POWER POLES TO PEOPLE’S HOMES
New Zealand’s construction and demolition industry is one of the largest waste producers in the country, but Christchurch man Martin Thompson is working to make a difference. He’s backing recycled timber as a way to help lighten the load on the environment.
The company he launched here in 2018, LMA Timber, has partnered with Queensland-based Kennedy’s timbers – one of Australia’s leading suppliers of reclaimed and sustainable architectural timbers – to realise the vision. Homeowners across Canterbury and New Zealand are jumping on board. Many old hardwood power poles, bridge beams, and wharf timbers from across the Tasman have already been repurposed for the local market to serve a new life as cladding, structural beams/posts, decking, and flooring.
“We’re taking premium old timber and using it all over again,” says Martin. “It is hugely carbon negative; by milling the timber to order, we are minimising waste, thus reducing our carbon footprint. With the hardwood being naturally durable at 40 years, plus there is also less of a need for ongoing oiling and staining.
Martin spent 12 years living in the UK, working in a fast-growing medical rehab/insurance company, before returning to New Zealand in 2015 to take up a project management and sales role with a local building company.
“I’ve always cared about the environment. Some companies put in place Homestar waste management programmes, but many builders here are still throwing everything into a skip – the waste is horrendous. Some 62 per cent of what is in our landfills comes from the construction industry. This is what started me thinking about how I could try and minimise some of that.”
Building industry veteran Keith Caldwell has joined forces with Martin in LMA Timber, providing synergies for growth through Keith’s other ventures, including Dyers Road ITM. LMA Timber is currently importing a container of milled, reclaimed and sustainably sourced timber from Australia every week and has a purpose-built showroom on Dyers Road.
While Martin would love to be supplying reclaimed New Zealand timbers as well, there is a very limited resource available with no equivalent supplier to that of Kennedy’s in this country. “Everything is milled to order over there, and they are reclaiming around 200,000 power poles a year, along with hardwood wharf and bridge beams. Currently, Kennedy’s have around 14 acres of reclaimed hardwood waiting to be repurposed!”
Ideal for cladding, decking, structural beams/posts and flooring in homes, Martin also sees a lot of potential for these timbers to be used in the school sector. As well as being intrinsically sustainable, he says denser hardwood cladding can be inherently bushfire resistant and could offer some protection against arson.
While LMA Timber is mostly importing reclaimed wood, a very small percentage of sustainably sourced timber is also being imported for the likes of decking and flooring. “This is fully certified sustainable non-tropical rainforest timber, and we know its full history, from seed to site.”
Martin and his wife Helena are parents to one-year-old son Flynn and hope that their efforts today will contribute to a greener future. In the community, Martin is also involved with local projects such as the Save the Jetty in Governors Bay.