Expanding Demand for Softwood Lumber with Education, Inspiration, and Facilitation

OREGON CITY, Ore., April 20, 2023 (Newswire.com) - The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) recently published its 2022 Annual Report, which details the organization's work to grow and protect markets for softwood lumber. The SLB Annual Report is available online at www.softwoodlumberboard.org/annualreport.

"For the 11th consecutive year, we collectively delivered year-over-year growth in demand and impact for the softwood lumber industry, generating more than 2 billion board feet of incremental demand in 2022—a record in the SLB's history," said Cees de Jager, SLB President and CEO. "While we are incredibly proud of that result, we are equally proud that the sustainable impacts of wood products continue to be felt in the construction industry. Project conversions in 2022 resulted in a total carbon benefit—stored and avoided—of 5.3 million metric tons of CO₂. That's the equivalent of not burning 29,270 railcars of coal or the entire state of New Hampshire parking their gas-powered vehicles for a year."

Since 2012, the SLB and its partners have cumulatively generated more than 11.8 billion board feet in demand; this equates to an average return of 84 incremental board feet for every $1 invested. Since 2015, the SLB's efforts have created a net carbon benefit of nearly 29 million metric tons of avoided and stored carbon dioxide emissions.

In 2022, the SLB continued to target investments across its key program areas of codes, communications, conversions, and education through its funded programs, partnerships, and initiatives. Key accomplishments include:

• The American Wood Council influenced changes to the 2024 IBC that will allow for 100% exposed mass timber in 12-story buildings of Type IV-B construction. It also expanded tall mass timber code provisions, working with, and educating, code officials to bring the total number of states that have adopted the provisions in the 2021 code to 19, creating more opportunity than ever before to build with mass timber.
• Think Wood's lead nurture program generated an 82% increase in leads ready to make specification decisions about using wood, qualifying more than 500 leads for potential project conversions.
• WoodWorks influenced more than 1,700 projects in 2022, representing 869 million board feet of incremental lumber demand. While the share of mass timber projects jumped from 21% to 26% in 2022, the vast majority, 74%, of the 465 projects directly supported by WoodWorks in 2022 were light-frame construction.
• The SLB's education program launched a successful faculty outreach pilot program to address the significant gap in architecture education at universities and developed an advisory panel chaired by Virginia Tech architecture professor Edward Becker to help guide the program to deeper engagement with other faculty at select universities.

The SLB's investment in programs like the 2022 Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero Carbon, with joint funding from the USDA Forest Service, helps showcase the power of mass timber as a building material but also increases adoption by featuring showcase projects that will inspire the projects of tomorrow.

Download the full SLB 2022 Annual Report at www.softwoodlumberboard.org/annualreport.

About the Softwood Lumber Board:

The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) is an industry-funded initiative established to promote the benefits and uses of softwood lumber products in outdoor, residential, and non-residential construction and to increase demand for appearance and softwood lumber products. Through strategic investments in pro-wood communications, standards development, design and engineering assistance, research, demonstrations, and partnerships, the organization seeks to make softwood lumber the preferred material choice from both an economic and environmental standpoint.

For more information about the Softwood Lumber Board, visit www.softwoodlumberboard.org.

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Source: Softwood Lumber Board