Finding the right Supply

A productive visit with staff at Cascadia offices in both Portland and Seattle early January.  A long discussion about material supply chains and the Materials petal.  The major push is to ensure that we are using FSC lumber up here.  This is interesting because to date projects in BC, Canada have not used 100% FSC. Exceptions have been made for “Pine Beetle Kill that would have been Clear cut anyway.”  At the SFU childcare Centre  Kourosh Mahvash came up with a fascinating solution that basically involved purchasing a forest and processing the beetle kill wood with the help of a local mill.

Returning to Kelowna we connected with the Manager for Forest and Environment at Tolko, one of the local mills.  Turns out we connected to the person that had procured Pine Beetle Kill Wood for the building in Penticton.  Further discussion around sustainability and certification outlined for us the complexities of wood supply in BC and Canada.   This aspect of the LBC has many facets and angles to be considered.

At this point our strategy is to connect to Local wood, cut by Local people, milled at plants 120 km from Kelowna.  Long discussion and consideration was given to using all FSC lumber.  It is not making sense both ethically and financially to drive across the boarder to the US to purchase lumber and plywood.  Let us hope that the LBC review board sees it the way we do.

 

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