Announcements
BC Wood Specialties Group 2020-21 Annual General Meeting

Tuesday, June 29th, 2021 from 13:30 – 14:30
Zoom Virtual Meeting
 
BC Wood will be holding its' 2020 Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, June 29th on the Zoom virtual meeting platform. All BC Wood members are invited and encouraged to attend.
 
To register or for more information, please contact me directly at  bhawrysh@bcwood.com or by phone at 604-882-7100 (toll free 1-877-422-9663). We look forward to having you join us for BC Wood's Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, June 29th, 2021 13:30-14:30.
BC Wood’s New Membership Programming Combines the Best of Virtual, In-Person and Hybrid Platforms
  • NEW North America Based Membership Option
  • NEW Multi-Year Membership Activity Bank - A significant source of value and a major change in our offering
  • Access to the best virtual business matching-making programming in the industry.
  • A full slate of cost-shared in-person trade events ready to go as COVID-19 restrictions ease
  • The most actionable list of client contacts in Canada, the USA, and East Asia
  • Quality educational programming tailored specifically for the value-added industry
  • Your voice on access to fibre issues
The Global Buyers Mission™ (GBM) Continues for September 2021
BC Wood is pleased to announce that the Global Buyers Mission (GBM), the largest and most important wood show for international buyers and Canadian sellers of value-added wood products—is now scheduled for Asian Market Buyers September 14-15, and North & Latin America Market Buyers, September 29-30, in a highly productive virtual format. 
 
After the last GBM, it was determined that the most productive time was spent in the pre-scheduled face-to-face video meetings. Therefore, the format for this coming GBM will be solely based on B2B Building Connections* meeting schedules. Buyers and Mission Leaders will have advanced access to the online company promotional materials, to facilitate the scheduling of meetings that will take place during the live events. Industry participants in turn will have access to all the attendee listings for pre-and-post event outreach.

BC Wood Export Readiness Training Program 2021-22 - Starting June 29th

BC Wood is pleased to announce the 2021-22 Export Readiness Training Program (ERTP) starting June 29th. This program is created to assist value-added wood products companies to profitably increase export sales and diversify markets. Targeted markets include the Western United States, Japan and Korea, through newly developed export readiness training. The nine-module program will happen Tuesday mornings from 8:30 - 10:0 PST, and is open to wood products manufacturers from across Canada.
Wood First
Wood First: General Assessments

General Assessments are a free, confidential conversation with BC Wood that will help identify the specific areas limiting your company’s growth. Typically, there are three general areas of concern for most value-added wood manufacturers: Marketing and/or Business Development, Technical Expertise, or Product Development and Design.

Once the assessment has been completed and gaps to growth identified, we will work to develop programming intended to build the skills and capabilities within your company. BC Wood can help by providing cost-shared professional business development services at your company level, or to groups of companies with like needs, either related to business organization, marketing, product development, or enhancing manufacturing processes.

For now, all assessments are done virtually, but once it is safe to travel, we would be happy to meet you at your place of business! Please contact Kit Crowe at kcrowe@bcwood.com to arrange your general assessment.
TWIG Monthly on July 13th from 7-9 pm online via Zoom. 
Patrick Christie | info@twigbc.ca

At the root of it, Innovation in TWIG is defined as a result of connectivity. When individuals, companies, and organizations are aware and in touch with one another, they can begin to explore working in new ways together. The outcomes of that innovation are defined by the quality of the relationships of those working together, and the purpose driving the key stakeholders involved.  

The focus of the Monthly meeting on July 13, and Aug 10 is around people who have companies that have developed an idea and manufactured it, either through partnerships or established production capacity. There is a need province-wide to think “Outside the Box”, in terms of how we can add value to 2nd, 3rd, and future growth forests, and the TWIG Monthly sessions aim to highlight how people are connecting the dots in different ways and working collaboratively with local industry and communities to foster economic development through developing new markets. 

On July 13 - meet Monty Chong-Walden of Calmura Natural Walls, developer of a modular wall system that uses waste wood that allows you to build smarter and healthier homes.  

The Wood Innovation Group (TWIG) is creating an industry-leading forest products innovation ecosystem, rooted in Wood Science, informed by Craft that highlights Design, Art, Invention, and creative thinkers in working with locally available fibre. The TWIG Monthly event is a recurring get-together to connect on topics, projects, and ideas that bring sustainable and considered value to the forests of BC. Each event has a featured guest who is invited to tell their story on the why and how behind what they do, followed by a group discussion. 

Information on our events can be seen at twigbc.ca/monthly. You can attend a meeting, get updated information directly, sign up for the mailing list on the website and/or follow TWIG on LinkedIn. 
BC Wood Program Updates
Japan Woodshock Talk Part 2
Jim Ivanoff | ivanoff@bcwood.jp

Even as North American lumber prices have retracted somewhat over the past few weeks, “woodshock” remains the most talked about issue in the Japanese construction industry. Continued shortages of structural lumber for zairai homes is leading to fears of an industry slowdown since builders will not be able to build. Meanwhile, some builders are said to be simply refusing to even quote projects as they cannot predict material costs and thus, they do not want to commit themselves to projects that they will likely end up losing money on. Despite such bleak concerns, some positive winds have also begun to blow.
Coeur d’Alene Projects
Dave Farley | dfarley@bcwood.com

A few comments suggestions and ideas. 

With vaccinations increasing and the eventual re-opening of the Canada/US border, it finally feels like we may be putting Covid in the rear-view mirror. The US market development program has a number of excellent trade activities coming up this fall that will take place in person! Yup, in person. We will cover these activities in the next couple of issues of the Wood Connections, but today I thought we would continue the review of some interesting construction projects south of the border. 
One of my favorite cities in the Pacific Northwest is Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. You may have remembered me mentioning it in a past Wood Connections as I discussed the Discovery Land Corp Gozzer Ranch project and some of the great architects that call Coeur d’Alene home.  Well, Coeur d’Alene is in the news again with a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that rated the lakeside city as the number one emerging housing market in the US. That is quite an accomplishment and one that is driving a tremendous amount of residential and commercial construction activity. 

Industry News
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Connect with naturally:wood 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.
Timber on the rise in B.C.
Nancy Lanthier

More architects and developers around the world are rallying for mass timber instead of concrete and steel, persuaded by its proven success and environmental benefits.

Now, the B.C. government is joining the movement by investing in eight mass timber buildings and four research projects. It also declared that every new civic building will be made mostly of mass timber, starting with Vancouver’s new St. Paul’s Hospital and the new Royal BC Museum in Victoria.
Transforming wood waste into energy: How SFU’s new biomass plant fuels our community
Pam Lim

SFU expects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from heating by 80 per cent now that the new $33-million Corix biomass plant has begun operation. The GHG saved is equivalent to the emissions from 900 homes every year.

By slashing direct emissions from operations and indirect emissions from energy purchased GHG emissions, SFU leads the way in sustainability with one of the smallest GHG footprints of any university in Canada.
San Group will invest $100M in four forestry-based projects in Port Alberni
Susie Quinn

“With the new investment in our sawmill, our manufacturing facility and our value-added facility, that will ensure us for years to come that we can sustain our profitability and stay in the community,” Sanghera said. It also further affirms the company’s “harvest to home” commitment to use as much of each tree it harvests as possible.
Time for mass timber to take centre stage
Kerry Gold

Developer Ian Gillespie of Westbank wants to make mass timber tower construction a standard rather than a novelty, starting with a 21-storey residential rental tower in Vancouver on the northwest corner of Main and 5th Avenue. He purchased the site as part of a campus of buildings that are under way, called Main Alley.

It’s a collaboration with Ryan Holmes, the chairman and co-founder of Vancouver social-media management company Hootsuite, envisioned as a hub for tech jobs within walking distance of the future SkyTrain station at Main and Broadway.
Collective Carpentry granted money from CleanBC
BC Local News

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.
The mass timber “wave” in North America
Cheryl Mah

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.