Homes

WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE?

Few amenities are more fundamental to life and comfort than a home. For many people, home is a sacred, personal space, and it can take many forms. It can be a home in the city, suburbs or in a small town. It can be an apartment or condominium, a tiny home, a backyard dwelling, an intergenerational home or a homestead. Regardless of its form, a home is essential shelter — yet quality, affordable, sustainable housing is in short supply in communities across North America. In fact, research continues to show the housing supply deficit in the United States remains between 1.5 million to 2 million units. While construction and building materials are certainly part of the cost of building new homes, real estate costs (the land) and flexible zoning are the primary drivers of this shortage. A preference for single-family zoning diminishes affordability and access. Adding to the challenge, housing costs and rental prices are increasing, while median household income remains relatively flat.

WHAT IS OUR ROLE?

We believe that by working with partners and applying our deep industry and supply chain expertise, we can significantly increase the overall availability of quality housing — faster, more efficiently and at a scale to make a real difference for communities of all sizes across North America. We see two main areas where we can play an important role in accelerating the volume, sustainability and diversity of available housing. The first involves supporting innovation in the wood products industry to increase the prevalence of wood-based buildings through improved construction methods and updated building codes to allow wood construction in midrise buildings. The second involves supporting the development of offsite construction and non-traditional housing options, including accessory dwelling units, tiny homes and other detached structures, aimed at providing flexible, efficient alternatives and new housing solutions. Recognizing wood as the most renewable, versatile and cost-effective building material is essential for developing sustainable options that meet various income levels and geographies.

WHAT DO WE WANT TO ACHIEVE BY 2030?

By 2030, we envision a world where sustainable wood products provide abundant, diverse options that ensure everyone has access to quality, sustainably built housing. We want to help lead a paradigm shift where people have more housing options — of all shapes and sizes — anchored in natural, renewable and high-quality materials.

WHERE WE ARE FOCUSED FOR PHASE 2 (2023 – 2025)

While there is much we can accomplish over a decade, we have structured our long-term goals into three-year phases to effectively prioritize and accelerate progress. Currently, we are two-thirds of the way through the second phase of our 3 by 30 Homes Sustainability Ambition — running from 2023 to 2025 — and are focusing on two key areas:

PHASE 2 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

During the second phase of our 3 by 30 Sustainability Ambitions, we are intentionally making fewer, but more strategic, investments of our time and resources. While much of our work is ongoing, we have already achieved several important milestones.

• We joined the Executive Council for Housing Affordability, part of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy. By participating on the council, we are engaging stakeholders in important conversations about the role of wood products in affordable housing.
• In 2024, we partnered with Habitat for Humanity to launch the Weyerhaeuser Innovation Challenge. Participating Habitat affiliates developed and ideas to use wood products to increase fair access to affordable homes, demonstrating sustainability and resilience. Winning ideas focused on workforce development, disaster resilience and construction-waste reduction, with most having the potential to be scaled across Habitat’s 1,100 affiliate locations.
• We expanded our partnerships with the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and Clemson University’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute, engaging students and academic and professional communities on both campuses about building sustainably with wood through applied research, projects and seminars. At the University of Arkansas, we supported two applied research and design projects: prototyping a 3D-printed, wood-composite house and engineering mass timber for three common housing typologies important to rural communities. At Clemson, we supported the creation of a design studio and competition to address affordable housing through sustainable design.

To ensure transparency and accountability, we will continue sharing our accomplishments and baseline measures from Phase 2 semi-annually.

FOUNDATIONAL SUCCESSES FROM PHASE 1 (2020 – 2022)

In the first phase of our work, we focused on laying the foundation for meaningful progress. We learned that increasing construction efficiency and expanding options for unconventional housing are highly interconnected and adjusted our next phase of tactics accordingly. We accomplished more than 80 percent of the actions we set out to achieve; remaining actions were rolled into Phase 2 or set aside in favor of more effective tactics.