In the last month, Lucas Pereira took on the role of Commercial Manager at Noah. The company is a construtech specialized in constructions with engineered wood, better known as cross-laminated timber. The company was responsible for the newest sustainable unit of the McDonald's fast-food chain, inaugurated at the end of 2023 in the Paulista region.

Pereira joins Noah bringing his experience in large national and multinational companies in the engineering, services, and food retail sectors. The executive holds a degree in Production Engineering from the State University of Maringá (PR), an MBA in Project Management, with experience in store expansion, team coordination for project feasibility analysis, market studies, financial analysis, and risk assessment, among other skills. Pereira has worked with the GPA group, where he started as a project consultant and rose to the position of Senior Expansion Coordinator. His last position was as Administrative Director at Konstit, which provides engineering and technology services.

The REsource editorial team interviewed Pereira about the change. The executive describes this moment with feelings of enthusiasm and feeling positively challenged by the missions ahead: "I am excited about the opportunity to contribute to the development of the mass timber projects market, focusing on sustainability and advanced technologies, while being challenged with the task of efficiently accessing the various potential wood markets, seeking to break the paradigms associated with this construction method."

"Despite the notable advancements in this sector in recent years in Brazil, there are still segments unaware of its full potential, and one of my roles at Noah is to help disseminate the benefits of this construction technique," notes the executive.

In Pereira's view, the main barrier to be overcome for raw material to be incorporated into new developments is cultural: "I understand that there is still a path to be taken regarding people's acclimatization to this construction method. Promoting contact with buildings made of engineered wood, whether through constructions for retail - McDonald's, for example - or services - hotels, offices - will help break paradigms."

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The mission is very clear for the new executive. "Noah is very mature today, and over the years, it has developed proprietary technologies, implemented 100% BIM method in the 'tree to key' process management, created a strong repertoire of knowledge, projects, innovations, and has a very competent senior team. Alongside Noah's team, I intend to contribute to the expansion of the use of engineered wood in Brazil," he says.

"Introducing a solution like engineered wood to the market is a privilege," says Pereira. "In addition to the benefits of industrializing the construction process and the structural aspect, wood stands out in environmental preservation, design, aesthetics, user well-being, and comfort, involving very important factors during a decision-making process," he explains.

"Obtained through managed forests, meaning cultivated for this purpose, wood is a natural CO2 stock, contributing to sustainability and the rational use of natural resources. (...) When we think about the constructive advantages, the benefits multiply, for example: the industrialization of the process, parallelizing the making of parts with the execution of the foundation, allows for a much faster and more accurate construction; being a lighter structure, it demands less from the structural part of buildings, reflecting in savings and gaining internal space in environments," he adds.

Pereira believes that these reasons are strong for a rapid adoption of this construction method by the real estate industry. "These advantages of industrialized construction are essential for various categories and segments and based on the professional history I have been building throughout my career, I affirm that a large part of companies seeks these advantages when evaluating a new building," he concludes.