Build-with-wood message spreads.

Plans by a major industry-led campaign to promote wood in commercial and institutional construction in the lucrative southern Ontario construction market could be a major boost for Northern Ontario forest producers, says the campaign's executive director.

"Almost 48 per cent of Canada's construction opportunities are in southern Ontario. This is a huge opportunity for our wood industry," says Marianne Berube of Wood WORKS!, a national campaign effort led by the Canadian Wood Council, the forest industry, as well as government partners. The campaign started nationally seven years ago.

She points out that the overwhelming majority of the North's wood products goes to the United States. This is something that can be changed, she contends.

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Speaking from her North Bay office, Berube says Wood WORKS! has attempted over these years to convince architects and building designers-many of whom live in the North - to consider using wood in their designing. She says that her organization has worked to network with architects and increase educational awareness of the possibilities of "new and innovative" designs in wood. Many architects and designers are not properly informed of these possibilities and are not trained in using wood in construction.

The initiative into the south, Berube says, will include the promotion of the environmental possibilities of wood. With the emphasis on energy conservation in home construction, due to the Kyoto protocol and changing consumer demands, the opportunities to promote wood as a viable alternative to steel and concrete are greater. As a renewable resource, wood is also known to converse energy better than other materials, she claims.

Berube says Wood WORKS! will also bring some of the group's success stories to their new campaign. The organization has convinced many municipalities to require the consideration of wood construction in their municipal RFPs, as well as bringing to the attention of consumers that an increasing number of designers are seeing the advantages of wood through their well-known Wood WORKS! Awards Gala.

Berube says she is also proud of the group's success in convincing many northern designers to opt for wood. For example, the Thunder Bay Hospital was going to build the structure of their facility with steel, until the group helped convince them to change over to wood. The group was instrumental in having a new library and health-care facility planned for Timmins to use wood in their construction plans.

"For publicly funded projects, we're asking designers to consider wood. We're not making them to. We're trying to push the envelope," she says.

Wood WORKS! will be hosting its fourth annual awards gala on Nov. 16 at the Casino Rama in Rama, Ont.

www.wood-works.org/

BY JOSEPH QUESNEL 

Northern Ontario Business