Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

VAUGHAN, ON – Living in environmentally sustainable communities is important to Canadians. That is why Canada is investing in advanced wood building design and construction that will help create a greener future while growing markets for Canada’s forest sector. The Honourable Judy Sgro, Member of Parliament for Humber River–Black Creek, on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, today announced an investment of $2 million over three years to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority for the construction of a four-storey mass timber office building in Toronto. This project will position Canada as a global leader in advanced wood building design and construction while expanding the Canadian wood market into non-traditional, low-rise office buildings. …Funding for this project is provided by Natural Resources Canada’s Green Construction through Wood (GCWood) program.

Timmins, ON – On August 15th, a group of Southern Ontario based architects, engineers, and union leaders will join representatives from Forests Ontario, local forestry companies, and northern municipalities on a tour of forestry and mill operations in Timmins, Ontario.  The tour enables individuals from across the wood-construction value chain – from forest management and extraction, to manufacturing, to design and construction – to discuss the sustainable nature of forestry operations in Ontario and wood’s standing as our only renewable building material.  The tour is co-sponsored by Forests Ontario, EACOM Timber Corporation, Rayonier Advanced Materials and Ontario Wood WORKS! as part of the It Takes a Forest awareness initiative. Forest industry representatives and northern community leaders will also be in attendance.

The mid-rise condo at the corner of St. Clair and Caledonia may seem like nothing new, but the SCOOP project by Graywood Developments is one of the city’s first six-storey, mixed-use, residential timber projects. For years, wood has been a popular design element for residential homes and showpiece commercial projects, such as the AGO’s Frank Gehry addition or the Mountain Equipment Co-op headquarters. Now, thanks to changes in Ontario’s Building Code, mid-rise buildings can follow the latest trend as well. Not only does lumber offer important environmental and cost benefits, architects and designers are starting to use wood elements both externally and internally to create a warmer, more natural look that appeals to many buyers. In the case of SCOOP, a 72-unit property, developers are using pre-manufactured, wood panelling from local suppliers to substitute for concrete and steel infrastructure elements. 

A building made primarily of wood conjures public fear of fire, but for a growing number of developers, it evokes opportunity. From constructing towering wooden condominiums, to timber college dormitories, to an entire neighborhood built from trees, experts in “mass timber” are creating buildings of the future.  Sidewalk Labs’ master plan for a futuristic smart city on the waterfront in Toronto includes an entire neighborhood made of wood, called Quayside, with 10 mixed-use building up to 35 stories.  The plan is audacious, considering that in the U.S., there are only 221 mass timber buildings in the works or fully built, according to the American Wood Council​’s Kenneth Bland.  In most U.S. cities, mass timber buildings, and specifically tall mass timber buildings, are a rarity, if they exist at all. …WoodWorks tracks CLT projects in design, construction and fully built. While not every building in design reaches completion, the numbers at every phase are growing.

ESPANOLA—With a deadline of 2021 looming for single-use plastics, the innovators at Domtar in Espanola have a plan to create a tough paper alternative for products as diverse as muffin cups and surgical equipment wrappers through its Stealth Fiber Technology—all while improving air and water quality and protecting jobs. To assist with those goals, the Canadian government is ponying up $28.8 million to help with the $57.5 million project, according to a government release. …Domtar’s project will involve commercializing its new Stealth Fiber Technology, which will produce stronger paper and allow for the production of innovative products that could replace single-use plastics when it comes to, for example, medical packaging and food wrap.

Northern Ontario wood will feed the province’s first cross-laminated timber (CLT) plant in southwestern Ontario. Patrick Chouinard, a co-founder of Element5, the operators of a proposed $32-million facility in St. Thomas, said the fibre sourced for their operation will come from the White River area. He said siting a CLT plant in Northern Ontario was their first option when they were deciding where the building was going to go. But after crunching the numbers, Chouinard said it made economic sense for the plant to be close to their customers. “Because of the cost of transportation, it was decided that the plant really had to be in southern Ontario where the majority of our opportunities are.” The Ontario government announced July 23 that it’s investing close to $5 million in the company’s automated plant and the 60 manufacturing jobs.

OTTAWA, ON – Energy efficiency in our homes and buildings reduces greenhouse gas emissions, increases comfort and saves money. …The Honourable Catherine McKenna… on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, announced investments totalling more than $3.5 million for Carleton University for two energy-efficient building research projects. The first project, with an investment of $3 million, will research ways to improve insulation and combat heat loss in buildings. …The second project, with an investment of more than $510,000, will develop cutting-edge software to help building managers monitor energy use and find good opportunities to reduce consumption, thereby reducing emissions and saving them money.

St. Thomas is in South-western Ontario. It is so southern that 150 years ago if you were taking a train to Chicago you would go through it because it was shorter to go over the top of Lake Erie than to go under it. …the nearest working forest is a couple of hundred kilometres away. So, logically, this is where the Province of Ontario is investing C$ 5 million in a factory making Cross-Laminated Timber. …The Minister of the Environment, Jeff Yurek, who totally coincidentally is also the Member of Parliament for the riding that includes St. Thomas, says “This investment will reduce carbon dioxide emissions.” The Minister did not tell us how much CO2 would be emitted shipping all the lumber from Northern Ontario to Southwestern Ontario and then back east to the Greater Toronto Area where it will all be used.