Overview

Mass timber are large engineered wood products that include wood panels, beams and columns used for constructing floors, walls and roofs in larger buildings.

Pre-fabricated paneling systems that make a wider range of wood buildings possible include:

  • cross laminated timber (CLT)
  • parallel strand lumber (PSL)
  • laminated veneer lumber (LVL)
  • laminated strand lumber (LSL)
  • glued laminated timber (glulam)

Building with these wood systems is efficient and results in high-quality construction.

There are multiple wood construction programs and resources to help you with your wood construction project. This includes funding for eligible projects and program guides to support compliance, innovation and industry best practices.

Benefits of building with wood

The benefits of building with wood include:

  • being proven fire safe for builders, occupants, and fire service officials
  • being structurally comparable to concrete and steel buildings in strength
  • stores carbon to mitigate climate change
  • lower greenhouse gas emissions from construction by using less energy-intensive materials
  • lower buildings costs with cheaper materials, reduced on-site labour and quicker construction time
  • provides safe and reliable flexibility under seismic loading (earthquake impacts)
  • efficient and effective solution for our increasing housing needs.
  • supports our sustainable forest management policies

Draft Advanced Wood Construction Action Plan

We developed Ontario’s Draft Advanced Wood Construction Action Plan as a proposed framework to achieve the wood construction goals in Sustainable Growth: Ontario’s Forest Sector Strategy. The plan aims to:

  • create demand for wood products
  • grow wood’s market share in the buildings sector
  • increase manufacturing of wood-based building components
  • reduce carbon footprint in construction

Please review and comment on the draft action plan on the Environmental Registry of Ontario from July 30 to October 1, 2024.

Ontario’s Tall Wood Building Reference

Working with our partners, we’ve created a resource providing background and references to assist applicants, reviewers and designers as they consider using wood in buildings. The document is the first of its kind and provides guidance for meeting requirements under Alternative Solutions of the Ontario Building Code for developing wood buildings above six storeys.

The Tall Wood Building Reference aligns with our two primary objectives related to the Ontario Building Code:

  • help increase opportunities for designers and builders to create innovative, flexible and affordable new buildings
  • maintain our high fire safety standards for both the public and fire service personnel

Ontario’s Tall Wood Building Reference (PDF)

Accessibility

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Greenhouse Gas Material Assessment Tool (GHGMAT) for buildings

GHGMAT is a free online tool that you can use to estimate the carbon footprint of building structures.

Using low greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity building materials can help reduce building sector emissions.footnote 1 The building sector contributes to nearly 40% of global CO2 emissions and represents a huge opportunity to reduce carbon emissions and meet the world’s many climate change targets such as the Paris Agreementfootnote 2.

GHGMAT lets you:

  • account for emissions associated with your choice of structural building material
  • create multiple building scenarios using common building materials such as wood/mass timber, reinforced concrete and structural steel
  • compare and refine these scenarios to optimize the use of lower-carbon building materials like wood

GHGMAT was developed:

  • in alignment with the ISO 14064-2 standard
  • in collaboration with the Government of Quebec and Natural Resources Canada