Staying Sustainable in Turbulent Times

Weyerhaeuser’s commitment to sustainability remains strong in the face of turbulent economic times.

In 2008, we achieved a long-held safety goal: a recordable incident rate of less than one. Recordable incidents are defined by OSHA, and the recordable incident rate, or RIR, is the most common metric used for reporting safety performance. In 2009, our employees proved that our safety record is sustainable, shrinking the RIR from 0.98 to 0.62.

Another major achievement is the formation of Catchlight Energy LLC, a 50-50 joint venture with Chevron. The goal is to develop technology to convert cellulose-based biomass from nonfood sources into economical, low-carbon biofuels. Using biomass for energy is nothing new to Weyerhaeuser. We use bark, wood residuals, and wood extractives from wood pulping to fuel about 75 percent of our manufacturing energy needs.

During 2008, we reduced water use by 10 percent in our cellulose fibers mills and were named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which tracks North American companies by their economic, environmental and social performance.