Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 6

74 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 6 F I RST RESOURCE MANAGEMENT GROUP INC . while playing a role in tackling sustainability and climate change. “The idea for the company started close to 18 years ago,” says Green. “At the time, I was impressed with the work foresters were doing, yet puzzled that unlike other professions like engineering and law, foresters didn’t generally work in the equivalent of engineering or law firms; but in woodlands departments of mills, or government.” Green saw this as an opportunity to bring together forestry professionals and supply the industry with specialized services, so timber companies could focus on getting wood to their mills. He recalls, “It took around three years to get buy-in from the clients we spoke with, and the company was officially launched in 2010.” The company’s initial contract was managing the Timiskaming Forest on behalf of the Timiskaming Forest Alliance Inc. (TFAI). Since then, it has grown to provide forest management on eight Ontario forests. “Our original intent when starting the company, which still serves as our guiding principle, is enshrined in what we call our three theses,” explains Green. “Enable mills to delegate forest management to a team of full-time forest management experts, attract and encourage young upcoming foresters to pursue a career in forest management, and third, enable us to spot new opportunities to bring innovative products to market, like SkyForest.” Creating a specialized “practice” for foresters has created a niche market for FRMG that has steadily gained traction over the years. “Across Canada, there is a legal requirement to manage forests and the benefits society derives from them,” says Yves Vivier, VP, Forestry at FRMG. “Although most people think forest management is just about harvesting and planting trees, it is a delicate art of balancing the economic, social, and ecological value and benefits forests provide, which is what we do.” FRMG’s commercial services might be targeted at mills, but the company’s scope of work is much broader than just managing the volume of timber going into the mills. “We are not managing cubic meters of timber going into a mill,” says Vivier. “We manage actual forests including tree species, habitats, and the entire forest ecosystem to ensure the forest stays healthy over the next 100 to 150 years.” The company uses sophisticated tools for modeling, including spatial modeling software from companies like Remsoft, that measure and evaluate the economic, social, and ecological benefits that forests provide to society. FRMG also relies on its own proprietary patented technology, SkyForest. “With SkyForest, we take Phil Green, CEO of FRMG