Pine-beetle kill wood buttresses new building at Okanagan College

Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun September 21, 2010

Okanagan College is constructing the province's first building using pine-beetle kill wood as a stand-in for Forest Stewardship Council-certified lumber. Vancouver-based CEI Architecture Planning Interiors designed the college's Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation, in Penticton. The $28-million project, to be used by 800 students, is planned as a showcase of sustainable design. "We were able to put a case forward to use pine-beetle kill wood as salvaged wood," CEI partner Tim McLennan, who is also director of Kelowna operations, said in an interview. "We can meet the sustainability standard using B.C. wood, specifically pinebeetle kill, which has a huge socioeconomic benefit to the region."CEI negotiated with the International Living Building Institute (ILBI) -- which urges architects and others in the construction industry to create buildings to the highest standards of sustainability -- to use wood from pine-beetle kill forest in lieu of FSC certified lumber.

He said the wood will be used in many of CEI's coming projects and he expects others will now do the same. "We hope to integrate it into the Vernon library project, which we've been awarded. We see it being used a lot more." (more)
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Beetle-killed Lodgepole Pine contains a blue stain from a fungus left behind by the pine beetle. It does not affect the integrity of the wood or the products made from it. It simply has a blue stain throughout it that people find to be very appealing. By using blue stain wood, you use timber that will otherwise go to waste. There is no better way to build green than to build with blue stain.