Mass Timber Insurance Playbook
Confronting the challenges of securing insurance for mass timber buildings by creating an industry-accepted playbook for developers, investors and designers.
Simon Corbey
DirectorMass timber has the potential to reduce the embodied impact of construction versus more conventional materials such as concrete and steel. It is strong and light, and as a natural material, has a strong aesthetic appeal. But, especially since the Grenfell disaster in the United Kingdom, mass timber projects have sometimes faced difficulty securing insurance.
The Mass Timber Insurance Playbook has been developed by the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products and insurance industry experts Philip Callow, Mass Timber Risk Consulting and Jim Glockling to enable a collaborative approach between construction teams and insurers, opening the door to more equitable insurance for mass timber buildings.
The Mass Timber Insurance Playbook is a direct response to the challenges developers have faced, providing guidance for all parties involved in arranging insurance – for both development and operation of projects.
The Playbook was written by insurance and building resilience specialists, to help stakeholders in the insurance and construction industries to understand each other’s priorities and language. The aim is to enable constructive communication, to help overcome gaps in understanding that sometimes hold back mass timber construction.