A Look at the Construction Supply Chain: Issues & Solutions

In recent years, the construction industry has faced a labyrinth of challenges, from towering demand to sticky supply chain issues, which have stretched the timelines for residential builds and reshaped the landscape of home construction. These hurdles have compelled professionals and homeowners alike to navigate a new reality, where delays are expected, and flexibility has become a cornerstone of project planning. Let’s examine the intricate tapestry of the construction supply chain, unravel the issues currently binding it, and stitch together solutions that hold promise for a more resilient future.

The pandemic continues to reverberate through the construction supply chain, altering how we source and use building materials. We’ll examine the reasons for supply chain issues, which products have been impacted, and the ripples they cause throughout a project. On the brighter side, we’ll redefine what sustainability means in the construction context—highlighting its role not just in environmental stewardship but as a keystone in building a supply chain that can withstand the tests of time and policy.

2024 Building Supply Chain Issues

More than four years later, the construction industry continues to grapple with supply chain shortages that began cropping up during the 2020 pandemic. With any system as complex as the building materials supply chain, these challenges are interconnected, often intensifying one another. Here are just a few of the major factors in construction supply chain disruptions that both professionals and homeowners are impacted by:

In 2020, the global market for raw materials, which once accounted for more than 50% of building needs, declined sharply as countries closed their borders and sent workers home. This in turn put more demand on local suppliers and quickly resulted in supply chain shortages.

At the same time, distancing requirements to help stop the spread of Covid-19 meant many construction companies and contractors were out of work. And while those restrictions no longer apply in 2024, businesses are still struggling to regain their workforce. For the past two years, the construction industry has held a 4.6% unemployment rate, higher than the 3.8% national average. To meet employment demands, the industry will need to hire an additional half a million workers on top of the normal hiring rate.

Both challenges come back to an increased demand for construction services. Not only is America short around 3.2 million homes, but people also began spending much more time at home during the pandemic. Remote work has continued into 2024 and homeowners are prioritizing offices, workout spaces, and more in their spending.

All this and more have come together to cause 2 main supply chain issues: higher prices and longer acquisition and project completion times. Construction input costs are up nearly 39% compared to 2020. Before Covid-19, building materials like steel and timber were typically delivered to project sites within two to four weeks of ordering. Now, those materials can take 12 to 16 weeks to arrive. From 2020 to 2022 the average time to completion of a single family home went from 6.8 months to 8.3.

The insulation sector has felt these shocks particularly acutely. Fiberglass, a staple of the industry, has faced shortages due to factory slowdowns and increased demand, a byproduct of the heightened focus on energy efficiency. Some fiberglass and sprayfoam manufacturers also suffered from sourcing raw materials from overseas. Cellulose insulation, reliant on recycled paper feedstock, has been hit by fluctuations in recycling patterns and consumer behavior. Meanwhile, mineral wool has butted against emissions quotas that limit production capacity.

Catalyzing a More Sustainable Supply Chain

These supply chain issues underscore a pivotal moment for the construction industry: a call towards sourcing strategies and materials that can ease the strain on the building materials supply chain and provide resilient, sustainable solutions. This critical conversation about supply chain sustainability is not just an environmental ideal, but a fundamental solution to systemic vulnerabilities. The challenges of today are a catalyst for materials and methods that can support the flow of resources even in the face of global disruptions.

What do We Mean When We Say ‘Sustainable?’

We’ll take a wild guess and say that when you hear the word “sustainable” you picture a verdant green farm, maybe a wind turbine or two silhouetted against the sky, or compostable packaging from your favorite take-out restaurant.

But in the nuts-and-bolts world of the construction supply chain, sustainability gets real practical, real fast. It’s less about a single attribute and more about a holistic approach—can we keep doing what we’re doing without hitting a wall?

Sustainability is about creating a rhythm in our production and consumption that can continue indefinitely. In our industry, this means finding materials that meet modern standards for durability and efficiency, can be reliably sourced, can balance fluctuations in cost, and consider their impact on the environment.

Achieving sustainability in construction isn’t—and likely won’t ever be—easy, as it requires the connection between so many complex factors. But the result, when we do move towards supply chain resilience, is the assurance that when we reach for materials, they’re there—not just today, but tomorrow, next month, and next year. And in these times, when the word ‘delay’ has become all too familiar, finding solutions that can mitigate supply chain issues isn’t just nice, it’s necessary.

Turning to Sustainable Building Materials

Sometimes we can find these solutions by looking to past technologies. While new to North America, wood fiber insulation has been perfected and used in European buildings for over 20 years, and of course, timber has been an ingredient in construction for far longer. Let’s discuss how this innovative, yet old technology can address some of today’s most pressing supply chain issues.

Our wood fiber insulation is made using leftover wood chips and wood waste from sustainable forest management and lumber production. Because the manufacturing of wood fiber insulation reroutes existing waste streams from the lumber industry, it is less subject to shortages in feedstock and can therefore support production that meets the high demands of today’s building industry. We work with local lumber mills, sawmills, and forestry businesses, further reducing the need for shipping and transportation that can be delayed by global supply chain issues. Fewer miles traveled means faster delivery times, fewer emissions, and a smaller carbon footprint.

These factors help keep wood fiber insulation cost competitive with conventional insulation products and less vulnerable to inflation caused by a broken supply chain. Remember, consistency and reliability are key to sustainability in construction.

To take the definition of sustainable building materials a step further, wood fiber insulation is also future-forward when it comes to building energy codes. With high efficiency, this insulation product will help professionals continue to meet changing standards in residential and commercial construction.

And yes, it’s got the ‘green’ piece too. Wood fiber insulation arrives at the jobsite carbon negative and helps store CO2 in our built environment much the way a living forest does. And unlike products made with glass, sand, and chemical for foam, wood fiber insulation is biogenic and biodegradable. Check our video illustrating the process of manufacturing wood fiber insulation to see how each element of production and use are interconnected.

TimberHP Impact Video from TimberHP by GO Lab on Vimeo.

This is all to say that sustainable building materials like wood fiber insulation are not one-size-fits-all solutions to modern supply chain issues. But the consideration of how our materials choices impact our environment, our needs for transportation, our costs, and the performance of our buildings is a big step towards supply chain resilience. Our need for more housing isn’t slowing down any time soon, and growing demand will only serve to exacerbate supply chain shortages. Together with other sustainable building materials and practices, our building projects can not only move faster but also further develop sustainability in construction.

If you’d like to keep up with emerging technologies and industry trends, consider subscribing to our email newsletter, or check out our events to further your learning in sustainable building materials. And as always, feel free to reach out to our team with questions about our products and how to integrate them in your next project.