Thank you. I hope you enjoyed Weyerhaeuser’s new advertising campaign. There’s a lot of talk about sustainability. The ads are our “walk.” Today, I’ll tell you a little more about the thoughts that formed that bubble.
Thanks for joining me here in the district. I grew up inPhiladelphia and made many short trips to our nation’s capital. I came by train from 30th street and arrived at Union Station.
I loved coming out into the light from the dark station and walking across Columbus circle. Around it flies each state’s flag in the order in which they entered the Union. Pennsylvania is second from the right. My adopted home state of Alaska is second from the left.
In the circle’s center there is a colossal likeness of Christopher Columbus standing next to the bow of one of his ships—and just above him, a large globe. Make the trip down Massachusetts Avenue to see the station. Like so many other historic landmarks, it’s now home to shops and restaurants. But while you’re there get a snapshot of your state flag and think about Christopher Columbus.
We are connected to Columbus and his era of discovery right here in this room. Our quest is for meaning, not gold. Common ground on sustainability might prove just as elusive. Let me explain.
A long time ago, when most believed the earth was flat, some dared sail to the world’s edge. You have seen maps that illustrate their courage. They show, in beautiful likeness, the treacherous storms and ferocious serpents, not to mention mermaids and muses that blocked their way. Early explorers used their courage and imagination to guide them. They overcame great fear spawned from deep-seated cultural beliefs to make those lonely voyages. The round-earth explorers were part of this crowd. They offered simple proof to the flat-earth people: climb the mast and see a distant landfall—return to the deck and it is gone. The horizon is downhill. They promised to sail around the world. The flat-earthers have modern day cousins. They are the limited earth people whose view of the future is bounded by fear. The round-earth explorers have their cousins, too. Many of you are here today. You believe that we can grow, invent, discover and adapt our way to a sustainable economy and society.
Sustainability is a new way of talking about life on this planet. Some are afraid but others are bold. I’m with the bold ones. Our ancestors walked out of prehistory with fire, flint stone and domesticated animals. We will pass through this time with the same determination and ingenuity.
Beware of fuzzy thinking about sustainability. Our collective passion for bad news sets a messy stage for straight talk about our future. We must carve through the solid rock of conventional wisdom to find enthusiasm for good news. We are inundated with “shoulds” and “oughts” about human behavior. Often the bad news is wrong and sets up worrying about the wrong things. In North America the air is more polluted today than ever. Right? Wrong. Forestlands are disappearing at an alarming rate. Right? Wrong.
Shortly, I’ll tell you about one of the great myths of sustainability that has hounded the forest products industry for years. It is a myth ingrained in our culture and perpetuated by our marketplace. When exposed, it reveals a surprising new truth, a truth that makes some uncomfortable.
I will do so in the spirit of Columbus and his fellow voyagers. So I ask each of you to imagine a new world below the distant horizon and let imagination, ingenuity, and innovation serve as your guide. You will learn as I continue that I am a global optimist.
David Roodman’s book “The Natural Wealth of Nations” offers this helpful observation (quote) “there are many reasons to believe that industrial economies are much more flexible in the long run than they appear from where we stand today. What makes perceiving the capacity for change hard is the difficulty of imagining any development path that is not a simple extrapolation of past trends, any world that is much different from our own. Yet the past is a notoriously poor guide to the future.” (end quote)
Let me give you an example of this human ingenuity at work. We’ll look at the facts about air pollution. From 1970 to 2000 the gross domestic product increased 161%. During the same period, vehicle miles traveled in the United States increased 149%, yet energy consumption only increased 42%. Of specific relevance to environmental protection, aggregate emission of air pollutants decreased by 25%.
How did this happen? Not by accident. Ingenuity, adaptation and discipline. Alan Kay, the visionary who developed the concept of the notebook computer in the 1960s says “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” The future is not a fact. It is an opportunity. Ben Zander, a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music opens each semester by giving all of his students an “A.” He then challenges them to create a report card written in the present but dated the next spring that justifies the grade. He is inviting them to create their future – to tell NOW why they will deserve an “A” at the end of the year. We are students in the world cycle. Let’s do what Professor Zander challenges and look now to what will make us worthy later of accolade in sustainable business.
Take courage in the challenge. Don’t forget that black soot and smoke from coal covered the cities of the world’s industrial nations in the late 19th century, choking some and killing others. Poor sanitation and tainted water were the leading causes of death. Human ingenuity solved these problems—it will solve those before us now.
Perhaps you remember the 1980 sustainability wager between economist Julian Simon and biologist Paul Ehrlich. Ehrlich is a pessimist. He predicted massive shortages in virtually all natural resources and asserted that whole countries would starve by the end of the 20th century. His book “The Population Bomb” spawned cultural hysteria, including the Charleton Heston movie “Soylent Green” about voluntary euthanasia and cannibalism.
Simon was an optimist. He possessed an unshakable confidence in the resilience of human beings. Simon believed that sustainability was not the result of hoarding or saving, but instead was the result of man’s ability to discover, develop and adapt.
In their wager, Simon gave Ehrlich the opportunity to pick five metals worth $1,000 dollars. If after 10 years the metal price increased that would indicate the metals had become more scarce and, therefore, more precious. If the price decreased, then the metal was more abundant and less valuable. Ehrlich bet the price of each metal would go up. Simon, down.
Ehrlich chose copper, chromium, nickel, tin and tungsten. After 10 years the price of Erlich’s basket of metals had decreased. Simon won—even without the benefit of and adjustment for inflation. Ehrlich lost and sent Simon a check for $576.07
Simon was vindicated. His great contribution to the sustainability dialogue is that natural resources are just rocks and stones until well mixed with human intellect, which is itself an infinitely renewable resource.
At Weyerhaeuser, we’ve been harnessing the power of human ingenuity for more than 107 years.
Weyerhaeuser established the first tree farm in the U.S. in the 1940s. We’ve gone on to perfect cloning, seed germination, pollination, planting, thinning, pruning and fertilizing that have doubled and tripled the growth rate of our trees. Our forests meet the needs of the present without compromising future generations. We met the needs of the 20th century with wood products for shelter, communication and commerce. We will meet the needs of the 21st century with additional products from wood’s cellulose fiber. If you are not familiar with modern disposable diapers made from our wonderful wood fiber pulp, I will lend you a grandchild for a day. Our operations are compatible with soil, air and water quality, and habitat preservation and aesthetics. Our forest practices are monitored and certified to third-party sustainable forestry standards, established in Canada by the Canadian Standards Association and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative here in the U.S. This year, as we have in previous years, we will plant over 100 million new trees.
We use almost every part of the tree. Chips from lumber mills are pulped to make boxes, paper, absorbents, and fabric. Small logs are engineered into substitutes for sawn lumber. Branches are left on the forest floor to return nutrients to the soil. Even bark is used. Formerly burned or buried as waste, now bark, sawdust, and dissolved wood fiber are used to produce more than 70 percent of the energy that powers our mills.
Our sustainable practices require less fertilizer — 22 percent less since 2004. Because of our confidence in technology, we’ve committed to a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gases in the 20 years ending in 2020.
We are bullish on technology. This spring we announced our cooperation with Chevron to create petroleum alternatives from cellulose fiber. Our plan will leave the corn to the food chain and produce fuel for our cars from renewable fiber crops.
Our industry’s sustainable practices have led to a remarkable, yet oddly unheralded, success. Most in the U.S. don’t realize that U.S. forest acreage has rebounded to the levels of 1900. Most think our forests are shrinking. It’s an idea so ingrained that focus group participants, when told the truth, become upset and argue with the moderator. Unfortunately, if this myth persists, our success in maintaining a healthy forest landscape here in the U.S. is likely to be short-lived.
So now I come to the sustainability myth:
Let me explain: how often have you heard, “save a tree?” Perhaps some of you use this measure in your sustainability standards.
At best, this is a silly aphorism. It seems intuitively right but it’s not. After all, we can’t save individual trees — they’re not immortal. They will rot and die—or die and rot. Either way they decompose, returning nutrients — and their stored carbon—to the earth and atmosphere.
We can’t save a tree, but we can save a forest—a forest can last forever. That’s what sustainability advocates want, and it’s what we want too.
A forest can be "saved" in two ways. It can be set aside from commercial use, foregoing economic value but serving other purpose such as recreation or refuge. The public may choose this forest use for public lands and will pay for its care through taxation.
But 57% of our U.S. forest land is owned privately. There’s a way to save private forest land, too. It is to ensure that the trees have economic value. If the trees have value, the landowner will retain the land for growing trees. Land and water will be protected and new trees planted as soon as possible. If people do not use forest products, timberland values are diminished. If the highest and best use is not tree growing, the land will be developed for other purposes.
As sung by Joni Mitchell, “Pave paradise and put up a parking lot.” The forest is not threatened by cutting down a tree. It is threatened by lost value in the marketplace.
Therefore, to save a forest one must grow, use and replant the trees.
Through this cycle we also remove harmful carbon from the atmosphere, save energy and improve the well being of people and the planet.
“Cut a tree and save the planet” doesn’t have the same emotional ring as “spare a tree and save the planet,” but it is true and environmentally sound. It takes 16 percent less energy to produce a home framed with wood than with concrete or steel? Unlike other building materials, wood products store carbon. Approximately 45 percent of carbon remains stored after a tree is manufactured into products. And about 10% is stored for more than 100 years, which is the emerging standard for tradable carbon credits. Think about how this empowers you as a consumer: by choosing wood products, you can build your personal bank of stored carbon. Your collective storage capacity is unlimited, and it is all in addition to the stored carbon we tree growers hold in our sustainably managed forests.
It’s good to use wood. It is time to tell this story.
Unfortunately, some U.S. companies have their rhetoric all wrong.
For example, many have recently launched new campaigns reflecting their commitment to sustainability. Their advertising uses metrics to illustrate potential environmental benefits. A popular metric is “trees saved.” They call attention to their good works by promoting products or services that minimize wood use, and therefore “save trees.”
Trees and their products are a solution to the world’s problems. It’s time to use science and economics for a clear focus on the future. It is time to stop beating up on the use of trees.
The forest products industry is not alone in seeking to overturn conventional wisdom. You each have a serpent or two swimming in your way to the edge of the world. We are all in uncharted waters. The public may not know what sustainability means, but I believe they will recognize it when we lay it out clearly for them.
We must give consumers the right choices and resist the temptation to provide false hope with slogans and simplicity.
At Weyerhaeuser we believe that human ingenuity and trees are equally vital resources—we nurture both. That’s why we believe in growing ideas.
We find inspiration in Miranda’s joyous speech from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest:
O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world
That has such people in't!
Thank you.
