Masterspec
31 Mar 2026
Masterspec Specified: 211 High Street by Ignite
211 High Street transforms the iconic Excelsior Hotel site into a high-quality, sustainable, commercial mixed-use building. The ground floor features...
25 Mar 2026
Why AI Changes How We Trust Construction Specifications
AI has not created the risk of inaccurate or misused construction specifications, but it has made that risk faster, easier to scale, and harder to...
04 Mar 2026
2025 Building Code Update and Building Product Specifications
On 28th July 2025, MBIE's Building Product Specifications (BPS) document came into effect. This document, to be read alongside the Acceptable...
19 Nov 2025
Masterspec Specified: Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre
Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre stands as a landmark civic and cultural facility in the heart of Christchurch, New Zealand. Designed by Woods...
15 Oct 2025
Masterspec Specified: Air New Zealand Hangar 4 by Studio Pacific Architecture
The project was designed to meet Green Star environmental standards and includes advanced cladding, roofing, and mechanical systems tailored for...
10 Oct 2025
Bridging the Gap: Empowering Better Specifications for Builders
At this year’s Constructive Conference in Auckland, we asked every delegate we spoke with: “What can we do to improve construction documentation and...
24 Sep 2025
NECO₂ – New Zealand’s Embodied Carbon Repository Goes Live
New Zealand’s construction sector has taken a major step providing New Zealand-centric carbon data with the launch of the first release of NECO₂ – the...
22 Sep 2025
Masterspec Specified: Award Winning Bryndwr House One by AO Architecture
Tucked into a secluded rear site behind a mature, tree-lined driveway in leafy Bryndwr, this new family home forms one half of a pair of residences...
22 Sep 2025
Masterspec Specified: Award Winning Flockhill Sugarloaf by Hierarchy Group
Nestled in the remote Craigieburn Valley of New Zealand’s Southern Alps, Sugarloaf at Flockhill is more than a restaurant — it’s an architectural...
12 Sep 2025
Masterspec Specified: Award Winning He Whare Hono ō Tūwharetoa by DCA Architects of Transformation
In the heart of Taupō, a landmark civic building is redefining the relationship between architecture, culture, and governance.
08 Sep 2025
Masterspec Specified: Award Winning Terrace 12C by Bassett-Smith Architecture
Terrace 12C is a residential development located in Tauranga, designed to maximise site efficiency while maintaining architectural individuality. The...
08 Sep 2025
Masterspec Specified: Award Winning Miller Residences by Oliver Andrew Associates
In the heart of Auckland, the Miller Residences by Oliver Andrew Associates stand as a refined example of contemporary multi-unit housing — where...
01 Apr 2025
Document Referencing and Scheduling with eCert
Our editor team has updated all Masterspec work sections which have references to environmental documents. Where environmental document references...
27 Mar 2025
Update Manager New Features
The new Update Manager features are designed to boost productivity when applying changes to updated work sections. Simplify work section updates with...
03 Mar 2025
CIL is Now Accepting Product Carbon Data for the National Embodied Carbon Data Repository for Construction.
CIL Masterspec is now accepting carbon information in the form of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) or Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) from...
06 Jan 2025
Carbon 2025 and Beyond: Building a More Sustainable Future for NZ Construction
In July 2024, Construction Information Ltd (CIL) and the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ) announced a partnership to develop a...
01 Nov 2024
Introducing eCert: A Game-Changing Tool for Sustainable Construction
As the New Zealand construction industry increasingly focuses on sustainability and carbon reduction, there is a growing need for tools that can help...
26 Sep 2024
Masterspec Specified: Manawa House by Cube Architecture
"Masterspec has been an indispensable tool for our project Manawa House. During the specification, Masterspec streamlined our entire specification...
26 Sep 2024
Masterspec Specified: Award Winning Ligar Bay Bach by Young Architects
"Masterspec was used for providing a detailed, fully customised, specification as part of our comprehensive project documentation for the Ligar Bay...
25 Sep 2024
Masterspec Specified: Hilltop Home by Jon McAlpine Architecture
“Masterspec is a critical component in our studio. Its user-friendly platform and regular product specification updates, keep us constantly on the...

FSC SUSTAINABLE TIMBER IN MASTERSPEC

06 Oct 2017

The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) is a global, non-profit, independent organisation established to promote responsible and sustainable management of world forests.  FSC is headquartered in Germany but Certificate Holders can be found in 120 countries around the world, including New Zealand.

FSC Certifications are set up to give surety of compliant supply and process, these include:

FSC Forest Management (FM) Certification - A forest management unit independently FSC inspected and certified that it complies with the internationally-agreed FSC Principles.
FSC Chain of Custody (COC) Certification - COC certification applies to those who process, transform or trade forest products, providing a guarantee about the production and source of FSC-certified products and tracking the production and distribution of the products.

The major green building rating tools used in NZ, Green Star, HomeStar and Living Building Challenge, all use FSC timber in order to achieve certification.  A surprisingly significant number of NZ’s forests are FSC certified, so even if you have not specified FSC, it is quite possible you are using FSC timber in your building projects without knowing it!

Masterspec had already included FSC timber and certification in the formal green/sustainable sections for Green Star, HomeStar and Living Building Challenge. This month we have added FSC clauses to the Masterspec generic timber and timber related work sections, so that any project can specify sustainable timber if it is available. The FSC clauses are able to be added or subtracted by the Q&A download facility.
Further to this we are now in discussions with manufacturers/suppliers on Masterspec who have FSC products with the intent of including FSC clauses in their branded sections in the future.

To learn more about FSC and FSC NZ go to - https://nz.fsc.org/en-nz
New Zealand contact: Cyrielle Durand – c.durand@nz.fsc.org
To find out about FSC NZ suppliers go to - https://info.fsc.org/certificate.php
(Warning; this is a slow site)

International FSC www.ic.fsc.org