Traceability & Transparency
Procurement Options
Resources
Project Phases

Procurement

As projects go out for competitive proposals, criteria established at the concept, SD and DD decision points will be instrumental for communicating project goals and priorities to potential trade partners. Procurement goals may be both signaled and vetted by:

  • Collecting data from potential trade partners and comparing against established criteria/metrics.
  • Awarding contracts, considering cost and other CSW quantifiable criteria. Utilizing a weighted scoring system that assesses this data against the project goals is one way to establish a trade partner selection criterion.
  • Of course, relationships that have been cultivated earlier in the project may also mean direct awards because of specific outcomes they’re able to point to that directly aligns with project goals.

Recommendations

Wood procurement typically occurs concurrently with the end of the Design Development or early Construction Documents phase, though different timelines apply depending on contract delivery method and project timeline. A procurement commitment to CSW mass timber will likely need to be made on the order of 8 months prior to the start of erection of mass timber (depending on overall quantity of material being procured and level of disclosure being targeted). A procurement commitment to CSW for sawn lumber (ex. stick-built applications), interior or landscape elements can potentially be made later in the project timeline, but it is important to keep procurement goals in mind when making vendor selections.

Early involvement from the general contractor, and/or a CSW advisor, as well as the manufacturer/supplier, allows project teams to maintain a connection to the upstream supply side of procurement – potentially even learning when wood is being harvested in the forest. Staying this connected can be inspirational for the broader project team and helps to set up storytelling potential that the broader community may find interesting.

This early involvement is often made possible by collaborative contract delivery methods such as Design-Build and CM-GC. It is less possible in a more traditional design-bid-build arrangement where the general contractor (and all of their subcontractors) must bid on the construction documents of the project, meaning engagement doesn’t even begin until right at the end of design. Although this is a real challenge, and can be common with public projects, the design team can mitigate the potential obstacles by engaging with the supply chain on their own throughout the design phases. There are risks that the prevailing construction team may have a very different sourcing strategy in mind, but if the groundwork has been laid and the specifications are clear with intention, projects can still successfully source CSW.