Lessons from the Activities of the Woodmiles Forum
Takashi Fujiwara
Chairman, Organizing Committee of the Woodmiles ForumMino-city, Gifu Prefecture, Japan（Yasuhiro Takiguchi, The Woodmiles Forum
Hidetomo Shiraishi, Kyoto Prefecture Government
Shuji Souma, Shimokawa Town Furusato Promotion Corporation,
Osamu Matsushita, Matsushita Lifestyle Institute）

SummaryJapanese people have consumed a large amount of wood imported from the remote corners of theworld. In order to shorten the transportation distance of the timber, thereby reducing theenvironmental impacts resulting from transportation, the Woodmiles Forum was launched in June
2003. The forum aims at the development and promotion of the woodmiles indexes, including “theWoodmileage CO2 for buildings” showing the quantity of carbon dioxide discharged intransportation processes. Recently the Forum started the Woodmiles Report Program, which
illustrates the environmental aspects of houses built from local timber by local house builders, using
the Woodmileage indexes, to support the marketing of the house builders. This paper clarifies thepossibility of the woodmiles indexes as a tool of communications of house builders with theircustomers.

1.

Foreword

Five years have passed since the Woodmiles Forum was established and started its operation in June
2003 in Japan to develop and disseminate indexes concerning the distances between the places atwhich timber is harvested and the places at which it is consumed [1] 1. The transportation distanceof timber to be used in Japan is a lot longer than that in other countries, and the distance has beengetting longer in recent years. Timber requires less energy consumption in its production processcompared to other building materials. Timber is expected to play an important role in the futuresustainable society as a recyclable and environment-friendly material. The extremely longtransportation process of timber, however, will cause problems in two aspects, namely,environmental load in the transportation process of timber and lack of interest of consumers in theenvironmental load in the place of production.
This article presents the activities of the Woodmiles Forum and discusses future possibilities, while
explaining the significance of activities to shorten the transportation distance of timber.

2.

Establishment of the Woodmiles Forum and its background

2.1 Characteristics of the use of timber in Japan
According to the statistics, Japan used a total of 88 million m3 of timber in 2006, of which 18
million m3 was domestic and 70 million m3 imported, with a self-sufficiency ratio of about 20%.
Timber was imported from North America, South East Asia, Russia, Europe, etc. Table 1 below
categorizes the importers of timber by distance from country of origin in order to compare thecharacteristics of timber importation by Japan with those by other timber-importing countries.
The U.S., the world’s largest importer of timber, and Germany, the largest importer in Europe, havebeen categorized along with Japan according to the distance from country of origin to makecomparisons, which reveals that the transportation distance of timber consumed in Japan isgenerally longer than that in other major timber importing countries.

Table 1 Timber Importation Volume of Major Importing Countries by Distance from Origin
thousand cubic meters
Distance from origin
Total import of timber-1000km
1000-8000km
8000km-

Japan

USA

52009 100.0%0
0.0%33393 64.2%
18616 35.8%

60357
55889
2845
1623

Germany

100.0%
92.6%
4.7%
2.7%

22790
9378
13074
338

100.0%
41.1%
57.4%
1.5%

Fujiwara, T. 2002

If we introduce the concept of“Woodmileage” (total transporting
distance that multiplies imported
quantity of timber and transporting
distances), though the quantity ofimported timbers for Japan would beless than that for the U.S.A., thewoodmileage for Japan would be
more than 4 times greater than thatof the U.S.A. (Fig. 1)
Moreover, it is pointed out that there
is a tendency for the transportation
distance of timber to be consumed inJapan to get longer[2]3.
2.2

400
３８

300
200
100

８
５

１
６

0

Japan

USA

Importaion Volume:
million m3
Woodmileage:
billion km m3

１

Germany

Figure 1
Comparison of woodmileage of imported
timber in major timber importing countries.

Transportation distance andenergy consumption in the transportation process of timber

Timber is said to be an
eco-friendly material
whose energy
250
consumption in its
186
Kg-CO2200
production process isextremely low. The
131
150
121
energy consumption in
103
86
100
the transportation
55
process has been
50
calculated and is shownin Fig. 2 for comparison.
0
The transportation route,i.e., from the place of
harvesting to the placeof processing in the
country of origin, thento the port of export, andFigure2 CO2 discharged on timber transportation to the Japaneseeventually to the port ofmarket and timber production process
import in Japan, and the(Source: Fujiwara, T. and the Woodmiles Forum 2005)
transportation method,
including railroads, ships, and trucks, have been assumed by the major country of origin thatexports timber to Japan. Each portion of the route distance was multiplied by the specific energy
298

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300

consumption of the respective transportation methods to obtain the transportation energy required
for the transportation of 1cubic meter of timber, which is compared with the energy consumption in
the production process.
It is apparent that the amount of energy consumed in the transportation process of timbertransported over a long distance is up to several times larger than that consumed in its production
process.
2.3 Establishment of the Woodmiles Forum and its objectives
As stated above, the long transportation distance of timber generally used in Japan, the tendency of
the above distance to get longer, and the environmental load caused by the energy consumed in thetransportation process and in addition, the fact that the forest trees planted en masse after WorldWar II are maturing and efforts to promote their use are an important issue as background factors,
the Woodmiles Forum was established and started its operation in June 2003 in Japan for theobjectives to develop and disseminate indexes concerning the distances between the places at whichtimber is harvested and the places at which it is consumed

3.

Activities of the Woodmiles Forum

For the achievement of its objectives, the Woodmiles Forum is active in three areas: ①
development of woodmiles indexes and tools; ② dissemination of woodmiles and establishment of
networks; and ③ collection and study of relevant information.
3.1 Development of woodmiles indexes
To achieve the above mentioned objectives the Forum developed a manual to provide a
reproducible and objective method of calculating the "Woodmiles Indexes for Building".
The manual revised in September 2006 defines the following four indexes for the evaluation ofbuilding construction.
Woodmileage(WM)
Actual distance covered in transporting timber of the applicable type (hereafter, applicable timbermaterials) from each place of harvest (timber type-specific woodmiles) multiplied by the respective
volumes of timber transported from each place of harvest (unit: km m3).
Woodmileage CO2 (WMCO2)CO2 emissions equivalent to the energy expended in covering the above distances according to thetypes of transportation used (road, rail, sea, etc.) for each form of timber (unprocessed or processed)(unit: kg- CO2).
Woodmileage L (L = linear) (BWML)
The linear distance from each place of harvest (timber type-specific woodmiles L) of applicabletimber materials to the site, multiplied by the respective volumes of timber transported from eachplace of harvest (unit: km m3).
Logistics Stops Knowledge Level (LSNL)
The degree, expressed as a proportion of the total woodmileage, of applicable timber materials forwhich knowledge of processing and storage stops on the way from each place of harvest to the siteenables the calculation of an accurate woodmileage figure.
3.2

Dissemination of woodmiles and establishment of networks (Collaboration with local
governments)
The Forum implements activities to use and disseminate the above indexes as tools to promotebuildings that positively use locally produced timber.
One of the good examples is the woodmiles evaluation of the “Konohana Dome” built by Miyazaki
Prefecture with the timber produced in the above prefecture. The Forum reported the results ofevaluation of the three largest wooden frame domes in Japan, consisting of the Izumo Dome in
Shimane Prefecture (1992), the Jyukai Dome in Akita Prefecture (1997), and the Konohana Domein Miyazaki Prefecture (2004), based on woodmiles indexes at the 2005 World Sustainable Building
Conference (SB05Tokyo). The three domes were built in different years. The Izumo Dome, whichis the first one built, is built with Douglas fir harvested and processed in Oregon, U.S.A.; the Jyukai
Dome in Akita Prefecture, the second one built, is built with laminated Sugi produced in the above
prefecture (part of the materials were processed outside the prefecture); and the Konohana Dome inMiyazaki Prefecture, the last one of the three, is built entirely with laminated Sugi produced andprocessed in the above prefecture. The above shows how the conditions to process timber produced
in Japan into large-section laminated timber have improved over time, and at the same time
provides the items for comparison concerning the environmental load in the transportation processof timber. More specifically, it has been revealed that there is a difference of nearly 1,000 tons of
CO2 emission in the construction of a large sized building, as seen in the difference between the
Miyazaki method and the Izumo method.[3]6The evaluation such as the above not only indicates the importance of woodmiles but also defines
the role of the Forum to assess the efforts made by local governments to recommend the use of
locally produced timber in terms of the environment.
Thirty two out of forty-seven prefectural governments implement measures to certify and positively
sell and promote local timber and the woodmile indexes contribute to the movement. Other thanMiyazaki Prefecture as stated above, Kyoto Prefecture, the birthplace of the Kyoto Protocol,
mandates that the the woodmileage CO2 must be displayed on timber produced in Kyoto Prefecture
to promote the dissemination of the use of local timber to citizens.
The activities of local governments to locally consume locally-produced products sometimes resultin an inward-looking attitude with possible confusion in boundary areas with other prefectures.
Collaboration between neighbouring prefectures is necessary. Accordingly, it is meaningful toclarify the significance of the use of locally produced timber in terms of environmental load.

4.

Houses built with timber harvested from nearby forests and the woodmiles
report

The importance of collaboration with local governments for the diffusion of woodmiles has been
discussed in the preceding text. Another important stakeholder for the diffusion of woodmiles is thehouse builders whose selling point is to build houses with timber harvested from nearby forests.
4.1 Trend of house building using local timber
The movement to build houses using local timber is spreading in recent years. About 130
collaborative networks of timber suppliers and house builders all over Japan have been registeredon the website that features the above activities[4]7. Moreover, local governments are providing
support for the above activities. In fiscal 2006, 38 out of the 47 prefectural governments provided
support in the form of subsidies and low-interest loans for the construction of houses using local
timber[5]8.
4.2 The subject of the woodmiles report
The Woodmiles Forum works collaboratively with house builders who are involved in the above
activities in their respective regions to implement a project to create a booklet titled the“Woodmiles Report” to explain to the users in an easy-to-understand manner the evaluation ofhouses built by the respective house builders using woodmiles indexes.
The following example is of the house built by S Housing KK active in the Kyushu region.
S Housing is a major regional house builder that builds about 200 new houses annually in the
Kyushu region. The company is committed to the rule that it offers houses built with nonengineered, air-dried timber, almost all of which has traceability, as raw materials and never uses
laminated wood or plywood.

Design of the cover of the report

Table of contents of the woodmiles
report
1-04：Background of woodmiles
05-06：Comprehensive valuation/
Woodmileage
7-08：Timber traceability
09-10：CO2 emission in thetransportation process

A show house of
S Housing was
made the subjectof the woodmiles
report. The
house is a twostoried wooden
house with abuilding area of
76.72 ㎡ and agross floor spaceof 134.76 ㎡.
The amount oftimber used is46.77m3.

Figure 3: Woodmiles Report on S
Housing KK

4.3 The format and the contents of the woodmiles report
The woodmiles report is cooperatively prepared by the Woodmiles Forum Secretariat and an
employee of the relevant company that is a certified engineer who attended the woodmiles engineer
training session for woodmiles evaluation. The timber used in the construction of the house will be
categorized into structural material, foundation material, carpentry material, finishing material, etc.
and a traceability check of the acquiring process is thoroughly conducted. The findings are put intoa chart with the results of calculation of the woodmiles indexes as stated above. In order to explain
the meanings of the figures to the citizens in an easy-to-understand manner, a comparison with acase where a house with similar specifications is built based on the most generally-used timbermaterial procurement policy is made.

TimberVolumeSubject of
the report

Woodmiles
Averagetransportation
distance ofused timber
Woodmileage
MAC ofvolume anddistance

Figure4: The woodmiles and woodmileage of the house built by S Housing
Woodmiles Report on S Housing KK (prepared in 2007)

Averagehouse using
averagetimber inJapanesemarketFigure 4 shows that the average transportation distance (woodmiles) of the construction of thisparticular house was 183 km, which is 1/38th the transportation distance of an average house(6983km).
4.4 Evaluation of energy consumption in the transportation process
Next, the woodmiles report shows the volume of carbon dioxide emitted in the transportation
process of the timber used for the subject house. The energy used in the transportation process ofthe timber used for the subject house expressed in terms of carbon dioxide was 1131kg. The
corresponding figure for an average house with similar specifications using average timber
distributed in the Japanese market is 5473kg, which means that the carbon dioxide emission of theformer is smaller by about 4342kg (4.3ton), as shown in Table 2.
Table 2 Comparison of carbon dioxide emission in the timber transportation process between
the house built by S Housing KK and an average house

Timber Volume m3
Average transportation distance km
CO2 Emission Kg

S Housing KK

Average houseusing averagetimber

46.7744183
1131

46.77446983
5473

Difference
46.77446800
4342

Figure 5 explains the above figures from a different angle, which can be said to be the core of thereport.

How large isthe reduction of
4342 kg ofcarbondioxide?

A reduction
equivalent to theamount ofcarbon dioxide
absorbed by 310
cedar trees in ayear

A reduction
equivalent tothe amount of
about 4,342
one meter indiameterballoonfuls ofcarbon dioxide

A reduction
equivalent tothe amount ofcarbon dioxide
emitted byburning 1,888
liters ofgasoline

Figure5: Woodmiles and woodmileage of the house built by S Housing KK
Woodmiles Report on S Housing KK (prepared in 2007)

A reduction equivalent to the amount of about 4,342 one meter in diameter balloonful of carbon
dioxideA reduction equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by 310 cedar trees in a year
A reduction equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by burning 1,888 liters of gasolineFurthermore, comparison was made with the emission volume of one household of 1.04 tons[6]9 ,which Japan committed to under the Kyoto Protocol, and with the figure in Cool Earth50[7]10, in
which the Japanese Government set as a target an emission reduction by half by 2050.
Figure 6 shows the results of the questionnaire survey of the participants of the seminar held after
the preparation of the report on how they evaluated the presentation on the relevant section. The
results show that the respondents found the comparison with the amount of fuel consumed daily inhouseholds very easy to understand.
Number of balloons
Easy to understandCedar trees
Litters of gasoline

Kyoto Protocol

Difficult to understandCool Earth

Figure6 Results of the questionnaire survey of the participants of the Woodmiles seminars
From now on, post Kyoto Protocol reduction targets will emerge newly, followed by the emergenceof internal targets based on them, and discussions will be made in detail for the establishment of alow carbon society in the future. The woodmiles report will offer various topics for presentations
such as the relation with the above reduction target figures.
Furthermore, the report shows the importance of establishing a mechanism that enables to feed backthe resultant saved energy as specific economic merits through the carbon offset system, etc.

5.

Conclusion

5.1 A new framework of measures against global warming and woodmiles
At the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP13) of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change held in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, an agreement was made on deep cuts inglobal emissions of GHG at an early date, focusing on the figures concerning the stabilization of
GHG density, which is the ultimate objective of the convention, for the establishment of theframework for the stage that follows the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol[8]12.
A reduction as significant as 45-95% from the base year by 2050 has become the target fordeveloped countries and not only the promotional activities by the government but also a largescale national campaign and an change of lifestyle based on improved awareness are required.
Accordingly, discussions are being made on tools such as emissions trading and carbon offsetting,but it is essential to accumulate basic carbon dioxide emissions data in our daily life in order for the
citizens to use the above tools effectively and initiate a large-scale social campaign.
It will be meaningful that the Woodmiles Forum has helped identify the environmental load of thetransportation distance of timber in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. The Forum’s activities so far
has mainly involved the steady dissemination of the indexes concerning environmental load of thetransportation process of timber. The Forum intends to go a step further for the possible
collaboration with the carbon offset and other new projects.

5.2 Possibilities of woodmiles
It is necessary for the establishment of a sustainable society, which is urgently required in the 21st
century, to analyze the various aspects of environmental loads from the entire lifecycle of products
and services and make the analysis results common knowledge for consumers to impact theirselection of merchandise. The woodmiles are attracting attention as a set of unique and easy-tounderstand indexes. The woodmiles indexes are, however, those of environmental load in thetransportation process of timber materials, which is just a small portion of the entire lifecycle of theabove materials, which are just a small portion of the entire building materials. Accordingly, it isimportant to use the indexes collaboratively with other indexes in the method of comprehensive
evaluation.
In that sense, we may say that the following developments are significant steps.
i) The proposals made by the Woodmiles Forum played a certain role in the definition of locallyproduced timber in the development of the Comprehensive Assessment System for Building
Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE, green building rating system in Japan)ii) Woodmiles Indexes are included in the risk assessment indexes of environmental loads onforests by place of origin in “the Wood Selection Guide,” which the Fair Wood Campaign isimplementing for the “diffusion of environment-friendly, socially-fair timber”[9]15.
The Woodmiles Forum will continue to gather and organize data to increase the reliability of thewoodmiles indexes themselves and work collaboratively with a number of persons concerned,
including academic researchers, who are working for the establishment of a sustainable society
through the use of sustainable timber to make the woodmiles indexes one of the comprehensive
indexes of environmental load.
-----------------------------------------[1] The Woodmiles Forum, “Bylaws of the Woodmiles Forum”,
http://woodmiles.net/english/bylaws.htm[2] T. Fujiwara, “Energy consumption due to transportation of wood and policy for local wood
promotion: Policy evaluation with the Woodmileage”, the proceedings of 2004 Conference of The
Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies (SEEPS) in Japanese[3] T. Fujiwara et al., “ENERGY CONSUMPTION THROUGH TIMBER TRANSPORTATION
AND THE WOODMILES -THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE WOODMILES INDEXES FOREVALUTAION OF BUILDING” SB05Tokyo (2005)[4] A total of 136 networks are registered as the data for those who “wish to build a house with local
timber” on the website titled “Database on house building, focusing on traceability” managed by
the Japan Housing and Wood Technology Centre at http://iezukuridb.howtec.or.jp/. (As of
December 2007)[5] Housing Department, Nagano Prefecture: “Results of the questionnaire survey on the support
system for house building, etc. using local timber in fiscal 2007.” (September 2006)[6] Under the Kyoto Protocol, the Japanese Government made a commitment to reduce greenhousegas emissions by 6% from the 1990 level during the first commitment period between 2008 and2012. The emissions in the household sector were 129 million ton in 1990, which had increased to
170 million tons in 2003. There are 17 million households in Japan. If the committed reduction
target under the Kyoto Protocol is allocated to the respective households, the amount of reduction
will be 1.04 ton/household, which is a total of 6% (8 million ton) of the base year and the increased
amount (41 million ton) divided by the number of households.
[7] In May 2006, Japan proposed the "Cool Earth 50" initiative, calling for a halving of global
greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
[8] UNFCCC COP13, “Bali Action Plan”(2006/12)[9] http://www.fairwood.jp/woodguide/index.html