Entry Period Begins for $1.8M Mass Timber Competition: Building Sustainable Schools

Eligible project teams are encouraged to submit proposals for the 2025 Mass Timber Competition: Building Sustainable Schools, funded by the Softwood Lumber Board and USDA Forest Service. This year’s competition will award funds totaling $1.8 million to support projects that accelerate the pace of mass timber adoption in the United States, specifically in the K-12 learning environment. The competition entry deadline is January 13, 2025, and results will be announced in June 2025 at the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design.

Eligible projects must be located within the United States and be a K-12 educational project including, but not limited to, classrooms, libraries, athletic facilities, offices, resource centers, portable classrooms, daycare facilities, and vocational centers. Eligible applicants include for-profit building organizations registered in the U.S. including architects, engineers, owners, general contractors, and manufacturers; not-for-profit organizations incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation or society formed in the U.S. such as trusts, religious bodies, and associations; U.S. local government entities such as public school districts, cities, counties, and states; and Native American tribal governments and organizations.

Applicant teams may apply for a funding amount that is appropriate to the project, but no higher than $500,000. Award recipients will agree to share cost analyses, life cycle assessments, post-occupancy biophilic studies, and other information about their project with the broader design and construction community to encourage and support other mass timber teams.

A judging panel representing the fields of education, architecture, engineering, construction, and sustainability will select the competition finalists based on their demonstration of biophilic design, carbon reduction strategies, and construction cost savings. Preference will be afforded to projects that commit to using domestically harvested and manufactured mass timber. The USGBC Center for Green Schools will assist with outreach to the education community. WoodWorks, a non-profit staffed with structural engineers, architects, and construction experts, will conduct the technical review of entries.

To learn more about the competition, view last year’s recipients, and to download the request for proposals, visit softwoodlumberboard.org/masstimbercompetition.