BCBusiness

February 2015 Why they Give

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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I n 2011, Bill Downing made a pivotal investment deci- sion. The president of Pent- icton-based Structurlam Products, a heavy timber maker, had been touring wood manu- facturing plants in Europe's Alpine region for years, trying to decide whether or not to introduce their unique product to the North American market. Cross-laminated timber ( CLT), dense wood panels developed by the Swiss in the early '90s, was touted as an alternative to concrete—and a key technology to building taller wood towers. Setting up the infrastructure back home wouldn't be cheap. "We had to build a building and put this very expensive, mostly German machinery into the plant," Downing says. Special equipment is required to manu- facture CLT, which is created by gluing together thin layers of softwood lumber at right angles under heavy pressure. But if done right, the gamble could pay off: Structurlam is taking spruce, pine and fir—all abundant in B.C.—and "tripling its value" per square metre by manufacturing CLT. One of Structurlam's more recent clients is the Province of B.C., which financed construc- tion of the $25-million Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George. That build- ing, which opened last October, is the tallest modern all-wood structure in North America, at COURTESY WIDC (ABOVE) FEBRUARY 2015 BCBusiness 17 t he mon t hly in for mer TMı "We always like Cinderella stories—when a collector comes across a work by inheritance or acquires it at a flea market, contacts us and discovers that it is very valuable" – David Heffel, p.23 "The market [for CLT] has been good. It's a spe- cialty product, but the demand is building. It's not going crazy, but it's growing." F e b r u a r y 2 0 15 Faster, Higher, Stronger N a t u r a l R e s o u r c e s B.C. has become a global leader in developing taller wood towers. Can forestry's new specialty grow into a major export? by Trevor Melanson – Bill Downing, Structurlam Products INSIDE indochino's new Box ... eV's Big Challenge ... Drinks + Groceries ... Angus reid + more ...

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