said.

Industry leaders, researchers, and government representatives will address sustainable timber supply, new product innovation, biofuels and feedstock opportunities, and the implications of major infrastructure projects for timber logistics in southern and western Queensland. The program is designed for sawmillers, forestry contractors, private forest owners, graziers, and mixed-use landholders who are exploring timber as a secondary income source. It also targets builders, developers, architects, and engineers seeking to increase the use of sustainably sourced timber in construction.

The forum will also be relevant to local and state government officers, planners, and regional development agencies engaged in forestry, infrastructure, and land-use planning who need to understand the sector’s emerging innovation agenda. Organisers say the full-value-chain approach — bringing growers, processors, product specifiers, and policymakers together — is intended to accelerate practical outcomes rather than produce abstract recommendations.

Renamed K’gari to recognise the traditional lands of the Butchulla people, it is the largest sand island in the world, stretching more than 123 km in length, 22 km in width and covering an area of about 184,000 km on the Fraser Coast in the Wide Bay-Burnett region of Queensland. The landmass was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, after more than a century of sustainable harvesting of its hardwood forests.

Onfray’s connection with Fraser Island runs deep. He spent his later school years in Maryborough and, in the early 1980s, worked on the island as a forestry student staying at Central Station and exploring remote areas rarely seen by visitors. Those experiences inspired a lifelong fascination with the island’s history and forests.

After a 33-year career as a professional forester and land manager in New South Wales and Tasmania, and later overseeing land access for Queensland’s mining industry, Onfray devoted his time to historical research and writing. He also publishes monthly blogs on land management and shares historical stories gathered after three years of travelling around Australia.

His new book. Paradise Preserved: A history of Forestry on Fraser Island. will be launched at three venues next month – Brisbane on November 12, 4-6 pm, Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 115 William Street in the city; Maryborough on November 13, 4-6 pm at Portside Café and Restaurant, 103 Wharf Street; and Gympie, on November 17, 5.30 pm-7 pm, Bowling Club, 16 Bowlers Drive, Southside.

Come along and enjoy an afternoon with Robert and pick up a signed copy of Paradise Preserved ($39.95). Bar sales and refreshments will be available at Gympie and Maryborough. RSVP by email UserOz1000@outlook.com and nominate which launch you’d like to attend.

Bring a friend or anyone interested in local history to help celebrate the launch of this remarkable story. And please feel free to share this invitation with friends, colleagues or community groups who might enjoy coming along.

Arrive early, relax and make an evening of it!

Addressing the conference, Radha Kuppalli, board director of Greening Australia and Accounting for Nature and a member of the Australian Government’s Nature Finance Council, set out five priorities for the sector and urged industry and government to adopt integrated approaches that deliver social, ecological and economic returns. She called for scaled models that combine production with restoration, stronger engagement with communities and governments to secure social licence for reforestation, and the alignment of carbon and biodiversity markets to drive net‑zero and nature‑positive outcomes.

Kuppalli stressed that economic frameworks must change to reflect the value of natural capital and that Australia should position itself to attract long‑term, sustainable investment in land use. As a result, she urged policymakers and investors to back blended‑finance approaches that can unlock large‑scale restoration alongside viable timber supply, and to support market mechanisms that reward multiple landscape benefits rather than single outputs.

Kuppalli, who has more than two decades’ experience in sustainable forestry and natural capital investment, told delegates that Australia must move beyond single‑output forestry to approaches that deliver multiple, complementary returns such as climate mitigation, biodiversity restoration, improved water management and recognition of cultural values: “The future of forestry is not timber or nature; it is timber with nature, integrated for value, resilience and long‑term impact,” she said, illustrating her argument with case studies that reframed trade‑offs as diversified portfolio opportunities.

The conference arrives as the world reaches the midpoint of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration and aims to shift the discussion from siloed projects to landscape‑scale solutions that balance ecological, cultural and economic outcomes. Organisers say the program is designed to make restoration bankable for investors and landholders by bringing together technical expertise, policymakers and finance providers and to feed discussions into policy recommendations and cross‑sector partnerships.

Please note: Wood Central will have exclusive coverage from delegates at the conference in the coming days.

Addressing 200 architects, engineers, developers and timber professionals at the conference, Hunter said MODEL, now looking to raise $600 million from investors, is well-positioned to succeed where traditional or legacy developers have not: “We’re designing for a very different future. Buildings must be more resilient, and timber is a key part of that,” Hunter said from the sidelines. “As the energy transition and broader decarbonisation accelerate, assets that haven’t considered operational and embodied carbon from the start risk becoming stranded. Timber aligns with our values and mission, and it’s what the market will demand.”

Responding to questions from Georgie Coutsodimitropoulos, NeXTimber by Timberlink’s Marketing and Brand Manager, Hunter said that combining timber and Passivhaus standards can materially lift housing quality across Australia. “Shockingly, the majority of Australian homes fall outside the World Health Organisation’s recommended temperature and humidity ranges, and the situation is worse in the rental sector,” he said. “Around 80% of rental homes are either too cold and damp in winter or too hot in summer, creating real health risks for tenants.”

Armed with JLL research – commissioned by MODEL – Hunter argues that higher sustainability standards also deliver commercial upside. MODEL, he said, is targeting 6‑Star Green Star, 9‑Star NatHERS and Passivhaus certification for its developments — a first for large-scale apartment complexes in Australia — which he said can command rental premiums of 5–10%, sustain occupancy near 98% and cut energy bills by thousands of dollars a year. “MODEL’s sustainable premium “is projected to add roughly 400 basis points to base‑case IRR over seven years, materially outperforming traditional build‑to‑rent benchmarks,” he said.

At the start of MODEL’s pipeline is the Johnston project in Abbotsford, Melbourne, a short stroll from Timber Construct’s 2025 venue. Designed by Fraser & Partners, the development is billed as Melbourne’s tallest mass‑timber residential tower and Australia’s first large‑scale Passivhaus apartment complex. Hunter says Johnston will halve embodied carbon compared with a conventional build, run on 100% renewable energy and deliver average utility savings of about $1,000 per tenant each year.

A former Harvard graduate who helped establish Cambodia’s first marine national park through his work with SoHo Partners and the Song Saa Foundation, Hunter says sustainability lowers financing costs and broadens investor interest. “By aligning our projects with global ESG frameworks — including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, TCFD and EU Taxonomy — MODEL qualifies for Article 9 funds and sustainability‑linked finance, which can shave basis points off the cost of debt,” he said.

Hunter’s keynote formed part of a joint session that also featured Chethiya Ratnakara, the Managing Director of Singapore-based Versobuild, who travelled to Melbourne (via Singapore and Paris) to showcase how big tech companies are now looking to use cross-laminated timber in combination with steel and concrete to build the next generation of data centres in Southeast Asia, whilst Dr Louise Wallis chaired a session, Innovation in Wood: High-Performance Timber Products for Modern Construction, which launched research that showed that stone wall – rock wall – could replace plasterboard in insultation in cross-laminated timber flooring and timber framed walls.

Please note: Wood Central will have exclusive coverage from the conference in the coming days.

“We have experimented with and implemented a lot of sustainability initiatives over the years,” said Daniel Mallory, Amazon’s vice president of global realty. “DII5 continues that effort by taking a culmination of a lot of big ideas, not just in how we operate our facilities, but in how we build them,” Mallory said. Amazon will treat the site as an operational testbed, gathering the complex data needed to decide which materials and systems merit wider rollout.

Wood Central understands that timber is DII5’s defining feature. Mass timber — engineered by laminating standard softwood into large panels and beams — delivers structural performance comparable to concrete and steel while dramatically reducing embodied carbon and storing atmospheric CO₂ in long‑lived building elements.

Kristen Dotson, Amazon’s principal for sustainable buildings, said locking carbon into timber for 50 to 100 years creates a tangible carbon “bank,” preventing that CO₂ from returning to the atmosphere and materially lowering a building’s lifecycle emissions. “The game‑changing part around mass timber is that it’s taking a ready commodity and turning it into this structural element that can replace much of the concrete and steel that goes into a building,” Dotson said.

DII5 pairs its timber structure with proven performance systems: heat pumps, clerestory daylighting and LED controls to cut operational energy; a 15,000‑gallon rainwater capture and filtration system for toilet reuse; and more than 170 EV chargers supporting roughly 125 electric delivery vehicles already on site. Local fabricators supplied and finished the timber components, and lower‑carbon concrete technologies were used where concrete remained necessary.

Marty Brennan, design architect and sustainability lead at ZGF, described DII5 as both a design and supply‑chain experiment. “The scheme brings together numerous partners from across the building industry to create a welcoming experience of light, wood, and native prairies,” he said, reflecting an intent to pair environmental performance with material and spatial quality.

Amazon will judge DII5 against measurable outcomes: construction impacts, lifecycle carbon, cost, fire performance, durability and constructability. If mass timber and low‑carbon concrete deliver reliable emissions reductions without meaningful cost or schedule penalties, Amazon’s procurement scale could create immediate market demand for engineered wood and low‑carbon concrete alternatives, accelerating broader adoption.

The station builds on Amazon’s prior use of mass timber and lower‑carbon concrete at HQ2 and other flagship sites, alongside deployments of CarbonCure concrete technology across its portfolio. Together, these demonstration projects and procurement commitments signal a strategy of pairing technical proof‑points with buying power to shift supply chains and standards.

Under the banner “From Forest to Home – An International Dialogue on Emerging Consumer Trends and Supply Chain Innovation,” delegates will attend a single plenary session and four specialised sub-forums. Sessions will address timber legality and sustainability, blockchain-based traceability, green finance, and market innovations for the furniture and home furnishings industries.

“We aim to bridge policy and practice by bringing together government, industry and research leaders,” said Samuel Vira, Secretary-General of the ITTO. “By sharing case studies on certified wood products and advances in traceability, we can accelerate the shift toward legally sourced, climate-friendly timber.”

Running alongside the sessions, an exhibition will feature companies from Germany, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and China. Exhibitors will showcase certified wood products, low-carbon building materials and emerging traceability technologies, including the latest updates to the Global Timber Index and a blockchain-based Timber Tracking System. “This display highlights practical solutions that reinforce legal supply chains and drive down emissions,” said Elena Rossi, director of the Global Green Supply Chains Initiative Secretariat.

Macau’s role as host underscores China’s dominance in global timber markets. In 2021, China accounted for 18% of worldwide forest-product demand and 71% of Asia’s consumption. The country now imports more than half of its wood requirements—including sawn timber, logs, pulp and paper—and brought in 41 million cubic meters of logs and sawn wood that year alone, much of which is processed locally before re-export.

That is according to Dr Alastair Woodard, who last year spoke to the Wood Central Publisher about the importance of using “elemental prefabrication” to further activate the country’s 280-strong frame and truss industry. “Elemental prefabrication means fabricators work with builders off-site to add value and improve productivity,” he said. “It means we can build more homes quicker.”

It follows the rise of prefabrication and modular housing, which have garnered national headlines, as a growing number of innovative builders look to use timber-steel wall and floor systems to build detached and semi-detached housing at scale.

“However, simple factory add-ons—for example, pre-fitted vapour barriers, ready-to-install double- or triple-glazed windows, panelised cladding and insulation—can save time, cut risk and ensure quality,” Dr Woodward said. “For high-volume townhouse projects, floor-cassette systems offer rapid installation and a safer worksite—a no-brainer for any builder racing against time and budget.”

Timber Construct 2025 is aiming to “Reclaim the Frame”

Speaking to Wood Central today, Timber Construct organiser Andrew Dunn says this year’s conference is all about “Reclaiming the Frame.” “We’re calling on the industry to rediscover timber’s unique performance, cost and sustainability advantages,” he said, adding that Morgan Sandler will lead a deep dive into timber’s competitive positioning across residential and commercial projects.

Key case studies include:

• The Timber Counteroffensive: Recapturing Market Share – Bruce Wallis, The Truss Joint
• Transforming Residential Construction with Timber Beams – Robert Nestic, TGA Engineering
• Innovative Bracing Solutions in Houses – George Dolezal, Meyer Timber

TimberConstruct—Australia’s premier timber construction conference—takes place October 13–14, 2025, at Rydges Melbourne. “Early-bird tickets close September 26,” Dunn said. “TimberConstruct is more than a conference—it’s our moment to reclaim the frame and reimagine the future of housing in Australia.”