Eco+ Innovation Tracks Benefits of Investments into Weyerhaeuser’s Operations and New Product Innovations
Sustainability and innovation have long been embedded into Weyerhaeuser’s core values, processes and products. From sustainably managed land and forests, Weyerhaeuser provides an array of products based on this vast renewable resource -- trees. And although current forest products provide significant environmental benefits themselves, such as forests’ ecosystem services and naturally low-carbon wood products, the company is continually striving to do more.
To better track and understand the benefits of investments into its operations and new product innovations that go beyond standard baselines, Weyerhaeuser developed a new indicator called “Eco+ Innovation”.
In 2012, Weyerhaeuser invested $82 million in Eco+ Investment projects to improve its business operation, which is expected to also result in significant sustainability improvements. The company also generated $102 million in Eco+ Revenues from new products and services that have an improved environmental profile.
To qualify, investments and new product sales must meet one or more of the following criteria, without negatively affecting their overall sustainability profile:
•Enables substitution of nonrenewable energy or materials with renewable resources.
•Results show significant improvement in (or exceeds relevant requirements for) energy efficiency; resource conservation, efficiency, recovery or yield; percent of fiber or wood sourced from certified forests; water use per unit of production; absolute GHG emissions; and/or air emissions, solid waste to landfill, or wastewater pollutant discharges per unit of production.
“Significant improvement” is considered to generally mean at least ten percent on an annual, life cycle or harvest rotation basis. Once qualified and implemented, the entire revenue of a product or value of a project is counted towards the reported dollar amount.
Read more about Weyerhaeuser’s Eco+ Innovation results, including two examples (Arborite® Fertilizer and an evaporator upgrade) in its on-line sustainability report here.
