The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) recently published its 2023 Annual Report, which details the organization’s impact generating more softwood lumber demand by expanding new and emerging markets and protecting existing markets. The SLB Annual Report is available online at www.softwoodlumberboard.org/annualreport.
“Through its direct investments and the efforts of our funded programs—the AWC, Think Wood, and WoodWorks—the SLB delivered another strong year for demand growth and impact for the softwood lumber industry, generating 1.9 billion board feet in incremental demand in 2023,” said SLB President & CEO Cees de Jager. “Challenging markets, particularly in the non-residential segment, have required developers to differentiate their projects, and converting them to wood has enabled them to do so, allowing them to benefit from lumber’s economic and environmental value proposition. The impact of the increase in demand for wood and diversification away from other materials resulted in a total carbon benefit—stored and avoided—of 5 million metric tons of CO2 in 2023.”
Since 2012, the SLB and its partners have cumulatively generated more than 13.7 billion board feet in demand; this equates to an average return of 86 incremental board feet for every $1 invested. Since 2015, the SLB’s efforts have created a net carbon benefit of 33.8 million metric tons of avoided and stored carbon dioxide emissions.
In 2023, 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:
- 10 new states adopted the IBC 2021 code provisions in 2023 with AWC support, bringing the total to 29. Code adoption in those states represents 1.1 BBF of incremental lumber demand.
- Think Wood and WoodWorks co-nurtured leads that led to 51 projects breaking ground in 2023, representing 73.6 MM BF. Think Wood continues to nurture and produce sales qualified leads (SQLs) for project support, qualifying 352 SQLs last year.
- WoodWorks directly converted 470 light-frame and mass timber buildings and influenced 1,700 projects to choose wood, resulting in 842 MM BF of incremental lumber in 2023. Sixty-six percent of the projects WoodWorks supports continued to be light-frame construction; 34% used mass timber, up from 26% in 2022.
- The SLB and funded program delivered more than 156,300 hours of education to architects, engineers, designers, developers, contractors, and code officials.
The SLB’s investment in programs like the 2023 Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero Carbon, with joint funding from the USDA Forest Service, supports multiple segments of the design and construction industry and assists project teams to solve challenges and overcome hurdles that often confront newer products and systems.
Read more: AR 2023 - AR Softwood Lumber Board 2023 Newsletter (English-Investor)