With environmental sustainability becoming the focal point of national discourse, and extreme weather intensifying and occurring more frequently, our buildings need to be sustainable and resilient to mitigate damage to both the built environment and surrounding ecosystem. Researchers are...

Every day, component manufacturers are dealing with the entire spectrum of traditional and engineered wood products. In fact, educating your customers may be a key factor in your sales and services. Like you, the American Wood Council (AWC) sees how important education on wood can be to...

Happy new year! A new year brings new developments on the Building Code front. A summary of relevant code activities follows. ICC Update With the end of 2018 and the start of 2019, the ICC Code Development Cycle for the 2021 I-Codes moves into its second year. The Group A cycle online...

Despite our reservations about Southern Pine lumber, the timber industry is betting billions that we’ll buy it. Soon the output of SYP mills will race past other domestic species. Fortunately, technological improvements, both at the saw mill and in our component plants, aim to overcome our...

As 2018 draws to a close, the American Wood Council (AWC) looks back on what has been a very successful year for wood industry markets. Both federally and in the states, the opportunity for wood products has been greatly expanded, building codes have been very successfully updated to account for...

October is a busy time for the wood products industry. There are not one but three weeks dedicated to national observances important to the safe built environment. Sunday, Oct. 7 – Saturday, Oct. 13: National Fire Prevention Week The National Fire Protection Association’s Fire...

Increasing use of mass timber as a competitive building product in the construction marketplace requires sound design guidelines to ensure safe, efficient, and economic use of wood products. AWC fire research on mass timber conducted over the last year, with support from the Softwood Lumber...

One of the mandates of the American Wood Council is to make the job of code officials, engineers, and designers easier.  To do this, we provide the technology that is needed to best understand the use of wood in construction. For example, we develop wood design standards to ensure the...

Wood is the go-to material for builders in the U.S., where we have some of the highest construction standards in the world. Why? It’s easy to build with, strong, safe, and renewable. It’s also the right material for our planet since wood allows for a smaller carbon footprint than...

The International Code Council (ICC) reviews and updates its family of building codes on a three-year cycle. The code change proposals that will be considered this year affect the fire provisions of the building (IBC) and fire (IFC) codes, and they have been publicly posted. These changes, if...