If wool, why not wood?

On 9 April 2025 Cabinet agreed to amend Rule 69 of the Procurement Rules to require government agencies to use wool fibres where practical and appropriate in government buildings.  This is great news for the New Zealand wool industry, but why not for wood?

For many years now NZTIF has been lobbying government to require government buildings to be constructed of wood where conditions permit.  We acknowledge that the present procurement rules do indirectly recognise the benefits of using wood in areas such as reducing carbon emissions in building and construction, sustainable construction and whole-of-life.  However, there is no overt requirement such as the recently announced direction in respect of wool.

Responses from government over the years have been that they do not wish to favour one building material over another.  Well, the wool directive puts paid to that and we see no reason for any further procrastination by government to introduce a similar requirement for wood.

Wood has all the necessary attributes to meet sustainability, climate change, life cycle and waste management prerequisites as well as meeting commercial imperatives.  Additionally wood technologies are available to designers to specify wood use in most areas of building and construction.

We urge the government to recognise the benefits of wood in construction and to act now by making the necessary amendments to the procurement rules.