Being responsible for millions of acres of forests and creating long-lived wood products for homes and other buildings, we are uniquely positioned to be part of the solution to this global challenge. 

FORESTS AND WOOD PRODUCTS ARE NATURAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

Weyerhaeuser and the forest products sector have a role to play not just in reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions but also providing direct solutions to the challenges posed by climate change.

First, our millions of acres of sustainably managed forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, and much of the carbon stored in the harvested trees continues to stay captured in our long-lived wood products. By replanting our forests after harvesting, our growing trees once again absorb carbon dioxide and the next round of wood products store more carbon yet again.

With a robust and healthy market for wood products, forest managers have an incentive to continue growing trees and providing a sustainable and renewable raw material into the global fiber supply chain. This repeating cycle is counterintuitive to many, but it is a crucial distinction for how working forests - those managed to produce wood products - can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Second, wood products have lower embodied emissions than other building materials. When compared to steel and concrete, for example, wood products require less energy and produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions to make and use. Using wood products instead of non-renewable and energy-intensive building materials is a double-win.

And, third, our healthy and well-managed forests help the planet adapt to a changing climate by providing critical stormwater management, ecosystem services, and wildlife habitat.

REDUCING OUR GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

We are committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and limiting our use of fossil fuels. In 2010, we set a goal to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2020 (compared to a 2000 baseline). We've already exceeded our goal and, as of the end of 2018, our total (or absolute) greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 53 percent. These reductions were primarily driven by consolidating operations to our higher-efficiency mills, replacing fossil fuels with carbon-neutral biomass fuels, and reducing our fertilizer use in our timberlands. Even with increased production, we expect we will be able to maintain or further decrease our emissions with the continued installation of new capital equipment and projects. 

View our greenhouse gas data

OUR RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES

We believe climate change will result in the disruption of normal business patterns and that there are opportunities and risks to each of our businesses and our company. We also believe we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the opportunities and be part of the climate change solution. 

Climate change-related risks we are currently assessing and managing: 

  • Physical risks of climate change, including changes in temperature and precipitation and the variability of disturbance events such as fire, flood and hurricanes, which could affect the forests we own and manage.  
  • Proposals for carbon legislation at the federal, regional and state levels in the United States and Canada, as well as international climate change agreements.
  • The cost of energy and the development of renewable energy markets.
  • Public policy choices concerning renewable energy and biomass.

Opportunities we are currently assessing include:

  • Changes to our tree growing conditions in certain regions where we operate.
  • Increased demand or interest in our forest lands for climate change mitigation options. 
  • Continued development of the forest carbon offset market.
  • Additional market opportunities for forest-based products, both for existing product lines and for new innovations using renewable forest products. We believe forests, wood products and biomass can be a prime source of raw material for a variety of products that will benefit an economy striving to use renewable and low-carbon products. 

We provide more details regarding these risks and opportunities in our Annual Report as well as in our response to the CDP Climate Change questionnaire. 

CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY

We are active in the policy discussion regarding climate change and renewable energy. We are a long-time and active member of the Forest-Climate Working Group, a sector-wide coalition working to advance forests as a climate change solution. We also support the USDA’s 10 Building Block Strategy for Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry as a path for the United States to reduce GHG emissions from these sectors.

We believe climate change-related public policies that are based on sound science, set clear performance objectives and standards, and leverage free-market economics can achieve beneficial change with respect to energy security and greenhouse gas emissions. We support federal action, rather than state-specific solutions. 

We also support policies that:

  • Recognize managed, productive forests and wood products are part of the solution.
  • Recognize carbon dioxide emissions from biomass as carbon neutral.
  • Establish a robust domestic and international market-based program and allows credit for the sequestration and storage of carbon through reforestation, afforestation, avoided deforestation, harvested wood products and forest management projects.
  • Provide credit for early actions, such as those taken over the past decade, that reduce GHG emissions or increase sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
  • Ensure energy-intensive manufacturers are not at a competitive disadvantage in international markets.

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