innovatoroftheyear

As our Engineered Wood Products plant in Eugene, Oregon, prepared for an expected market slowdown in late 2022, Tom Mihalik sought out novel ways to cut costs and improve efficiency. ... Read More

Before our corporate headquarters moved to Seattle in 2016, our Tax department had 99 four-drawer cabinets at our Federal Way campus, each one stuffed full of paper that had to be whittled down. The team’s ultimate goal was to be paperless, but getting there would take buy-in, collaboration and a willingness to change — plus a whole lot of work. ... Read More

Rebekah Allen believes the heart of innovation is improvement. So, when she became dissatisfied with an inefficient process for collecting critical seedling survival data, she looked for a way to make it better. ... Read More

Gary Schweizer, director of engineering for our Engineered Wood Products business, is a structural engineer, which naturally makes him a problem solver. He’s constantly looking for solutions, for ideas to re-engineer the way we work. And he’s also an energetic leader, a role model for using our CuttingEdge platform, and someone who inspires others to continuously think about innovation. ... Read More

Having detailed, accurate information about stream networks is critical for our Timberlands teams to protect and manage water resources on our land. This information facilitates our forest harvest, planning and silviculture operations, as well as environmental compliance and our sustainability and certification processes. But it’s not easy data to get — in many places the forest canopy covers streams and other water features, making them difficult to spot using standard mapping tools. ... Read More