3Ps OF SUSTAINABILITY
Dakeryn Industries’ efforts on keeping the lumber industry sustainable.
When we talk about sustainability in regard to the lumber industry in Canada, the bulk of the conversation will rightfully focus on tenure holders and the processes they use to harvest our forests. This is where sustainability starts and in theory the processes developed there will ensure the long life of our valuable natural resource and of the industry that is so important to our country.
Dakeryn Industries Ltd. is a lumber distributor and specialties producer based in North Vancouver, BC. Dakeryn as an organization understands that to keep the lumber industry truly sustainable, we must move beyond the forests and ensure that every step in the lumber procurement, sale and usage process is designed for that very goal. To that end, Dakeryn has developed their own industry sustainability platform, the three Ps of sustainability:
1 Processes and systems
2 Product offering
3 Partnerships Processes and systems
For the last eight years, Dakeryn Industries has held Chain of Custody (COC) Certification through both Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Not all of Canada’s sustainable harvest qualifies for the most rigorous standards defined by the aforementioned certification bodies, so having COC certification allows Dakeryn to add value to certifiably-harvested wood from the primary mills. COC certification standards focus on the purchasing, storage segregation, and subsequent sale of certified lumber.All the processes and systems at Dakeryn have been designed to meet these standards and, as a result of this attention to detail, Dakeryn Industries can supply certified lumber to its customers whenever they need it,wherever they are.
Product offering
Using the processes and systems mentioned above, Dakeryn has the ability to provide its customers with certified dimension lumber. Additionally, Dakeryn’s primary remanufacturing plant located in Abbotsford, BC — Mountain View Specialty Products — specializes in the production of fascia, decking and siding, and uses certified premium and J grade lumber for all its specialty products. The systems developed at Mountain View allow the plant there to track every piece of lumber through the reman process, thereby ensuring that we can also offer our customers certified remanufactured products should they be required.
Partnerships
Dakeryn partners with organizations that understand that sustaining the lumber industry is a group effort and must become the standard way to do business, as opposed to being the exception to the rule. As almost all the premium grade lumber we purchase is certified, the most natural of these partnerships is with the primary mills that make the effort to harvest in a certifiably sustainable fashion. Beyond these mills, Dakeryn seeks out secondary suppliers that allow us to meet our sustainability goals. One of the best examples of this is our partnership with PPG Paints. With PPG’s strong focus on sustainability (www.sustainability.ppg.com), we ensure our materials are primed and protected with the product innovation that makes them some of the most sustainable on the market. Finally, the lumber industry will not survive without good people and new ideas. With today’s emphasis on the tech industry, fewer young people are looking to the lumber industry for a career. Our goal is to partner with local school boards and use our facilities to showcase the vast array of jobs available in the industry.We are just getting started in this venture and hope to have more to talk about in the near future.