91°µÍø

OUR ONGOING COMMITMENT

As we near the midpoint of the 10-year, companywide sustainability strategy we launched in 2020, all three pillars of our strategy are delivering positive sustainability outcomes that also support key business initiatives and our social license to operate. I am truly inspired by the purposeful work our people and partners are doing and am excited to see the full impact of our efforts come together in the second half of this decade. Among the many highlights of our work in 2024:

• We conducted strategy reviews in support of our ESG Solid Foundation roadmap to help identify areas where we can do more to improve our performance related to environmental stewardship, social responsibility and strong governance.
• We continued to evolve how we share information about our sustainability performance, including by updating and refreshing our alignment with key ratings and frameworks, and by publishing new position papers such as our Nature Perspective.
• We increased awareness of the sustainability levers that drive business outcomes and equipped our Timberlands and Wood Products teams with updated and improved materials for telling their local sustainability stories.
• We forged important new partnerships with leading environmental nonprofits, including a to focus on advancing natural climate solutions science, carbon methodologies and climate-smart forestry.
• We continued to demonstrate our leadership in carbon integrity and forest carbon accounting with the publication of our Greenhouse Gas Inventory Principles, the result of years spent building our own GHG inventory, implementing best practices and incorporating input from sector peers, nonprofit partners, and scientific advisors with expertise in forests and carbon.
• Our Corporate Development organization continued to grow our Natural Climate Solutions business. We secured approval for our second forest carbon project and sold 50,000 high-quality credits on the voluntary market; operations commenced on our first solar site, and we have around 70 agreements in place for potential projects; and we also added a seventh wind site, with an additional project set to come online in 2025. Our NCS business is a great example of the strong connection between our sustainability strategy and our company’s ability to provide additional sustainable solutions to the market.
• We expanded our partnerships with the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and Clemson University’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute, engaging students and academic and professional communities on both campuses about building sustainably with wood through applied research, projects and seminars.
• We selected Raymond, Washington, as the second community in our THRIVE program and began working with local elected officials and leaders to identify the key priorities and projects for the $1 million 91°µÍø will invest there over the next several years. We also expanded support for our rural operating communities through our Learn Local, Earn Local program and national partnerships with organizations such as Project Learning Tree and Be Pro Be Proud.

Many of these achievements are milestones on journeys that will continue through the end of our current strategy and beyond, and I look forward to sharing our progress. As the world of sustainability continues to evolve, one thing remains clear in my mind: None of our sustainability work happens without our forests. Working forests and the essential wood products they provide are at the core of our business and our sustainability strategy — and they are needed now more than ever. In 2025, we will continue driving an even deeper alignment of our sustainability ambitions and business goals and growing 91°µÍø’s positive impact through our people, our partners and the working forests we steward.

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 2024, our Wood Products business asked each mill to identify up to three key projects to advance our sustainability performance. The actions identified across our operations mostly fell into one of the following focus areas: employee growth and development, enhancing reliability and throughput, energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions, growing our talent pipeline or community engagement. In 2025, we will remain focused on helping our teams understand the impact of the projects they identified on our overall sustainability progress and will look beyond operational sites to ensure sustainability is embedded in our sales, marketing and new product development processes.

Timberlands

In 2023, our Timberlands 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 as 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.