Good Wood Awards
For Leadership in Good Wood Use in 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Venues
Recognition for choosing Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood
Canadian Olympic Snowboarder supports use of FSC-certified wood
“Using FSC-certified wood is a great way to show the world that opportunities exist to manage our beautiful forests sustainably,” says Olympic half-pipe snowboarder Justin Lamoureux. “My boards are built with FSCcertified cores and I commend the Olympic venues that have shown leadership by using FSC-certified wood.”
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The sporting venues and athletes villages of the 21st Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are one of its most substantial legacies that remain in Vancouver and Whistler long after the visitors have left and the Olympic flame has been extinguished. One part of this legacy is the story these venues tell about British Columbia’s forests and forest products. Good Wood Watch members – West Coast Environmental Law, Greenpeace, Wildsight, and Sierra Club BC – are recognizing the leadership of those venues that used and are planning to use wood products in their building construction that come from responsible sources.
“Good Wood” Awards were given to the South East False Creek Community Centre and the Whistler High Performance Centre for their leadership in using Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified wood. The South East False Creek Olympic Village and the Vancouver Olympic Centre received “Good Wood” honourable mentions as the venues are still under construction to prepare them for post-Games use (i.e., final proportions of FSC-wood use are not yet available).
What is Good Wood?
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification is the “gold standard” of forest certification a mark of environmental and social responsibility in forest management – what is being called “Good Wood”. It is the only standard recognized by major environmental groups worldwide.
Good Wood Award Winners
South East False Creek Community Centre at Vancouver Olympic Village
The 4,227m2 future community centre and non-motorized boating centre was used during the 2010 Winter Games as office space for the Olympic and Paralympic mayor, management staff and Four Host First Nations and as a site for athletes’ amenities.
- Proportion of FSC-certified wood*
- 79.97%
- How it was used
- All millwork, interior and exterior soffits and gym wall panels and floor.
- Architect
- Walter Francl Architecture Inc., Nick Milkovich Architects Inc. + Arthur Erickson, and Durante Kreuk Landscape Architects
- Financier
- City of Vancouver and Vancouver Park Board
Whistler High Performance Centre at Whistler Athletes Centre
The 1862m2 gymnasium-style athletic training facility is part of the Whistler Athlete’s Centre. It will provide athletic training facilities for athletes and community use after the games.
- Proportion of FSC-certified wood*
- 62%
- How it was used
- All of the floor deck, siding, framing, millwork and glue-laminated columns
- Architect
- Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden
- Financier
- VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games) and Resort Municipality of Whistler
Good Wood Honourable Mentions
South East False Creek Olympic Village
The construction of the 146,322 m² and 1,100-unit Vancouver Athletes Village is part of a larger development project for the entire shore of the South East False Creek and represents the largest single application of wood associated with the Winter 2010 Games.
- Proportion of FSC-certified wood*
- Each building uses a minimum of 50-75% FSC-certified wood. The final proportions are not set since additional hardwood and laminate flooring have yet to be installed
- How it is used
- Kitchen cabinets, wood flooring, millwork and framing
- Architect
- More than 20 firms, including Merrick Architecture, Gomberoff Bell Lyon Architects, Nick Milkovich Architects Inc. + Arthur Erickson, Walter Francl Architect Inc. and Lawrence Doyle Young & Wright Architects
- Financier
- City of Vancouver and Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties
Vancouver
Olympic Centre
The 11,000 m2 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Centre (Nat Bailey/ Hillcrest Curling Venue) was used as the Olympic curling and Paralympic wheelchair-curling venue. The facility replaces an aging community complex and will be used as a community centre, offices, ice arena, curling rink, aquatic centre and library.
- Proportion of FSC-certified wood*
- Over 50% of wood used to date
- How it was used
- Douglas fir glue-laminated beams were used in the aquatic centre. A variety of FSC-certified wood is specified for interior woodwork and millwork in the legacy mode conversion.
- Architect
- Hughes Condon Marler Architects
- Financier
- VANOC, City of Vancouver and Vancouver Park Board
Why Good Wood?
Criteria for Good Wood
Olympic projects were assessed on the amount and nature of FSC-certified wood. 50% or more of woodbased materials and products (by cost) used in the buildings are FSC-certified. This approach to measuring FSC wood use is also utilized by the Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system.
Olympic Projects Disqualified for failing to use Good Wood
- Richmond Skating Oval
- Whistler Olympic Park
- Vancouver Trout Lake Arena
- Vancouver Killarney Arena
- Robson Square Dome Project
- UBC Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre
- Whistler Nordic Venue and Day Lodge
- Vancouver Convention Centre – Media Centre
- Whistler Sliding Centre
- Whistler Athletes Centre Lodge and Townhomes
During the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games visitors to Vancouver and a global audience were invited to experience and understand more about the extraordinary natural heritage of British Columbia that was the backdrop for the Games. Yet the imagery of billboards and advertisements was silent on the long history of unsustainable clear-cut logging that has scarred vast areas of the province, denuding valleys and mountainsides of their old growth forests, harming salmon habitat and community drinking water and leaving communities caught in the boom and bust cycle of the logging industry.
Green building projects like those showcased in this report are part of the solution; they are a key element of the ever-increasing market for more responsibly produced forest products.
In turn, FSC certification is the green mark of approval that allows purchasers to verify that forests are managed sustainably and responsibly from the forest floor to the store shelf, similar to organic produce.
FSC-certified wood is sourced from independently inspected forests, which are managed holistically to steward the entire ecosystem, not simply the trees themselves. In a FSC-certified forest the rate of cut is maintained at a sustainable level; wildlife, salmon, drinking water, and endangered species are protected; and operations are expected to emphasize local employment and other benefits to communities over the long term. First Nations consent is also required.
FSC’s requirement to maintain forests with high conservation value is particularly important since British Columbia is home to world-renowned old-growth forests, such as Clayoquot Sound and the Great Bear Rainforest.
Canadian FSC wood supply has increased dramatically in recent years, and Canada currently has the most FSC-certified forest area of any country in the world, with 35.2 million hectares certified. This area remains, however, only a small fraction of Canada’s managed forest, and demand for FSC products continues to outstrip supply.
Photo credits:
- Whistler High Performance Centre – Resort Municipality of Whistler
- South East False Creek Community Centre and Vancouver Olympic Centre – Vancouver Park Board
- South East False Creek Olympic Village – City of Vancouver
