EPD Data Collection Strives to Transparently Showcase the Sustainable Story Behind Wood Products | SLB February 2023 Newsletter

Partnerships paid dividends as wood groups including the Southern Forest Products Association, the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association, the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association, the Western Wood Preservers Institute, and the Western Wood Products Association united under the Think Wood banner to have a successful presence at the International Builders’ Show—where even single-family builders showed an increased interest in mass timber.

The National Association of Homebuilders is touting that this was the largest Builders’ Show attendance in 10 years, with 70,000 attendees and 1,300 exhibitors. Think Wood can confirm that attendance at the booth was highest since at least 2019. Visitors were witness to the makeover that the Think Wood Mobile Tour received during the offseason. In addition to a refreshed exterior design, the exhibit now includes a display of Rothoblass fasteners, connections, and other hardware used to assemble mass timber systems.

The mobile tour will be central to Think Wood’s show presence at the upcoming International Mass Timber Conference (March 27–29 in Portland, Oregon) and the American Institute of Architects’ Conference on Architecture (June 8–9 in San Francisco). In support of the SLB Education program, the display stopped at Texas A&M in coordination with the school of architecture’s career fair (February 16–17) and is planning three additional university events. Think Wood will host several of the above-mentioned association partners at the residential contractor–focused JLC Live event next month (March 24–25 in Providence, Rhode Island).

The American Wood Council is ramping up its efforts to collect 2023 environmental product declaration (EPD) data and invites SLB investors to submit their information. The AWC has been working toward compiling data on the production processes and environmental impacts of products produced by its member companies into a single database, with the goal of capturing data from the rest of the softwood lumber products produced in the U.S., as well. The AWC’s LCA Data Specialist Anna Ostrander is leading the charge and has helped refine the submission process; she is working closely with member companies to provide the technical assistance to support their data entry.

The data being collected represents the life cycle of forest products, including fiber sourcing, the primary and secondary products produced, the energy that goes into production, and the end use. Data is anonymized and will be used to produce life cycle analyses and environmental impact studies that can be used for regional EPDs. A data search query tool will launch in Q3 and continue to be developed over time.

Sharing this data “helps the wood industry because EPDs show the lower embodied carbon of wood products compared to concrete or steel and provide documentation that wood is the most sustainable structural material for the built environment,” Ostrander says. “The market is demanding transparency in carbon and climate impacts of structural building materials, and wood has an incredible story to tell. By contributing data to our efforts, you join the AWC’s efforts for radical transparency around wood products and are part of that story.”

As SLB President and CEO Cees de Jager points out, sharing that story is critical: “While we, as an industry, were one of the first to develop an EPD, we have not kept up with other sectors in recent years, and now we’re playing catch up,” he says. “Regardless of whether or not they are AWC members, it is essential that lumber producers engage in the process. The EPD data is foundational to our environmental value proposition which differentiates our products from the competition and a primary driver in capturing market share in non-traditional market segments and growing the use of softwood lumber products in the built environment.”

To add EPD data to the AWC’s efforts, contact Ostrander directly at aostrander@awc.org.

The USDA Forest Service is accepting applications for two wood-related grant programs—the Wood Innovations Grants (WIG) and the Community Wood Grant (CWG) programs.

Launched in 2015, the WIG program supports U.S. wood products markets and wood energy markets to support long-term forest management by providing funding in focus areas such as mass timber, renewable wood energy, and technological development that fosters hazardous fuel reduction and sustainable forest management.

Launched in 2020, the CWG funds grants for the installation of renewable and thermally led community wood energy systems and innovative wood product manufacturing facilities. But a key difference for this year’s CWG program is that grant funding may now be used for capital projects, including equipment procurement.

Applications for both programs are due at 5:00 p.m. local time on March 23.

The SLB seeks nominations of softwood lumber manufacturers and importers interested in candidacy for Board seats coming open in January 2024. Each director will serve a three-year term and may serve for a maximum of two consecutive terms. The deadline for nominations is April 14.

The SLB is seeking nominees to fill four seats for Directors whose terms expire on December 31:

• Three domestic manufacturers:
  • Two large companies representing the U.S. South. (Based on a review of 2019-2021 data, “large companies” are those that ship or import 510 million board feet or more of assessable softwood lumber annually.)
  • One company of any size representing the U.S. West (flex seat).
• One importer:
  • One small company representing any importing region.

To be eligible, nominees operating within the regions named above must manufacture and ship within the United States, or import into the United States, at least 15 million board feet of softwood lumber annually. Under the program, large companies are defined as those that account for the top two-thirds of the volume of assessable softwood lumber annually, and small companies account for the remaining assessable softwood lumber.

The timeline for the nomination, appointment process, and further details can be found here.