Homes
Our sustainable products help provide homes for everyone
WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE?
Few amenities are more fundamental to life and comfort than a home. It is a place where people sleep, entertain and break bread with friends and family; retreat from the busy world; and raise their children. For many, home is a sacred, personal space, and it can take many forms. It can be a single-family detached home in the suburbs or in a small town or city. It can be an apartment or condominium in a multifamily building, a place where two or more households live under the same roof, an intergenerational family home or a homestead in a rural setting.
Regardless of its form, a home is essential shelter — yet quality, affordable housing is in short supply in communities across North America. In fact, recent research suggests the United States ended 2020 with a housing supply deficit of close to 4 million units. While construction and building materials are certainly part of the cost of building new homes, real estate costs (the land) are the primary driver of this shortage. Additionally, a preference for single-family zoning drives housing scarcity and escalates costs, diminishing affordability. Adding to the challenge, housing costs and rental prices are increasing, while median household income remains relatively flat.

WHAT IS OUR ROLE?
Working with partners and through our deep industry and supply chain expertise, we believe we can significantly increase the overall availability of quality, affordable housing — faster, more efficiently and at a scale to make a real difference for communities of all sizes across North America. And we see three areas, in particular, where we can have an important role in accelerating the volume, affordability and diversity of housing on the market.
The first involves innovating in the wood products industry to improve building speed and efficiency — essentially enabling developers to construct more houses with the existing constraints of labor, time and expenses. The second involves updating building codes and techniques to allow wood construction in midrise buildings of 5 to 10-plus stories, greatly multiplying the density of available housing. And the third involves supporting the development of nontraditional housing — from accessory dwelling units to tiny homes and other detached structures — to provide flexible alternatives for creating new homes through wood-based construction.
To get there, we need to ensure enough options are available to meet different income levels and suit different geographies, and we also need to improve the overall understanding and acceptance of wood as the most sustainable, versatile and cost-effective building material. We see a double win in achieving these goals: More wood construction also decreases our planet’s dependence on building materials such as concrete and steel that rely on large amounts of fossil fuels in their production and use and have much higher environmental impacts than wood.
WHAT DO WE WANT TO ACHIEVE BY 2030?
By 2030, we envision a world where sustainable wood products are providing abundant, creative opportunities for ensuring everyone has access to quality, sustainably built housing. We want to be part of a paradigm shift where there are more housing options — of all shapes and sizes — anchored in natural, renewable and efficient materials.
WHERE ARE WE FOCUSED?
While there is much we can accomplish over a decade, we have structured our long-term goals into three-year segments, or sprints, to effectively prioritize and accelerate progress. During the first three years of our 3 by 30 Sustainability Ambitions, we are focusing our work in three key areas and measuring our progress toward specific actions:
Innovation in the wood products industry to improve building speed and efficiency
By improving supply chain efficiency and reducing cycle time and waste, we see opportunities to enable the development of more houses with the same labor, time and money.
Supporting innovation and development of wood-based construction methods to replace less sustainable, nonrenewable materials
Through updated building codes, techniques and material efficiency, we see an opportunity to create more housing units on the same land by expanding the use of wood in taller buildings.
Increasing available housing options by supporting alternative and unconventional home-building efforts
By lending our resources to key partnerships in quality, sustainable and nontraditional home-building initiatives, we see an opportunity to create more homes — of all shapes and sizes, and for all income levels — in our operational areas and key markets.
MEASURING SUCCESS
In 2022, as we explore and implement these solutions for sustainable homes, we are developing measurable-success metrics for our overall 2030 vision and within each focus area. We plan to report baseline measures beginning in 2023.
FOUNDATIONAL SUCCESS
In this first phase of our work to achieve our 3 by 30 Sustainability Ambitions, we are laying the groundwork for meaningful progress toward our goals. The key objectives and accomplishments below are foundational to our success and will be updated throughout our journey.
Key Objective
Accomplishment
In 2020 and 2021, we participated in a two-week digital entrepreneurship competition, Hacking for Homebuilding, sponsored by the College of Innovation + Design’s Venture College and the College of Engineering at Boise State University. We supported teams of students from universities and colleges across Idaho with industry expertise to develop solutions to real-world home building problems, including labor constraints and affordable housing.
In 2020 we became a founding partner with Ivory Innovations, supporting the Ivory Prize and the Housing Affordability Summit.
In 2020 we supported Clemson University’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute with a grant for its Disaster Recovery Relief Project: Housing & Medical Build Studio.
In 2021 we leveraged our participation in the National Association of Home Builders International Builders’ Show to highlight our sustainability ambitions and engage our supply chain and customers in a discussion related to our 3 by 30 goals and the role of wood products in expanding housing options.
Key Objective
Accomplishments
In 2021 our government relations team worked with our business leaders to identify innovative wood building materials and mass timber building-code adoption as a top priority in our legislative action plans.Accomplishments
In 2018 the International Code Council developed code provisions for mass timber construction projects up to 18 stories; those provisions were then added to the 2021 International Building Code. Part of our ongoing activity includes working to get the IBC’s codes adopted in the U.S. Our team is working with partners and associations at the state level to build acceptance of mass timber, position innovative wood building materials as a low-carbon option and encourage states to expand mass timber promotion and construction projects.Key Objective
Accomplishments
In 2020 we awarded a grant to the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design for a research project and design studio called Wood City: Timberizing the City’s Building Blocks. The project received a 2021 Green Good Design Award.
Building on this success, in 2021 we funded a second design research project, A Just Home for the Arkansas Timberlands. Together, these projects have helped amplify the school’s emphasis on timber and wood products, as well as affordable housing. Both projects have been expanded into additional work with new partners interested in using mass timber for affordable housing and also in rural, forest-centered communities.
These design projects led us to support the University of Arkansas with an additional $500,000 contribution to its new mass timber building, which will house the university’s wood design and innovation center.
Accomplishments
In 2021 and 2022, we sponsored the International Mass Timber Report, which informed the International Mass Timber Conference, the world’s largest gathering of mass timber experts.Accomplishments
In 2021 we joined the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Mass Timber Action Committee, a group of civil society and business leaders focused on moving sustainable mass timber from a niche opportunity to a mainstream option and developing tools to expand the use of mass timber. As part of this committee, we participated in a virtual panel on the future of this green building material.Key Objective
Accomplishments
We have an ongoing partnership with Habitat for Humanity to connect our employee volunteers and direct giving with local chapters across North America. Since 2018, our employees have participated in 51 building projects with local Habitat for Humanity chapters, which we paired with more than $135,000 in direct donations. In 2022, we are expanding our Habitat for Humanity International partnership to support more than 10 local housing builds in or near our communities with an additional $175,000 donation.Accomplishments
In 2021, we were the lead sponsor for Operation Tiny Home’s “Alpha” House, a prototype for a small home, built in part from our products, that was then donated to Mattersville, a community supporting veteran housing.By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy. California residents: See our CCPA Privacy Notice for details on what personal information we collect and for what purposes.