This week, we are excited to release a new video that focuses on the important role of sustainable working forests and wood products in addressing climate change. Demonstrating how we contribute to climate solutions is a key part of our sustainability strategy and one of our 3 by 30 Sustainability Ambitions, and this video captures why we are involved in this issue — and also why it is so critical for us to make a positive impact.
Reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is fundamental to any climate change solution, and that’s precisely what our forests and products do each day. Every tree in our millions of acres of forests removes CO2 from the atmosphere and stores it as solid carbon. Every piece of lumber or joist we produce, or that our customers make from our logs, stores much of that carbon for the life of the homes and buildings our wood products are used to build. Then after harvest, the millions of new trees we plant absorb even more CO2 as they grow, continually adding to carbon storage pools in our forests and products. It’s part of a continuous process of carbon sequestration and storage that only increases over time.
Yet for working forests to effectively contribute to climate change mitigation, we need broader public awareness and understanding of their unique benefits as a mechanism for both carbon sequestration and carbon storage. That’s why we are focused on setting clear targets for our own climate commitments and greenhouse gas reductions, and also being fully transparent about the research and science behind our decision-making and goals. Some key progress from the past year includes:
- In 2022, we joined The Climate Pledge and committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2040.
- We released the branded version of our industry-leading and now award-winning Carbon Record, which details how our net impact as a company is significantly carbon negative (in 2021 alone, we removed nearly five times more CO2 equivalent than we emitted).
- We developed a comprehensive Wood Products energy strategy and integrated greenhouse gas emissions and energy metrics into our capital planning process.
- We developed an internal climate science research strategy to identify our near- and long-term needs related to managing our forests in a changing climate (making sure the trees we grow are adapted to a changing climate; using decision tools that incorporate future climate conditions; ensuring infrastructure and operations are prepared for future climate conditions; and informing disaster response plans).
- We supported advocacy efforts to help ensure climate-smart forestry and carbon storage tax incentives were included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
We also continued to develop and strengthen a number of important partnerships this year:
- We participated in the development of the Land Sector and Removals Guidance with the GHG Protocol, including playing a central role on the technical working group and by piloting the draft guidance;
- We partnered with the Michigan State University Forest Carbon and Climate Program’s educational series and supported fellows through the program;
- We helped develop a forest scenario analysis tool with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
We continued supporting our trade associations and research partners as well, particularly in helping them share accurate and compelling information about the role of working forests and wood products in addressing climate change. Some key projects we supported include:
- NAFO’s forest carbon visualization tool;
- American Wood Council’s work to improve the quality of data related to manufacturing;
- The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities’ effort to build a system that drives change and scalable impact through the clear understanding and transparency of carbon and forestry knowledge, practices and tools.
We know how critical it is for us to make meaningful progress on this front, and these updates reflect only part of our overall climate work at Weyerhaeuser. Though we know there is no single answer or silver bullet for climate change, we understand that we have an important role to play in delivering solutions today and over the long term — for the good of our company, our employees, our communities and the planet.
