ÇÑ×ÓÊÓƵ

OUR ONGOING COMMITMENT

We can see our collective efforts taking root and growing as we head into the fifth year of our companywide sustainability strategy. Signs of progress are evident across all three pillars of our program, and I am inspired daily by the passion, dedication and commitment of our people and partners as we build on our sustainability leadership and the positive impact we make across our communities.

In 2023, we strengthened our solid ESG foundation, more tightly integrated sustainability within our business operations and grew our impact in the three core ambition areas of climate, homes and communities. Among the highlights:

• We strengthened our DE&I roadmap, expanded our Employee Resource Groups, piloted a companywide mentoring program and maintained our performance on the foremost ESG ratings and indices.
• Our ÇÑ×ÓÊÓƵ and Wood Products businesses integrated sustainability performance metrics into bi-annual and monthly business review meetings, giving leadership greater visibility into how sustainability efforts contribute to business outcomes.
• We created new Sustainability Statements for all Wood Products sites and ÇÑ×ÓÊÓƵ regions to give local leaders and employees site-level awareness of their sustainability performance and contributions to our overall company goals.
• Our Corporate Development organization expanded the Natural Climate Solutions business and announced approval of our first forest carbon project in Maine, demonstrating our company’s commitment to delivering high-quality credits to the voluntary carbon market – an approach outlined in our Carbon Principles.
• We announced two new signature programs to support rural communities. Our Learn Local, Earn Local program expanded giving to local programs supporting workforce development and youth education, while our new THRIVE program committed ÇÑ×ÓÊÓƵ to investing $5 million across five of our rural operating communities over the next several years. We chose Zwolle, Louisiana, and the northwest Louisiana region as our first community and have already begun working with local elected leaders and officials to plan improvements.
• We also continued to expand national partnerships, drive important conversations around GHG inventory accounting, support innovative uses of wood products through academic research and challenges, and show up in larger ways to high-profile sustainability events such as Climate Week NYC and COP28.

These are just a few of the things we achieved during a very active year. Behind it all, though, are our sustainably managed working forests, which provide essential long-lived wood products, habitat for wildlife, recreational opportunities, natural solutions for mitigating the impacts of climate change, and so much more. Our stewardship of these renewable resources matters more than ever and remains fundamental to our long-term sustainability performance. Looking forward, we see the midpoint of our strategic plan fast approaching, with much still to do. I am heartened by our progress and confident we have the people, resources and momentum to continue growing our positive impact in the years ahead. We look forward to sharing the journey.

Ara Erickson
Vice President, Corporate Sustainability

Maintaining Our ESG Foundation

For decades, we have delivered solid results in environmental stewardship, social responsibility a²Ô»å strong governance. To drive continued excellence in these areas, we follow a 10-year plan that ensures we review our ESG performance and implement improvement opportunities on a consistent schedule. The plan structures our work into two alternating phases: strategy reviews and ongoing improvements. The strategy reviews take place periodically and provide our teams with the time and direction to think holistically about larger process changes or other substantial improvements necessary to continue delivering strong results. We assess ongoing improvements annually to ensure any adjustments identified and implemented by our teams continue to strengthen and improve our ESG foundation.

We are committed to transparent reporting of our ESG performance and do this by sharing our performance metrics a²Ô»å ESG framework alignment publicly, providing robust content across our sustainability website, creating an annual sustainability highlights report a²Ô»å disclosing information to key ESG rating providers, assessments and questionnaires. We also closely monitor the development of new ESG standards, such as the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the Task Force on Climate-related Nature Disclosures (TNFD).

IMPROVING BUSINESS ALIGNMENT 

The business alignment portion of our strategy focuses on further integrating sustainability into our planning and everyday operations. This process ensures sustainability is always considered during business planning, increases visibility into how our business goals and commitments impact sustainability outcomes, and allows our teams to see and celebrate their sustainability wins across our operations.

From more effectively considering sustainability outcomes during annual business planning to connecting sustainability performance to daily work, we have introduced several innovative approaches to embed sustainability deeply within our business processes.

Business Alignment Highlights

In 2023, all our businesses integrated sustainability more deeply into their plans and roadmaps, giving our teams a better understanding of the key actions that drive their sustainability performance. We also gathered feedback directly from customers to learn how we can better meet their sustainability needs and expectations through improved communications and engagement. Finally, we provided new communications tools to site leaders and employees to monitor and assess their local sustainability outcomes. In 2024, we are continuing to deepen the integration of sustainability into our business planning so that all our teams understand how their actions influence sustainability performance and are equipped to share outcomes of their local sustainability efforts.

Wood Products

In 2023, our Wood Products business pursued improvements in 11 key areas impacting our sustainability performance, including reliability, employee growth and development, and safety and risk reduction. Teams provided regular progress updates to give leadership a clear view of the connection between business and sustainability performance. Through a survey of our key Wood Products customers, we gained additional insights into how our sustainability goals and performance resonate with and impact our supply chain, and we are building that feedback into future programs. In 2024, we will remain focused on helping our teams understand and tell our sustainability story and will continue measuring and reporting our progress.

ÇÑ×ÓÊÓƵ

In 2023, our ÇÑ×ÓÊÓƵ business identified 12 focus areas for improving sustainability performance and integrated them into the business roadmap along with supporting goals and metrics. Our team also maintained certification to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® Forest Management Standard and optimized our operations for the latest SFI® standard requirements. In 2024, our teams are leveraging our sustainability tools to increase awareness and drive improvements in our sustainability performance and are helping our employees better understand and communicate their local sustainability stories.

Corporate Development

In 2023, our Corporate Development organization achieved several notable milestones, including securing approval and selling credits for our first forest carbon project in Maine. Our team also continued advancing opportunities for renewable energy development and carbon capture and sequestration on our land. In 2024, we are focused on growing our ability to deliver climate solutions to the marketplace and communicating the impact of that work to internal and external audiences.

DEMONSTRATING POSITIVE IMPACT 

We know individuals and communities expect companies to help solve some of the world's toughest and most pressing challenges. We agree and welcome that responsibility. Our 3 by 30 Sustainability Ambitions focus on three areas where we play an important role and can make a meaningful difference by 2030: climate solutions, sustainable homes and rural communities. We know we can’t solve these challenges alone, but our vast forests, land base and the essential products we make put us in a unique position to have a tangible and lasting positive impact.

When we launched our 3 by 30 Sustainability Ambitions in 2020, we focused on defining success, exploring and developing new relationships and key partnerships, and piloting and testing initial ideas and actions. We share key accomplishments toward our focus areas and objectives annually. The next phase of this effort is focused on a few critical actions and deepening our engagement with influential and strategic partnerships. By 2030, we will demonstrate real, measurable impact.

• Climate Solutions: We recognize that climate change presents an urgent threat to our world and that action is needed now to mitigate its worst impacts. We are committed to proving our forests and wood products contribute to natural climate solutions.
• Sustainable Homes: We recognize that quality, affordable housing is in short supply in communities across North America. We are committed to enabling the development and adoption of innovative wood products for a variety of built environments so that everyone has access to a quality, sustainable home.
• Rural Communities: We recognize that barriers to economic and social prosperity can be difficult to overcome in rural communities across North America. We are committed to helping drive measurable results that ensure rural communities continue to be great places to live, work and do business.

HOW DO WE MAKE SURE WE STAY ON TRACK? 

It starts with oversight and direction from the very top of our company and cascades through all levels:

• Our board of directors and its  oversee our sustainability performance and review our progress toward goals, including our response to climate change, emerging issues, key opportunities and new trends, at least annually.
• Our executive leadership team guides our strategy and keeps us focused on the most critical opportunities and needs.
• Our sustainability strategy steering committee, which includes cross-functional staff and business leaders, supports the implementation of our strategy by identifying opportunities, risks and external trends and providing recommendations to ensure optimal performance.
• The vice president of corporate sustainability leads the coordination and oversight of our companywide sustainability efforts, including our sustainability strategy, in collaboration with strategic and operational leaders across the company. Progress on our sustainability strategy is reported via quarterly meetings with the sustainability steering committee and with the CEO and senior management team.
• Our Sustainability and Corporate Communications teams provide structure and guidance for implementing our strategy, ensuring internal and external engagement, reporting on our progress and equipping our businesses, teams and employees with the tools they need to share our sustainability story with their key stakeholders.