Canadian Wood Council Welcomes the Release of the Canada Green Buildings StrategyJuly 17, 2024 (Ottawa) – The Canadian Wood Council (CWC) is encouraged by the release of the Canada Green Buildings Strategy (CGBS), recognizing it as a positive step towards decarbonizing and building a sustainable and resilient future for Canada’s built environment.
The strategy identifies several critical areas of action that will contribute to transforming the construction sector towards a net-zero and resilient future by 2050. These areas include:
- Recognition of Wood Products: Wood is acknowledged as a renewable, low-embodied carbon material. Its benefits include reduced construction emissions and reduced construction schedule which is advantageous considering today’s labour shortages.
- Prefabricated Building Elements: The strategy recognizes the role that prefabrication has in greening Canada’s buildings, highlighting the use of mass timber. We also note that panelization of wood products for light-wood frame construction already exists across Canada.
- Advancement of Building Codes: There is recognition of the advancement in building codes to allow for mass timber construction up to 12 storeys, with encouragement for further analysis to expand to much taller buildings (e.g., 18 and 24 storeys).
Rick Jeffery, President and CEO of the CWC, welcomes the CGBS. “Canada’s forest products sector stands as a beacon of innovation, driving a low-carbon future. With cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and sustainable forest management, our sector excels in reducing its own carbon footprint and has tremendous potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment while fostering economic growth. Continued advancement of the forest products sector and the accelerated adoption of wood-based construction technologies present a clear path towards a circular economy, ensuring efficient and responsible use of resources and positioning the wood industry as a major economic engine of a greener future.”
CWC has been active in these critical areas, including working with federal and provincial governments to recognize the opportunities of tall wood buildings, low carbon construction, and resilient design related to wind, seismic, and wildfire.
The implementation of the ‘Buy Clean’ policy, leveraging federal procurement investment to promote low or net-zero-carbon construction materials and designs, is a notable element. This policy demonstrates leadership that will result in building examples setting high standards of sustainable construction and charting a path for widespread adoption of successful building and system solutions. The CWC looks forward to the increased adoption of advanced wood construction methods and the development of larger and taller wood buildings, including mass timber buildings up to 24-storeys enabled by changes to building codes in Canada.
The investments in the new Rapid Housing Stream under the Affordable Housing Fund, the Apartment Construction Loan Program, and the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund to accelerate construction and enable new housing supply will significantly impact the delivery of sustainable, resilient, and affordable housing. The forest sector is uniquely positioned to supply the nation with locally manufactured wood-based construction materials and wood-hybrid system solutions that have low-embodied carbon.
CWC highlights the following areas for further improvement:
- Buy Clean Approach: The requirement to disclose embodied carbon in construction materials based on either material carbon intensity or a life cycle assessment (LCA) is supported. We advocate for an LCA approach, providing a holistic assessment that reflects the efficient use of low carbon materials in project design.
- Greening Government Strategy: We support the strategy to reduce embodied carbon of major construction projects by 30% starting in 2025 but emphasize the need to define a specific baseline. We recommend setting the baseline as the whole-building LCA results of a reference project using traditional construction practices.
- Public Disclosure and Database Development: It would benefit the industry and the development of embodied carbon requirements for the 2030 building code if the whole-building LCA results for the Government of Canada’s major buildings and infrastructure projects are publicly disclosed, and a database is developed.
The challenges ahead are diverse and numerous, but the Canada Green Building Strategy charts a path forward that points the nation in the right direction and provides tangible policies and supports to help realize our collective vision for a more sustainable future.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Sarah Hicks
Communications and Outreach Manager
Canadian Wood Council
[email protected] | 1-705-796-3381
Martin Richard,
VP, Communications and Market Development
Canadian Wood Council
[email protected] | 1-613-725-4339
About the Canadian Wood Council
The Canadian Wood Council (CWC) is Canada’s unifying voice for the wood products industry. As a national federation of associations, our members represent hundreds of manufacturers across the country. Our mission is to support our members by accelerating market demand for wood products and championing responsible leadership through excellence in codes, standards, and regulations. We also deliver technical support and knowledge transfer for the construction sector through our market leading WoodWorks program.
July 17, 2024 (Ottawa) – The Canadian Wood Council (CWC) is encouraged by the release of the Canada Green Buildings Strategy (CGBS), recognizing it as a positive step towards decarbonizing and building a sustainable and resilient future for Canada’s built environment.
The strategy identifies several critical areas of action that will contribute to transforming the construction sector towards a net-zero and resilient future by 2050. These areas include:
- Recognition of Wood Products: Wood is acknowledged as a renewable, low-embodied carbon material. Its benefits include reduced construction emissions and reduced construction schedule which is advantageous considering today’s labour shortages.
- Prefabricated Building Elements: The strategy recognizes the role that prefabrication has in greening Canada’s buildings, highlighting the use of mass timber. We also note that panelization of wood products for light-wood frame construction already exists across Canada.
- Advancement of Building Codes: There is recognition of the advancement in building codes to allow for mass timber construction up to 12 storeys, with encouragement for further analysis to expand to much taller buildings (e.g., 18 and 24 storeys).
Rick Jeffery, President and CEO of the CWC, welcomes the CGBS. “Canada’s forest products sector stands as a beacon of innovation, driving a low-carbon future. With cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and sustainable forest management, our sector excels in reducing its own carbon footprint and has tremendous potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment while fostering economic growth. Continued advancement of the forest products sector and the accelerated adoption of wood-based construction technologies present a clear path towards a circular economy, ensuring efficient and responsible use of resources and positioning the wood industry as a major economic engine of a greener future.”
CWC has been active in these critical areas, including working with federal and provincial governments to recognize the opportunities of tall wood buildings, low carbon construction, and resilient design related to wind, seismic, and wildfire.
The implementation of the ‘Buy Clean’ policy, leveraging federal procurement investment to promote low or net-zero-carbon construction materials and designs, is a notable element. This policy demonstrates leadership that will result in building examples setting high standards of sustainable construction and charting a path for widespread adoption of successful building and system solutions. The CWC looks forward to the increased adoption of advanced wood construction methods and the development of larger and taller wood buildings, including mass timber buildings up to 24-storeys enabled by changes to building codes in Canada.
The investments in the new Rapid Housing Stream under the Affordable Housing Fund, the Apartment Construction Loan Program, and the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund to accelerate construction and enable new housing supply will significantly impact the delivery of sustainable, resilient, and affordable housing. The forest sector is uniquely positioned to supply the nation with locally manufactured wood-based construction materials and wood-hybrid system solutions that have low-embodied carbon.
CWC highlights the following areas for further improvement:
- Buy Clean Approach: The requirement to disclose embodied carbon in construction materials based on either material carbon intensity or a life cycle assessment (LCA) is supported. We advocate for an LCA approach, providing a holistic assessment that reflects the efficient use of low carbon materials in project design.
- Greening Government Strategy: We support the strategy to reduce embodied carbon of major construction projects by 30% starting in 2025 but emphasize the need to define a specific baseline. We recommend setting the baseline as the whole-building LCA results of a reference project using traditional construction practices.
- Public Disclosure and Database Development: It would benefit the industry and the development of embodied carbon requirements for the 2030 building code if the whole-building LCA results for the Government of Canada’s major buildings and infrastructure projects are publicly disclosed, and a database is developed.
The challenges ahead are diverse and numerous, but the Canada Green Building Strategy charts a path forward that points the nation in the right direction and provides tangible policies and supports to help realize our collective vision for a more sustainable future.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Sarah Hicks
Communications and Outreach Manager
Canadian Wood Council
[email protected] | 1-705-796-3381
Martin Richard,
VP, Communications and Market Development
Canadian Wood Council
[email protected] | 1-613-725-4339
About the Canadian Wood Council
The Canadian Wood Council (CWC) is Canada’s unifying voice for the wood products industry. As a national federation of associations, our members represent hundreds of manufacturers across the country. Our mission is to support our members by accelerating market demand for wood products and championing responsible leadership through excellence in codes, standards, and regulations. We also deliver technical support and knowledge transfer for the construction sector through our market leading WoodWorks program.
