Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

Mike Yorke’s opinion piece about building with mass timber is simply that – an opinion (“Wood could be the future”). Facts tell a different story. Yorke, and he is not alone in doing this, heralds the 18-storey Brock Commons in B.C. as an example of a highrise building made “almost entirely from wood.” Not really. What he leaves out is that Brock Commons is a composite building, with a significant amount of reinforced concrete. …Without concrete, the building would not be able to support itself.  …A new study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development finds that up to 72% of carbon emissions from wood may not be accounted for in current Life-Cycle Assessments. When these emissions are considered, concrete’s embodied carbon footprint could be up to 6% less intensive than that of wood products.

Mike Yorke

Over the past few years, Canada has seen a rise in the use of timber as a construction material for large-scale building projects. Just a decade ago, many viewed timber as a poor alternative to more traditional materials like concrete and steel. …I have watched with excitement as those arguments have been proven wrong and attitudes have started to change. This shift has largely taken place thanks to a better understanding of mass timber and its new applications. …When I learned that Sidewalk Labs intended to make extensive use of tall timber in their Quayside development proposal, I was especially thrilled. …In my decades of experience in carpentry, I’ve seen a lot of new opportunities for our economy and our future, but none in my view have had the same potential as mass timber. It’s time for Toronto and Canada to seize that potential.

The Honourable Bardish Chagger …on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, announced an investment of $800,000 for the University of Waterloo for the development of thin structured wood-plastic composites for use in construction, automotive and packing applications. This investment will use recycled plastics, reduce burdens on landfills and reduce the cost of production, while providing new market opportunities for Canada’s forest sector. Converting forestry waste materials into wood-plastic composites can reduce the use of carbon and other rubber components in production, which will provide both energy and cost savings. This project is funded by Natural Resources Canada’s Clean Growth Program, which invests in clean technology research and developmental projects in Canada’s energy, mining and forest sectors.

We have a housing supply problem. …We need more development within our urban core, especially on our traditional main streets. Most of these streets are zoned to permit six or eight-storey developments. This building scale is often referred to as the missing middle (#missingmiddle) and is faster to market: design to occupancy could be as little as one to two years, instead of five years or more for tall buildings. This matters when we’re talking about housing affordability. …There’s also a huge leap in construction costs and complexities going from low-rise housing to four-to-eight-storey buildings. For example, wood (as mass timber) can only be used in buildings of up to six storeys. And above three storeys, residential buildings require sprinklers. But go a bit higher, and building codes see little difference between a seven and 70-storey building. 

ST. THOMAS, Ontario – Element5 plans to construct Ontario’s first cross laminated timber plant in St. Thomas. The operation is scheduled to open in December 2020. The company said the new 125,000-square-foot facility “will house a fully automated CLT and glulam production line”. …Element5 said the operation will employ 50 full-time staff while creating an additional 240 new jobs in related manufacturing, sawmill, transportation and logging sectors. The $50 million project received almost $5 million in funding from Ontario’s Forestry Growth Fund. In addition, the government has committed to increasing the use of timber in the home building industry through the Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan and the Housing Supply Action Plan.”We’re grateful for the support,” said Frank Dottori, Industry Leadership at Element5.

Building with wood – especially mass timber products such as cross-laminated timber – “is taking off” in Ontario and it is a reason a group of southern Ontario architects, engineers and building union leaders toured forestry and mill operations in Timmins recently. “We’re starting to see architects, engineers and governments at all levels around the world recognizing the benefits of building with wood,” says Scott Jackson, of Forests Ontario, which helped organize the tour that included a visit to EACOM, which at 100 years of age is the region’s oldest and sawmill. …Jackson says the forest and mill operations tour in Timmins was part of the Forests Ontario’s It Takes a Forest awareness initiative.

Oshawa’s firefighter union has joined the city in calling for stricter regulations for wood-frame buildings. This past June, city council resolved to ask the province to review its guidelines for fire safety during construction of five and six-storey wood buildings, and make such guidelines mandatory for all wood buildings with more than four storeys. The move came after a large fire that erupted at an apartment building under construction on Bloor Street West near Park Road South. …Peter Dyson, president of the Oshawa Professional Fire Fighters Association (OPFFA) applauded the city’s resolution. “As the June 9 fire on Bloor Street West showed, fires in wood-frame buildings, in particular those under construction, burn unexpectedly large and hot, and have the potential to be extremely dangerous to firefighters and to the public,” he says. …Dyson says the OPFFA is offering its input to the city in regards to discussions on provincial legislation.

New construction techniques promise changes to the development industry, but materials interests should not be afraid. When it comes to building mid-rise, multi-family residential buildings, there’s a new kid in town. Wood-frame construction is already shaking up the development industry, prompting people behind the traditional ways of doing things to warn against embracing the new construction technique just yet. Is wood the new super-material that will take the purpose-built rental apartment industry into the future? Or are we unwise to throw out the old ways with the bathwater? …Around the year 2000, new construction techniques and new lumber products started to make wood a useful construction material in larger buildings. …The concrete and steel industries, fearing the loss of market share, have fired back, questioning the wisdom of changing the building codes, and questioning the safety and environmental sensitivity of wood as a construction material for mid-rise buildings.

Employees of EACOM Timber and representatives from Habitat for Humanity Canada gathered at the Nairn Centre sawmill last week for the official send-off of the last train loaded with lumber destined for Habitat for Humanity projects in Ontario and Quebec. For the third year, EACOM has partnered with Habitat for Humanity. The mill announced its donation of EACOM wood that would go to build sites in Ottawa, Grey Bruce, Thunder Bay and Montreal. Kevin Edgson, CEO of EACOM, joined Mark Rodgers, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Canada. …“We couldn’t do that work without generous donors like EACOM, who not only support our vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live, but work right alongside us to make it happen.”

There’s a four-storey, mass timber office building coming to Toronto, and it’s receiving $2 million in funding over the next three years from the Canadian government. The building will house the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s (TRCA) new administrative office building, and it will position Canada as a global leader in advanced wood building design and construction. Additionally, the completion of the project will expand the Canadian wood market into non-traditional, low-rise office buildings, according to the federal government. The funding was contributed as part of NRCan’s Green Construction Through Wood (GCWood) program, which aims to encourage greater use of wood in construction projects. Once completed, the office will be a net-zero energy­-efficient building.