Wood Protection Association
2020 Awards
Held on-line: 15th October 2020, 1pm
Awards event sponsors:
Thank you and congratulations!
We'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended the live online 2020 WPA Awards event held on Thursday 15 October. Congratulations go out to not only the winners but all those who were shortlisted.
Moving the event online meant that over 60 WPA members and guests could still gather together safely to see WPA Chief Executive Gordon Ewbank host a review of the finalists in each of the five Awards categories and announce the worthy winners, mostly chosen by a panel of judges comprising Ed Suttie, head of sustainability at BRE; Sally Spencer, editor, TTJ Magazine and WPA CEO Gordon Ewbank.
Now in their sixth year, the Awards have become a popular annual event which showcases wood protection technology as a relevant and vital part of the timber industry.
Sponsorship
From the call for nominations to the after-event promotion the whole WPA awards process is funded by sponsorship. As all businesses continue to grapple with the challenges and uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic WPA would like to thank all of the sponsors whose continued support of the WPA Awards through this roller coaster year has been invaluable.
And the winners are...
Wood Protection Project of the Year
sponsored by Wolman BASF | Winner Woodsafe
Awarded for the Wood Hotel in the Norwegian town of Brumunddal.
The exterior of the hotel's tower is clad with 150 cubic metres of ‘Thermowood D’ treated with Koppers Exterior FireX. Gordon Ewbank said "The Wood Hotel is a fantastic advertisement and endorsement for wood as a viable and sustainable construction material".
Treated Wood Trader of the Year
sponsored by Impra | Winner James Jones
The treated wood trader of the year Award is all about customer service best practice.
The judges were struck by how hard the company works at maintaining this reputation by developing strong relationships with its suppliers, its customers and through the loyalty of its employees.
Quality Excellence
sponsored by Lonza | Winner WJ Timber Treatment
This award is exclusive to those treaters who produce preservative or flame-retardant treated wood under the WPA Benchmark or FR Build third-party quality assurance schemes.
The 2020 Award was won by WJ Treatments, Rochester for its FR Build operations.
The independent quality assurance of treated wood is now widely seen as a key factor in growing demand for enhanced performance wood products.
Innovation Award
sponsored by Accsys | Winner IRO Timber
This Award is a showcase for new ideas, new products and more effective ways of doing things that add value from a wood protection customer’s perspective.
The judging panel were extremely impressed with the originality of the product, along with the combination of performance and a novel, attractive look. Award nominations often have two of these characteristics but to have all three in one package meant that IRO Timber stood out from the rest.
Outstanding Contribution
sponsored by WPA | Winner Willie Clason
This Award recognises the important role that individual people play in the success of a business operating in the wood protection industry or the industry itself.
The award went to Willie for the key role he has played over many years influencing the development of the wood preservation sector on both a national and EU level.
We'd also like to say well done to Phil Emsley who was also nominated for the award, it was a very tough decision as he too was a very worthy candidate.
New and unique 2020 Award trophies
This year the winners received a unique award created from Abodo, a modified wood product from New Zealand now available in the UK. We would like to say a huge thanks to Glenalmond Timber – WPA member and UK distributor of Abodo products, who very kindly produced the Awards for us.
Special thanks go to Richard Pinner who performed some amazing mind blowing tricks for us that we're still wondering about now!