James Horne's latest posts

Glasgow City council achieved their silver pledge by using sustainable timber throughout a recent construction project with City Building (Glasgow) LLP. Heather Grassam, trainee planner from City Building, outlines the process they went through: “To meet the silver pledge commitment, Glasgow City council chose a City Building construction project where we could use sustainable timber [...]

WWF’s local authority timber pledge campaign has now come to an end, but for the councils who have signed up to a sustainable timber pledge, the work has only just begun. The campaign has been extremely successful, with 96 local authorities making 130 sustainable timber pledges between them – that’s almost a quarter of all [...]

Durham County Council have achieved the gold level pledge – the top tier pledge to monitor their buying of wood, paper and other tree-based products. (Tell your council you want them to do the same.) Jamie Thomas from Durham council talks about why they chose to do this – and why other councils should too… [...]

WWF’s local authority timber pledge campaign is really galvanising interest among councils up and down the UK! As we speak, 82 local authorities have made over 108 pledges between them, and I’m in contact with many more who expect to pledge before the campaign ends. Take a look at the list of who has pledged [...]

Falkirk council in central Scotland recently took our Silver Pledge to show their commitment to buying and using sustainable timber and paper products. (Is your council doing the same? Ask them to take the pledge.) James King from Falkirk council outlines the process they went through… “For our Silver Pledge we chose to focus on [...]

If I was to held up two pieces of wood in front of you, could you tell me which one came from a responsibly managed forest, and which was logged illegally? Of course you couldn’t – and neither could I for that matter! That’s the problem many people – and indeed local authorities – face [...]

Our campaigning has got local governments to make a real difference for forests around the world through their buying choices. In 2010 we launched our What Wood You Choose? campaign with WWF-Germany. The aim was to raise awareness of the economic, social, and environmental consequences of buying illegal and unsustainable timber and wood. We highlighted [...]

Some people are surprised that local authorities are such big consumers of forest products – namely timber and paper. It’s actually estimated that the public sector is responsible for around 20% of all timber purchased in the UK. Would you expect your council to be sourcing all its products responsibly – so they know they’re [...]