FII advances wood use and innovative wood construction technologies here at home.
By ensuring BC is an early adopter of new products and approaches to building with wood, mass timber and engineered wood products, we support regulatory change, stimulate jobs in the sector and showcase these advancements around the world.
FII works with industry, First Nations and government partners to advance wood use in BC through:
To maintain BC’s leadership in wood construction innovation, FII supports applied research and development of new wood products and building systems. Wood First funding helps give BC a competitive edge in new construction technologies and processes, including mass timber, prefabrication and industrialized wood construction. The cumulative impact of this research, as well as other expert efforts, has expanded the use of mass timber in taller buildings, including schools, libraries, and retail, enabling encapsulated mass timber construction (EMTC) up to 18 stories in the 2024 BC Building Code, in addition to other standards and best practice guidelines.
Last year, Wood First funded 16 research projects that addressed:
2024 also saw the release of the second edition of the Nail-Laminated Timber (NLT) Canadian Design and Construction Guide, co-funded with Natural Resources Canada, and updated with the latest research and project experience.
BC is a leading jurisdiction in North America in terms of mass timber/engineered wood design, manufacturing and construction with more than 480 projects completed or under construction to date. To help maintain this market leadership, the Government of British Columbia set up the Mass Timber Demonstration Program (MTDP) in 2021. Managed by FII, the MTDP provides targeted funding to offset the incremental costs associated with new and innovative mass timber projects, including technical research, design, prefabrication and construction.
Since the start of the program, $9.1 million has been invested in 19 building projects and eight research projects, including six “tall” buildings (seven or more storeys in height). Projects range from a new multi-use municipal centre targeting Passive House certification in Castlegar to a 25-storey mass timber rental housing tower in downtown Vancouver.
To build knowledge and capacity across the design and construction sectors, FII profiles each project through its naturally:wood messaging platform and runs a communication program that includes project tours, case studies, social media, articles, digital promotion and videos. Market interest has generated more than 44,000 page views since the start of the program. Technical information and lessons learned for each project are also documented and shared with industry groups and government regulators at the provincial and local levels.
Learn more at naturallywood.com
In 2024/25, the Construction Foundation of BC (CFBC) delivered Good Talk in the Forest—a powerful youth engagement initiative centred around cultural connection, career discovery, and community-led inspiration. The goal was to place Indigenous youth at the centre of conversations about the future of BC’s forest sector.
Spanning five Indigenous communities across British Columbia, the project hosted 32 sessions with 117 participants. Sessions brought together youth, community members, industry leaders, and traditional knowledge keepers in hands-on, wood-focused workshops including carving, furniture building, and tours of local wood-based infrastructure. These weren’t just introductions to tools or trades—they were safe, reflective spaces for young people to explore how wood-based careers can align with their cultural identity and personal goals.
In Ahousaht, for example, participants carved feast bowls from locally harvested timber while learning about the community-run wellness centre—an inspiring example of self-determined, wood-built infrastructure on the site of a former residential school. In Upper Nicola, youth visited the CLT-built Quilchena Community Centre and heard first-hand from architects, apprentices, and builders how local wood is shaping their future.
The project also helped participants with real-world next steps, including job readiness, school registration, and access to support services. Many of the younger participants expressed interest in pursuing training in carpentry, design, or forestry—showing how the program is a model for trust-building, empowerment, and industry transformation.
Over the past year, 475 professionals attended 40 UBC CAWP events, organized into three programs: Timber Tech Connect (TTC) events, the SHAPE prototyping series, and TWIG (The Wood Innovation Group). TTC is a series of seminars highlighting British Columbia’s advancements in mass timber and wood prefabrication offered collaboratively by the UBC Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP), the Wood Innovation Group and Fast + Epp.
Five TTC events brought participants inside some of BC’s most innovative timber buildings, including a session about the Mass Timber Demonstration program Vienna House (a seven-storey, 123- unit affordable housing project in East Vancouver) that explored key learnings from its prefabrication and mass timber assembly. Each event included members from the project team—developers, architects, engineers, and builders—offering honest, technical deep dives into material choices and design strategies.
Launched alongside TTC, the SHAPE workshop series offered five online sessions on topics like decentralized manufacturing and mass timber housing, with presenters from ChopValue, DIALOG, and Fast + Epp. These workshops extended technical learning opportunities to workers in the value-added industry who are new to the industry or existing workers who want to add to their knowledge pool.
Meanwhile, TWIG’s 27 events continued to foster grassroots dialogue and networking, with in-person meetups in Vancouver and Squamish supported by a growing online community and regular newsletters. These gatherings—whether a Wood-First- Wednesday in a local workshop or a student field trip—served as vital entry points for the next generation of timber champions.
