It will be our youth that will save this planet.

I had a bit of an epiphany this morning after a brief conversation regarding an inquiry we received over the weekend. Here is a snippet of the email below.

"Our whole high school in Winnipeg - is doing a sustainable project. We want our students to learn about alternative building practices and energy. They in turn would teach the community. Your product fits in this category. Who should I speak to about this?"

I've been out of the academic world for sometime now so I really have no knowledge of how much environmental issues are discussed in classrooms these days. Are the global climate negotiations in Copenhagen being discussed? What about day-to-day practices with recycling? Food consumption and waste management? How much recycling is done in our schools with one of the most commonly used products being paper? Is it a recycled product?

I was fairly astonished to hear that this school has taken the initiative with this type of forward thinking. They have already aligned many local environmentally sustainable companies to engage and educate their students about alternative building practices and energy. The youth are so receptive to change. Change, one of the beautiful qualities youth have will one day be the worlds saving grace. 

I would welcome any stories/ideas and comments regarding this topic. It would be great to hear other stories like this if you have them.

- Ray

Wood Anchor Timber Tables

Our Antique Timber Tables have been leaving us to be a beautiful part in their new homes. Order soon before they're gone! Click below for more details!

Timber Tables

- Wood Anchor Team

Radiohead's Thom Yorke crashes UN climate change conference - Video

Wow! Greenwash? Hmmm. I can't say that I was or plan to be in Copenhagen anytime soon but it's comforting to know that there are some people who are going to see through the fog. And who better than Radiohead's Sir Thom Yorke! The man is musical genius, and a wise man at that. Gonna put on Subterranean Homesick Alien now...

http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/48941

- Ray

Improved housing starts should push industry back into the black in 2010, study says

Bertrand Marotte
Montreal — Globe and Mail Update

Published on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009 12:57PM EST

Canada's wood products sector should be back in the black in 2010 after losing about $250-million this year, says a Conference Board of Canada study. “After years plagued by bad news, the wood products industry is on the road to recovery,” Michael Burt, associate director of the board's Canadian Industrial Outlook, said in a news release Thursday. “Housing starts in both the U.S. and Canada are improving, which is increasing demand for Canadian wood products. The revival of the U.S. and Canadian housing markets will provide a major boost to the industry.” Production is set to increase by close to 10 per cent in 2010, according to the Conference Board's report. Read the full article.

The article above made me think about the New Year. Wood Anchor faired off pretty good this year compared to last. We are hoping to start off strong in the New Year with ongoing projects that are in the works. Aside from very good feedback from the residential sector, the commercial end is very good. I will update you when we draw nearer to the completion of the projects. The one notable project on the national level is the Centreplace MB Pavillion featured at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Visit http://woodanchor.com/news to see the latest news!

- Ray

Who am "I"?

As I stated in the last post, I would get into who "I" am. What some of my interests are and what I do for Wood Anchor. For starters, my name is Ray Chan from the infamous Soup Pierre.  I jumped on board the Wood Anchor team in late September to help execute marketing & business ideas on how to show off Wood Anchor to the world.

Wood Anchor is for the most part an online company. As an inquirer of Wood Anchor, you will notice that the environmental topics that I discuss/post will be more on a global scale. Each day I grow more conscious of how we humans plan on helping this planet before we destroy it. Or should I say, before it destroys us! I guess that's what happens when you work for a "green" company. I will also add posts about happenings in our own backyard. That being Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Hello old and new friends of Wood Anchor

Welcome to our first official post of the Wood Anchor blog.

For all you new followers. Wood Anchor is a reclaimed lumber and wood products company. We specialize in solid and engineered, unfinished and pre-finished wood flooring with sources that include old timbers from prairie grain elevators, trees cut down by the City of Winnipeg due to Dutch Elm Disease (DED), and other species of trees cut down due to development or farmland.

I know that we’ve posted blogs in the past but this ones gonna be different. How you may ask?

Well, we’re still going to provide you with updates about the cool people & projects we’re always fortunate to work on. Trade shows that we’ve attended and plan to attend, as well as changes to our website. We’ll keep you informed about existing and new exciting products! The main difference is that you’re gonna get to know us a little better.

For starters, we’re all passionate about our earth. Political news relating to our environment? We’ll we are a “green company” so we’ll no doubt be speaking our minds on that topic. What else are we passionate about? Everyone at Wood Anchor has a creative spark! We’re into art, architecture, photography, design “any”…anything creative really. Music. We love all types good music! Sports? We’ll I LOVE surfing, sk8 boarding, snowboarding. I know some of the other WA guys are heavily into sk8 boarding even though they started at a later age. It’s cool, it’s never too late to get started.

By now you must be wondering who “I” is. I, will get to that in the next blog. I’ll also fill you in on the others. I’m hoping to encourage the “others” to post blogs about their daily thoughts. They seemed to have no problems being vocal around here so lets see if their comfortable with vocalizing their rants to the world.

Stay warm!