Weston Forest
October 2016 TCA Green Ambassador
Weston Forest
Weston Forest is one of the largest distributors of forest products to the Construction industry in Canada. We have been a trusted environmentally conscious partner to our customers and suppliers since 1953.
We are proud to be one of the first companies in Canada certified under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Canadian Heat Treated Wood Products Certification Program, which is designed to safeguard the world’s forests from invasive species.
As part of our green initiative, Weston has made the considerable effort to become certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). As such, we are our customer’s go-to source for just-in-time service of FSC lumber and plywood to help them earn LEED credits. We are honoured to play a role in helping our customers build green projects.
In 2014, Weston Forest participated in a pilot project to buy lumber produced from City of Toronto Ash Trees which had been cut down due to an Emerald Ash Borer infestation. Crews contracted by the City cut down 13,000 ash trees. Once the logs got to their yard, the City was paying a contractor to grind them into woodchips, which costs $8 a tonne. The contractor used some wood chips for mulch. Often the city pays another $100 a tonne for haulers to take the excess chips to a landfill.
Weston Forest worked with a local sawmill who cut these trees in to planks, saving the City up to $108 a tonne. Weston bought these planks as saleable lumber and helped repurpose these trees to our customers. Otherwise we would be using logs that are felled in the forest.
Participating in each of these projects reflects Weston Forest’s longstanding commitment to sustainability.