Fellows Receive Insiders’ Tour at Weyerhaeuser

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Fellows traveled to Federal Way, Washington, to visit with Weyerhaeuser at their corporate headquarters. Weyerhaeuser is one of the largest forest products companies world-wide, with an annual sales revenue of $21.9B USD and 46,700 employees in 18 countries. A large majority of their forestlands are located in Canada (26 million acres) but they also manage over 6 million acres in the US.

Jim James, the Director for Environmental Affairs, hosted Fellows and arranged a variety of speakers and presentations. Jim has hosted WFI in the past and is well versed in Weyerhaeuser’s inner workings. He explained some of the company’s core values, one of which is safety. The company believes that there is no such thing as accidents and that all incidents are preventable. Thus, the group received safety briefings at each stage in the tour.

Another of Weyerhaeuser’s focus areas is sustainability. All Weyerhaeuser lands are certified, predominately with the Sustainable Forest Initiative in North America, and elsewhere according to local schemes or ISO 4001. Jim explained that certification may not give a market premium, but it does give market access or preferred supplier status, especially to large companies such as Home Depot. Additionally, certification is viewed by the company as being a good management practice.

Speakers touched on a wide variety of topics of interest to Fellows, including investments in South America and the marketing of Lyptus, a brand for eucalyptus products. Tracking in the log supply chain was explained by the IT department. A researcher from their inventory department discussed experimental plans using LIDAR to acquire inventory data, although this is still in the research phase and much of the information is proprietary.

Fellows were also treated to a tour of the Technology Center. This top secret facility is one of the few remaining large research centers run by forest products companies. Home to 400 researchers, the center conducts a variety of studies, from product quality and strength testing to genetic improvement and cloning to new product development.

Fellows were impressed with the managers’ dedication to the company and the strides the company is taking to stay ahead in today’s difficult market.