China-Canada Green Building Design Center

ForesterBlog.com

Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently untook a trade mission to China.  Part of the mission involved forest products and lumber.  China is one of Canada's most important customers for wood products, and according to the release below Canada is now the largest supplier of lumber to China. 

Initiatives like the China Canada Green Building Design Center highlight wood frame construction, which still isn't widely used in China.  If the use of wood in construction continues to grow in China, Canadian lumber mills should benefit along with the jobs they bring.  The bottom of the release has some interesting stats on exports to China for 2009, 2010 and 2011.  I wonder what kind of year 2012 will be?


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PMO press release:

Langfang, China
Feb 9, 2012
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today visited the China-Canada Green Building Design Center – one of China’s largest wood frame buildings – to highlight Canada’s achievement as China’s largest supplier of lumber. “Our Government is committed to helping the Canadian forestry industry to diversify and succeed in priority markets around the world. With Canadian lumber exports to China at a record high, our efforts are paying off, creating jobs and economic opportunities for Canadians,” said Prime Minister Harper. “The China-Canada Green Building Design Center is just one of the ways Canada is promoting its world class environmentally-friendly wood frame technologies and materials in this rapidly growing market.”

The Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia, in partnership with Canadian lumber suppliers, are working with several countries to further promote Canadian wood frame technology by developing building codes, training designers and builders to use wood and educating institutions on the benefits of building with wood.

Thanks to their versatility and environmental benefits, wood frame construction, such as that used for the Green Building Design Center, has become more prominent throughout China and has led to a major boost in Chinese demand for Canadian wood and wood frame technology. As a result, 18 Canadian mills have reopened or dedicated part of their production to servicing the Chinese market.

The China-Canada Green Building Design Center is a 2,500 square-meter facility which features environmentally friendly, seismically stable, and energy efficient Canadian wood frame technologies and materials.

Canadian wood exports to China grew to $835 million in 2010, up 119 percent from 2009. During the first eleven months of 2011, wood products were Canada's third largest export to China, totalling $1.36 billion and expected to exceed $1.5 billion in 2011.

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