Benjamin Patton

Well capable of distinguishing the hidden economic values of the urban forest, Ben’s passion for saving wood from becoming firewood – or worse – landfill – knows few bounds – both from deconstruction and from trees cleared by cities.  He’s led regulatory reform in Metro Vancouver to produce three separate motions from councils in Metro Vancouver (District of North Van, City of Maple Ridge, City of Burnaby) to pursue municipal tree protections reflective of ‘Urban Wood Utility’ – requiring that wood from urban locations be salvaged appropriately during city-led construction and development projects. This has resulted in over 60 separate urban tree salvaging operations in Metro Vancouver, and he’s personally recovered over 250,000kg of wood waste from urban forests resulting in over 475,000kg of CO2 equivalent emissions being avoided.