Letter from Chairman & CEO

Dear AWC Members and Friends

AWC continues to do critical work on behalf of its members, and it is our pleasure to share with you some notable examples from this past year in sustainability, building codes and standards, fire service engagement, policy advocacy, and environmental regulations.

AWC continued to position U.S. wood products as a sustainable solution to address the environmental impact of the built environment. We led with data driven efforts to demonstrate the low embodied carbon nature of wood products, releasing the industry’s first regional environmental product declarations (EPDs) for softwood lumber as well as securing almost $7 million in grants to continue to support our sector’s work in data collection, analysis, and transparency. AWC hosted its first Climate Week NYC event with extremely positive feedback. The focus on the whole story of U.S. wood products — from forest to manufacturing to the built environment — helped highlight the overarching sustainability and transparency of our sector. Our Build Clean government procurement initiatives saw increased engagement and interest in Washington and Massachusetts, while AWC was able to defeat a less favorable “Buy Clean” procurement proposal in an international green construction code (ASHRAE 189.1), ensuring wood products have a level playing field with competing materials.

Our codes and standards teams worked together to secure some important wins in the initial Group A ICC code cycle, including references to the ANSI Fire Design Specification. We released the 2021 Code Conforming Wood Design, published commentaries to accompany the 2024 NDS, 2024 WFCM, and 2024 FDS, and actively represented the industry across a wide range of building standards. AWC continued to use research-proven data to demonstrate the resiliency and safety of wood construction, including recent rounds of WUI fire tests and shear wall testing. Our fire engagement team issued the new Construction Fire Safety Checklist App for builders, inspectors, and the fire service to support code compliance on construction sites. AWC also made new updates to the popular Heights and Areas Calculator that include a California-specific tab and the mass timber construction types.

AWC also had a series of notable wins in the D.C. Circuit Court on Boiler MACT, bringing to a successful conclusion a remarkable 30-plus years of advocacy. In a very difficult regulatory environment, AWC was also successful in securing some important gains in EPA’s formaldehyde risk analysis, and we are now well-positioned to work with partners to seek science-driven results that could provide the industry with a workable solution and certainty for years to come. AWC continued to make significant progress in encouraging greater use of mass timber construction in the federal government, including with the Department of Defense. In recognition of AWC’s increased government affairs capabilities, the Board made significant changes to the scope of AWC’s government affairs Strategic Plan goals and objectives, clarifying the mission and increasing the level of expectation for one of AWC’s six priority work areas.

As we look to this year, the new Administration means many changes in policy and regulations. We at AWC are prepared and ready to continue to work hard to advance public policies that support market growth and protect the industry from adverse federal legislation and regulation. Our sector tells a truly bipartisan story, and we look forward to a fresh start with new opportunities to promote our industry and all of the good it does for the country.

Sincerely,

Ricky Stanley
CEO, T.R. Miller Mill Company
AWC Chairman of the Board

Jackson Morrill
President & CEO
American Wood Council