It’s durable, faster to build with than concrete, offers carbon sequestration, is regenerative and has a strength-to-weight ratio comparable to concrete. So why isn’t mass timber, being utilised in construction on a mass basis? The Engineers Australia Emerging Professional Engineer of the Year award winner has created the solution.
CEO and co-founder of CLT Toolbox, Adam Jones, has applied his technical and environmental engineering expertise to develop software that simplifies mass timber design. By providing a comprehensive suite of resources covering all aspects of the design process, it is enabling the creation of efficient designs that optimise the benefits of timber.
Buildings are currently responsible for 39 per cent of global energy-related carbon emissions: 28 per cent from operational emissions, the energy needed to heat, cool and power buildings. The remaining 11 per cent is from materials and construction. To date, two main materials have made it extremely difficult to reduce the built environment’s embodied carbon – concrete and steel.
The majority of engineers are still designing with these less sustainable materials, not just because they are more readily available, but because the software design tools needed to apply mass timber have previously not been easy or affordable to access. There has also been a lack of mainstream education for engineers on the many benefits of designing with timber, which are more than simply environmental.
“Right now, mass timber is the only material at scale that can be used to eliminate embodied carbon, but it isn’t being taught; there’s no software out there. Everyone is building Excel spreadsheets without an Australian standard, and it’s super confusing about how to actually design these buildings. Having noticed that there are clear problems, I thought I’d have a crack at solving them,” Adam reveals.
There’s massive potential for exponential growth in this industry. Locally, we have an exciting and fast-growing supply chain.
Far from being just another engineering design tool, CLT Toolbox boasts embedded education and automated design computations, allowing a beginner-level engineer to deliver expert-level structural designs.
“There are 10,000 structural engineers in Australia,” Adam says, “but I’d say only 20 to 30 timber specialists. CLT Toolbox is designed to educate concrete and steel specialists about the design of mass timber as an option for construction. Every engineer should have a range of skills in their toolkit so that when a client says they want a sustainable option, they can provide one.”
The CLT Toolbox has been recognised as the fastest and most economical way for engineering firms or individual practitioners to expand their skill sets and offer their clients the environmental and broader benefits of mass timber construction systems. The development and rollout of CLT Toolbox is yet another of Adam’s ongoing contributions to sustainability and structural engineering during his career. In recognition of his achievements, he was named Emerging Professional Engineer of the Year 2023 in Victoria. The judges noted his “infectious” passion for progressive engineering solutions.
He was also previously recognised as Future Green Leader of the Year by the Green Building Council of Australia in 2019, had a role in Rethinking Cement Report with Beyond Zero Emissions and has made educational contributions through interviewing leading timber global experts on the Timber Talks podcast. It is the world’s biggest timber podcast in the sustainable timber materials niche.
“Adam has been dedicated to helping engineers find a visible route to contributing to a more sustainable construction industry, helping engineers become champions of the decarbonisation movement at a critical time,” said Adam’s CLT Toolbox co-founder Ringo Thomas. In a previous role at Wood Solutions, Adam was the lead researcher for a team writing a design guide for Australian structural engineering for timber buildings.
Jones and his co-founder Ringo Thomas are set to continue with their expansion into the US and European markets this year, as they take their mission to make mass timber a mainstream construction material global. Their platform also includes a robust supply chain marketplace to enable designers to source the materials they need efficiently and sustainably, removing friction in the procurement process.
“There’s massive potential for exponential growth in this industry,” Adam affirms. “Locally, we have an exciting and fast-growing supply chain. NeXTimber by Timberlink is another major supplier that’s come online this year. Beyond that, we plan to expand professionally; we’re at the intersection between structural engineering and other professions such as acoustics and fire design.”