May 12, 2022
Advancing a Natural Climate Solution | The Softwood Lumber Board 2021 Annual Report
For the 10th consecutive year, the SLB and its program partners—the American Wood Council (AWC), Think Wood, and WoodWorks—delivered year-over-year growth in demand and impact for the softwood lumber industry, generating more than 1.8 billion board feet (bbf) of incremental demand in 2021.
2021 Program Impact
Key performance highlights from 2021 include:
The AWC facilitated three major wins for wood in the 2024 IBC, including a provision to allow for fully exposed mass timber ceilings in buildings up to 12 stories tall. This change will accelerate the use of mass timber building systems in the 7-12 story segment which represents an incremental opportunity of 1 bbf per year.
2021 AWC By The Numbers
Think Wood grew its lead generation and nurturing efforts, increasing its marketing engagements by more than 129%, adding more than 27,000 new contacts, and increasing its sales qualified leads by more than 600% year-over-year.
2021 TW By The Numbers
WoodWorks influenced 1,700 projects to build with wood, 79% of which were light-frame projects. Collectively these projects represent 789 million board feet of incremental softwood lumber consumption.
2021 WW By The Numbers
The SLB operationalized new partnerships to expand installer and construction management training and increase university-level wood education. It also continued to expand the reach and offerings of the Wood Institute as a pre-eminent provider of professional wood-focused education.
2021 WI By The Numbers
The SLB strengthened its relationship with the USDA by entering into a new Memorandum of Understanding focused on collaborative initiatives to grow the demand for softwood lumber products.
In partnership with the USDA, the SLB contributed match funding to five Wood Innovations Grants—leveraging our investment by nearly 3-to-1—to support research and implementation of mass timber solutions that will pave the way for more similar projects.