The innovation challenge continues Weyerhaeuser’s long history of partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
Last year, along with our partners at Habitat for Humanity, we launched the inaugural Weyerhaeuser Innovation Challenge and invited Habitat affiliates from across the country to submit their most creative ideas for using sustainable wood products to increase equitable access to affordable, high-quality homes. From dozens of entries, we selected six finalists and awarded each $15,000 to carry out their winning ideas.
Local teams went to work this spring, implementing concepts and completing projects that addressed important housing-related issues such as disaster resilience, workforce development and waste reduction at construction sites. Many of these innovations can be scaled to provide enduring benefits to help build a future where everyone has access to a high-quality, sustainably built home — one of our 3 by 30 Sustainability Ambitions. Read on for details about each of this year’s winning entries.
Habitat for Humanity Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Innovation: Leverage a new indoor, temperature-controlled, urban-construction facility to fabricate modular wall panels that can be used to build affordable, sustainable homes quickly.
Impact: The new Connie Hillman Urban Construction Knowledge Center, known as CHUCK, opened in Tucson, Arizona, in 2023, providing Habitat for Humanity Tucson a unique opportunity to accelerate local construction of affordable homes. Using jig systems, the CHUCK Center can produce a dozen different modular wall sections that can be combined in multiple ways to create exterior, load-bearing walls. CHUCK will enable Habitat for Humanity Tucson to increase its annual home production from 12 to more than 30 by 2025 and reduce the time it takes to build an exterior envelope by at least two weeks. The facility also provides new opportunities for construction training and career development, fueling economic and social progress – all while increasing the local supply of quality, affordable homes.
Volunteers at work in the CHUCK Center.
Habitat for Humanity of the Northern Flint Hills
Manhattan, Kansas
Innovation: Compare the performance of two different kinds of construction methods for solar-powered homes – one prefabricated, and one site-built using advanced framing – for pocket neighborhoods and infill development.
Impact: In Ogden, Kansas, a rural community near Manhattan, Kansas, the lack of affordable housing coupled with the town’s transient population of students and soldiers has led to a significant overvaluation of deteriorated homes and a market where nearly 60 percent of homes are rented. Many of these rental properties are energy inefficient and poorly maintained, impacting the health and quality of life of residents. Habitat for Humanity of the Northern Flint Hills is working to improve the community one block at a time, training students to fabricate and build solar-powered homes using advanced framing techniques and multiple delivery types in neighborhoods where significant disinvestment has occurred. The result is more affordable, energy-efficient homes and more hands-on, local training for the future skilled workforce.
Volunteers work on a home in Ogden, Kansas.
New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity
New Orleans, Louisiana
Innovation: Create more resilient communities in storm-prone areas by using new construction methods to build elevated cottage homes to FORTIFIED Gold standards.
Impact: In Jean Lafitte, a rural community about 45 minutes south of New Orleans, more than 90 percent of all homes were damaged by Hurricane Ida in August 2021. New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity is helping rebuild the community so that it is stronger and more resilient against future hurricanes and extreme weather events. Elevated cottage homes keep primary living spaces out of range of most flooding events to prevent water damage, mold and property loss, while FORTIFIED Gold roofing systems provide twice the wind resistance and reduce water intrusion by nearly 95 percent. Homes built to these specifications also cost less to insure, saving homeowners money on wind and hazard premiums.
A drawing of an elevated cottage home
Genesee County Habitat for Humanity
Flint, Michigan
Innovation: Adopt advanced framing techniques – e.g., wider stud spacing and increased insulation throughout the home – to conserve building materials, reduce construction waste and improve energy efficiency in residential homes.
Impact: Advanced framing promotes access to affordable housing by reducing the cost of labor and materials, improving the home’s energy efficiency and enabling faster build times. By using these highly underutilized techniques, Genesee County Habitat for Humanity can serve more local residents, deliver more energy-efficient homes and reduce the amount of waste at construction sites.
The interior of a framed home using the advanced techniques.
Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity
St. Cloud, Minnesota
Innovation: Increase the diversity of high-school students learning construction trade skills and reduce the racial gaps in homeownership.
Impact: Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity (CMHFH) regularly partners with local high schools to build homes with students on school grounds. The homes are then moved to sites where they are finished by volunteers. This year, CMHFH set out to increase the participation of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) students in its trade skills program, which is coordinated through Technical High School in St. Cloud, Minnesota (59 percent BIPOC student population), and helped recruit 55 students and family members to enroll, growing the diversity of the program and expanding hands-on learning opportunities for students interested in pursuing careers in residential construction. CMHFH also established new local partnerships to amplify its work toward closing the racial gap in home ownership in Minnesota.
Student volunteers work together to raise a wall.
Habitat for Humanity Sanford Area
Sanford, North Carolina
Innovation: Reuse and repurpose scrap lumber from residential construction sites for smaller building projects and/or chipped products, reducing the amount of waste material going to landfills.
Impact: Habitat for Humanity Sanford Area implemented a sorting system at select construction sites to identify scrap lumber that could be used for smaller projects such as planters, mailboxes and doghouses, or that could be chipped for products such as animal bedding, mulch and land cover. At some sites, students from nearby Lee County and Southern Lee High Schools assisted in the effort, which so far has led to at least 12 families receiving birdhouses and at least one family receiving a doghouse. Using scrap lumber in this way not only reduces waste, but it also saves on disposal costs.
A birdhouse built from scrap lumber.
