Sustaining jobs and environment? The value-added wood industry in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia

Abstract

This paper addresses claims that the value-added wood industries contribute towards an economically and environmentally sustainable forest economy in British Columbia, Canada. The small firms that comprise the value-added industries have grown in number, are relatively labour intensive, draw upon diverse, small volume timber supplies, and serve a wide variety of niche markets. Conceptually, the study is informed by an integration of the flexible specialisation model with green entrepreneurship. Empirically, the study adopts an extended case study approach and is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with respondents of 41 small firms that represent various value-added wood processing activities in Metro Vancouver and with industry associations. The study found that these firms are modestly flexibly specialised and locally embedded but inter-firm networking is weak. As green entrepreneurs, they reveal variation in environmental awareness and performance but are adopters rather than leaders.

Keywords:

• flexible specialisation
• green entrepreneurship
• wood value-added
• Metro Vancouver

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful for the insightful comments of Julia Affolderbach and Constance Carr on an earlier draft of the paper, the advice of two referees, and our survey respondents for answering our questions.

Funding

This work received financial help from SSHRC [grant 410-2008-2605].