Millions of tons of urban wood are wasted annually across the country, much of it ending up in landfills, releasing carbon back into the atmosphere as the wood rots slowly away.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Enter the urban wood movement.
At its core, urban and community wood utilization diverts wood from waste streams and landfills, creating value, driving new markets, generating employment opportunities, and storing carbon in wood and wood byproducts previously destined for landfills. The wood comes from two main streams: 1) trees coming down in urban and community areas and 2) wood salvaged from building deconstruction.
Converting wood “waste” into a supply chain builds local wood economies, creates jobs, stores carbon, and provides innovative climate solutions and community resiliency. Each product and business built around urban wood creates a story that connects trees in our communities to homes and people in a tangible way. Thank you for being part of this movement.
To support the debut of the promotional films, social media campaign and virtual urban wood workshop lecture series, we've prepared a partner empowerment toolkit. We held a partner prep webinar to walk through the films, the social assets, and the wider communications effort around showcasing urban wood utilization. The recording is available here (Passcode: FjTq9t.X)
The assets, language, and calls-to-action contained in this toolkit are designed to help contextualize and celebrate urban and community wood utilization, showcase regenerative systems and integrated economies that are scaling up around the country – and amplify the collective role we all play in turning Trash to Treasure.
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To help tell your part of the urban wood story, here is a library of information and tools, including:
- links to available resources
- scientific subject matter
- continuing educational opportunities
- blogs
- promotional videos
- full partner interviews, and
- social media assets.
The social media assets can be placed on your channels as-is, or with your own powerful message layered overtop.
What makes you #forestproud of the role you play in growing this movement to its true potential? It's time to bring this story to the world! So, tell the world! Or, tell a friend. Tag your boss, tag a valued partner. Oh, and tag us... we'll share it too.
Feature Films
The story of potential. We know urban wood offers immense potential to revitalize urban and community centers, and build resilience for people and planet. These films are intended to provide an entry point to the concept of urban wood utilization, and capture the enthusiasm, energy, and potential of urban wood as a way to rethink our carbon future, reimagine our cities, and reconnect people and urban forests.
Film is a powerful storytelling method, and we're excited to build understanding about urban wood through these films. With understanding comes engagement and action. These feature films will serve as the entry point, but we're providing a wealth of tools & resources to engage with viewers introduced to urban wood and for viewers interested in taking a deeper dive into the movement.
Each film item contains: a synopsis, best practices for sharing, and blog content that provides additional context and calls-to-action for film viewers.
PSST: We've also created a trailer and some teasers/reels for each film, available in the social media section! Short and sweet.
Film 1: Urban Wood | Recover, Reuse, Regrow.
Synopsis: Designed to help people unfamiliar with what urban wood is, where it comes from, and why wood waste is a problem begin to understand the big picture behind the urban wood movement.
How to Share: We recommend showcasing the video by sharing the Film 1 Blog link below. The blog link will contain the video embedded on the page, surrounded by relevant context & scene-setting. You can add this link to your social media bio, include it in your newsletter, or link to it within your website or additional communication methods.
If you'd like to send users directly to the video viewer on Vimeo to view, or download the file / grab the embed code for your own use, you can do so from the Vimeo link below.
Best Practices:
- For captions and accessibility, please click on CC for closed-captioning.
- Whenever possible, default to sharing the blog link rather than the video link. This will properly position engaged viewers to take the next step.
Film 2: Urban Wood | Recover, Reuse, Regrow.
Synopsis: Showcasing the scale and potential of urban wood utilization.
How to Share: We recommend showcasing the video by sharing the Film 2 Blog link below. The blog link will contain the video embedded on the page, surrounded by relevant context & scene-setting. You can add this link to your social media bio, include it in your newsletter, or link to it within your website or additional communication methods.
If you'd like to send users directly to the video viewer on Vimeo to view, or download the file / grab the embed code for your own use, you can do so from the Vimeo link below.
Best Practices:
- For captions and accessibility, please click on CC for closed-captioning.
- Whenever possible, default to sharing the blog link rather than the video link. This will properly position engaged viewers to take the next step.
Supporting Assets
We've compiled a set of supporting assets in this section of the kit.
All supporting assets are rooted in the films, and have been produced and grouped in order to streamline sharing. Download to support sharing the films, or to showcase your own work and how you’re part of this movement.
Newsletter
Ready to send your e-blast? Find assets, copy, and links to build out your content below:
Social Media
Looking to join the conversation online? Find images, captions, and suggested hashtags below:
Film Teasers & Trailers
Bite-sized pieces of the feature films to add to your content or build intrigue with your audience(s).
Trailer 1: Urban Wood. Recover. Reuse. Regrow.
Trailer 2: Urban Wood. For People + Planet.
Teasers
Teaser clips are 10-15 second edits that work well as advertising placements or in social media channels as reels. Teasers are packaged by film and by messaging in groups of two to three clips each. To view the teasers, please download the zipped folders below:
CA Urban Wood Academy Interviews
Thoughts from the Academy. Some of you attended the CA Urban Wood Academy in December 2022. We sat down one-on-one with several of you to chat about your thoughts on the potential for urban wood to reimagine our cities. Small snippets of these interviews are featured in the films but there's so much more to say about urban wood! If this is you (or someone you know!) feel free to share your thoughts with your colleagues, friends, and employers. Scroll through these interviews in the gallery below or go directly to Vimeo, to download and share.
Continuing Education Credits | SAF + ISA Virtual Workshop
Insights and learnings from the Academy. In December 2022, the CA Urban Wood Academy was held but space was limited. The range of topics and expertise at the Academy was so valuable that CAL FIRE and the USDA Forest Service provided funding to capture the educational highlights. We're pleased to share a full 6.5 hours of high-quality FREE educational content, cut down and packaged into a virtual workshop learning experience via a series of presentations, hosted on SAF ForestEd.
This workshop lecture series offers the opportunity to earn 5.5 SAF and ISA continuing education credits. This virtual workshop is for anyone looking to build or refresh knowledge around urban wood utilization and how the wood product supply chain is key to making significant environmental, social and economic impacts on communities of all sizes. The information presented here ties together urban and community forest management, plans for reducing tree waste, scaling up urban wood utilization and production, creating zero-waste biomass campuses, and connecting to the demand-side of the marketplace.
Please share the workshop series link with people who express interest in learning more after viewing the promotional films, and with folks in your networks who are already engaged and looking for a deep dive into urban wood utilization and emerging best practices. .
This urban wood workshop lecture series is provided free of charge through a grant from CAL FIRE in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service.
Other Resources + Links
Videos | Media Coverage | Articles Here's a smattering of what others are saying about the urban and community wood movement related to trees at the end of their life.
- USDA Forest Service Research. Annual biomass loss + potential value
- Vibrant Cities Lab: Urban Wood Use Action Guide
- Science Direct: Life cycle assessment of utilizing freshly cut urban wood: A case study
- USDA Forest Service: From Waste to Wealth: Developing & Financing an Urban Wood Economy
- Quantified Ventures: Urban Wood Public Private Partnership
- Source NM: Felled city trees could grow a new lumber economy
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Local aficionados building a market for 'urban wood'
- Nature's Packaging: Urban Forestry + The Urban Sawmill
- Nature's Packaging: Urban Forest Wood-An Innovative Look at Recycling
Videos | Media Coverage | Articles Here's a smattering of what others are saying about the urban wood movement from a salvaged/ recovered from deconstruction front.
- USDA Forest Service Research. Annual biomass loss + potential value
- #forestproud partner kit | RECLAIMED. The Urban Wood Project
- USDA Forest Service: The Baltimore Wood Project
- Room & Board Video: Salvaging Baltimore with the USDA Forest Service
- NBC: New Baltimore Program aims to help communities by salvaging wood from vacant homes
- USA Today: Baltimore is mired in crime. Could part of the solution be found in reclaimed wood?
- Treesource: Foresters, furniture makers, city leaders create 3rd life for Baltimore's urban wood
- Vibrant Cities Lab - Case Study: Creating Jobs with Salvaged Wood
- Chesapeake Tree Canopy Network: Baltimore: Reclaiming wood, lives, and communities
Contact Us
Something not working? Have a question? Need help crafting the perfect post?
Feel free to reach out directly to Rae at rae@forestproud.org or Jen at jen@uweconomy.org.