Who: Please join us in welcoming Dr. Richard Vlosky from Louisiana State University. Dr. Vlosky is a UW alumni and is the Crosby Land & Resource Endowed Professor of Forest Sector Business Development at LSU. He is also the Director of the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center. 

What: Guest lecture on Cross-Laminated Timber in the U.S. South
Where: Condon Hall | Room 803 or attend virtually
When: March 31, 2025 | 10:00 – 11:30a.m. PST
Event Details (SEFS Calendar)

CINTRAFOR will also be hosting 1:1 sessions with Dr. Vlosky from 1:30 – 3:30p.m. These can be in-person in room 434 at Condon Hall or virtually via Zoom. To schedule time with Dr. Vlosky, please contact Indroneil Ganguly at indro@uw.edu. 

Lecture Abstract: 

Cross-laminated Timber (CLT) was first manufactured and used in building construction in Europe in the early 1990s, although product development goes back to 1980s with the first patent from France. CLT was later introduced into North American building markets in the early 2000s. The first CLT manufacturer in North America started production in 2010 in Canada, followed by the U.S. in 2012. North American (CLT) production and use in building has grown significantly in the Pacific Northwest and eastern Canada, while CLT manufacturing and construction in the U.S. South using southern yellow pine (SYP) has been on a slower trajectory. The literature is sparse regarding drivers, perceptions, awareness, and potential involvement in the CLT supply chain in the region. Given this, in 2018, a study was conducted at the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, to better understand the dynamics of CLT market knowledge, perceptions, and adoption targeting influencers – architects, engineers (architectural, civil, and structural), non-residential builders, and CLT feedstock providers – sawmills. Regarding influencers, overall, the most important characteristic when specifying/using structural construction materials was ‘Structural Performance’, and the most specified/used wood products were oriented strandboard and structural plywood. Last on the list of wood products was CLT. Only 3% of respondents said they were very familiar with CLT and 7% had used or specified CLT. With regard to softwood lumber manufacturer respondents, 12% said they were very familiar with CLT and 4% had sold to a CLT manufacturer. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they knew nothing about CLT manufacturers in the U.S. We also examined barriers to adoption, desired information, and potential to participate in CLT supply chains.

We are currently replicating the 2018 study using the same survey instruments being sent to the same respondents. The current study will provide another snapshot of where the CLT sector currently stands. More importantly, this temporal approach, with a 5-year span between studies, will identify quantifiable changes across myriad CLT market-based constructs in the U.S. South.

Dr. Vlosky’s Bio: 

Richard Vlosky is Director of the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center and Crosby Land and Resources Endowed Professor in Forest Sector Business Development

at the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge.  He received his Ph.D. in Wood Products Marketing at Penn State University, an M.S. in International Forest Products Trade from the University of Washington and a B.S. in Natural Resources and Forest Management from Colorado State University. His areas of research include: Stakeholder Interactions with the Forest Industry, Mass Timber/Cross-laminated Timber, Wood-based Bioenergy, Innovation, Marketing and Business Development, and the Marketing-Economic Development Interface. Over the past 35 years he has authored or co-authored over 160 refereed publications, 22 book chapters and 4 books, and has made nearly 600 presentations on a variety of topics in the U.S. and in 33 countries. Dr. Vlosky is Past-President of the Forest Products Society and current Board Member of CORRIM (Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials).

Dr. Vlosky previously was: Product Line Marketing and Planning Manager, Plum Creek Timber Co, Seattle , WA; Database Manager, Center for International Trade in Forest Products (CINTRAFOR), University of Washington , Seattle , WA; Vice President Sales and Marketing, Optical Data Systems, Inc., Vancouver , B.C. and General Manager, Bar Tech International Coding Systems, Inc., Vancouver , B.C.

Internationally, he is current Scientific Board Member and Past-President of WoodEMA, the Association of Wood Processing and Furniture Manufacturing based in Zagreb, Croatia, a Fellow in the Institute of Wood Science in the United Kingdom.  He is on the Advisory Board for the Center for Sustainability in the University of Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. For 10 years, he was the Leader of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Team of Specialists on Sustainable Forest Products. He remains a Team member as well as being an Outside Expert on the (UNECE) Wood Energy Team.