Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

Connect with us and discover the growing possibilities of this centuries-old building material from tall timber towers and expressive long-span structures to new biomass and wood fibre products from BC’s sustainably managed forests. naturally:wood is a go-to information source where you can learn about BC’s forests and forest products. Developed by Forestry Innovation Investment, naturally:wood is a comprehensive information resource promoting British Columbia as a global supplier of quality, environmentally-responsible forest products from sustainably-managed forests.

A mass timber manufacturer has advice for anyone new to the growing building sector: Identify the end goal and work backwards to the project’s beginning before setting a plan in place. …Speaker Mark Wigston, of Western Archrib, told a webinar hosted by Wood WORKS! covering tips for managing mass timber projects. One of Western Archrib’s highlight projects was the recent renovation of Hayward Field, a world-class track and field facility at the University of Oregon in Eugene. …A top construction logistics priority was figuring an efficient order of installation to help limit “collision space” on the busy site for builders and to maximize crane usage. …Andre Lema, Western Archrib’s manager of business development, said the sustainability factor can give mass timber buildings an edge over other materials.

North America is experiencing a resurgence in the use of wood in construction with particular interest in building taller with mass timber. “Obviously there’s a mass timber wave – some might even call it a tsunami – that’s rolling across not just North America but Europe as well right now. But is this the flavour of the day or something that has staying power,” said Paul Fast, founder of structural engineering firm Fast + Epp. Fast was a speaker at Architecture Institute of BC Confab 2021 …The widely publicized The Case for Tall Wood Buildings by architect Michael Green and Eric Karsh of Equilibrium Consulting was a major step forward in popularizing mass timber construction. …“I think we can say with quiet pride here in B.C. that a lot of the interest in mass timber was generated not in small part to some of the work by B.C. architects,” said Fast.

Simpcw Resources Group Ltd and Paradigm Building Solutions Ltd have announced the forming of a joint venture to pursue a goal of creating net zero energy efficient wood constructed homes and commercial buildings throughout British Columbia. “We will jointly pursue business opportunities to supply open wall panels for the construction of homes and commercial buildings,” says a press release from Emily Bassett, Marketing Manager for Paradigm Panels. “Moreover, we will work together building homes that comply with the rigorous Step Code 5 energy standard.” Step Code 5 basically means that a house can produce about the same amount of energy (e.g. through solar) as it consumes on average per year. This net zero standard will become mandatory within British Columbia in the year 2032. …Brook Carpenter, Manager Business Relations at Simpcw Resources Group Ltd commented, “Together we will build a new generation of net zero efficiency housing for First Nations and third parties.”

A spike in lumber prices is making it even more expensive to build a house.  Vancouver Island Construction Association CEO, Rory Kulmala, says the skyrocketing cost of lumber isn’t just a B.C. issue. “This is a global crisis,” Kulmala said. “It’s not like we have a regional impact that causes a regional blip to costs, for instance, years ago, we saw a mill catch fire and reduce capacity. We had the mountain pine beetle. That reduced capacity. But we also remember that we have a global market for B.C. timber and there is a global need, particularly in North America for construction materials.” Kulmala said with a strong commercial and residential market comes a strong demand, “and our capacity just isn’t there.” He notes that the rising cost of wood is the result of a “confluence of several issues.”

Collective Carpentry, a manufacturer of sustainable, high performance custom homes in Revelstoke and across the region, received funding from the CleanBC Building Innovation Fund. The funding will support an investment in advanced production equipment to increase production quality and efficiency, contributing to greenhouse gas reductions. They manufacture wood-based, prefabricated, insulated panels for Passive House, Net Zero and other high performance buildings. Funding provided by CleanBC will supplement a planned equipment investment, coinciding with a move to a new, larger facility in Invermere in 2022. …“By incorporating Passive House design principles into our construction practices and eliminating some of the uncertainty associated with accomplishing these building envelope improvements on the job site, we can confidently deliver a beyond 50 per cent reduction in annual energy consumption vs. conventional approaches,” said Collective Carpentry co-owner Rane Wardwell, in a news release.

After years of complaints from builders, businesses and homeowners about Vancouver’s complicated and time-consuming permits process, the city is proposing the first of many planned sweeping reforms. The first round of changes recommends temporarily relaxing the city’s tree-protection bylaw and putting a pause on new standards for zero-emissions residential buildings. …If Vancouver doesn’t simplify its processes, the report noted, the city runs the risk of driving even more people to build and do renovations without permits. He said the city’s complex zoning system is the main problem in holding up development of more housing. “There are many hundreds of restrictions throughout [the system]. It takes 2½ years to get a permit for a four-storey wood-frame building.” …The mayor said he has heard that it has been difficult for builders to even find the products needed to meet the new-building standards.

ALBERTA — The story of one of the world’s most sustainably built homes begins 10 years ago, when Gerton and Joleen Molenaar began to explore upgrading their cabin near Cochrane. …They scratched their plans and brought in the team at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s Green Building Technologies and Woodpecker European Timber Framing to create a new design based on the Living Building Challenge — one of the most rigorous green building rating systems and sustainable design frameworks in the world. The recently completed 2,200-square-foot, three-storey home is currently vying for accreditation as one of the most sustainable green homes on the planet. …Biophilic design strategies that increase human connectivity to the natural environment through the use of direct and indirect nature, and space and place conditions… [and] reducing the build’s carbon footprint.