As mass timber and emerging bio-based materials gain more traction, a key barrier to scale remains securing insurer confidence. Uncertainty around risk can translate into higher premiums, stricter underwriting requirements, financing challenges, and project delays. This workshop will explore how project teams can proactively address these concerns by understanding how insurers evaluate risk, generating the evidence needed by underwriters, and embedding risk mitigation strategies early in the design process.

This workshop will explore:

• Clarifying how insurers assess emerging materials such as mass timber, hemp, bamboo, and other emerging bio-based composites, and the specific data required to validate long-term risk performance
• Aligning developers, contractors, manufacturers, and insurers early in the project lifecycle to reduce risk, avoid late-stage cost impacts, and improve project outcomes
• Using performance data, claims evidence, fire protection strategies, and codecompliant design to strengthen underwriting certainty and accelerate market acceptance of low-carbon construction materials