$7 Million in Grants Further Sustainability and Data Efforts

AWC has been awarded almost $7 million in grants from several organizations to support our work to strengthen the wood products industry’s data and protect market access.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected AWC for a $6 million grant to assist in the continued development and update of industry Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and Product Category Rules (PCR). The grant also includes funding for the development of an EPD generator, mill level EPD development, the collection of additional life cycle data related to U.S. wood products, and education programs for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector on Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment and EPDs. The grant is funded through the EPA’s Inflation Reduction Act programs and specifically seeks to reduce embodied greenhouse gas emissions for construction materials and products. AWC will lead some of these projects, while others will be managed by partner organizations like the Treated Wood Council, U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities, and WoodWorks.

AWC also received over $700,000 from a Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP) grant from the Softwood Export Council. This grant supports work on standards, specifically the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards development processes, and additional upgrades to the LCI data collection platform. The grant will support continued work to help protect wood products from unfair treatment in new and existing standards in the U.S. and globally.

The Forest Products Lab supports the work of our LCA Data Specialist and database management with a grant that totals $68,000. Finally, we also wrapped up our 2023 Wood Innovations Grant, which totaled over $200,000 and allowed us to expand our Lifecycle Assessment Survey to include data from non-AWC member companies.

These grants represent AWC’s continued commitment to expanding our industry’s data collection and transparency efforts and prevent sustainability-related obstacles from limiting wood use and market access. The data and standards
work that these grants fund are vital components that help AWC, and our industry, better illustrate the sustainability story of U.S. wood products.