About

The Building Tree began in 2007, as a green building design and product sourcing business in Nelson, BC. Through our downtown location, we showcased many great green building products and technologies and worked with wonderful local service providers. Our mission was to improve building products and practices in the Nelson area.

We even hosted the local branch of the non-profit Cascadia Green Building Council and helped coordinate some great public events, tours, presentations series, and public projects. People were really interested in Green Building, but our business model struggled.

After many years of researching and working hard, a small but regular customer base began to emerge seeking our traditional, plant based, penetrating oil/wax finishes for wood. They are natural, repairable, beautiful, and breathable. This style of finish has been around for generations and has a loyal following, but, there was a catch. Ingredients are expensive and profit margins are too slim for these to be found in a regular hardware store. They wouldn’t support us in our downtown location either.

By the time we realized our “Sustainable Construction Centre” was financially unsustainable, we had a solid customer base of timber framers, carpenters and craftspeople who we wouldn’t abandon. They wanted just a few tried and true product lines… the American made Heritage Natural Finishes (previously Land Ark), the German made Osmo and Livos, and the Canadian made Eco-House.

So, we dropped the fancy storefront and moved our operation home. Here we can continue to supply our great local customers as well people all around Canada. Thanks for your continued support!