By: Robert Glowinski,
President & CEO of the American Wood Council
The American Wood Council (AWC) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year as an independent trade association. Over the last decade, we have made great strides to become the voice of the North American wood products industry.
This crazy year has illustrated just how important it is for AWC to bring the wood products industry together to collectively face a challenging economy, environmental regulation, and competing materials that aggressively attack wood construction in order to falsely sway market choice. Now more than ever, no single company can do it all alone.
Looking back on the year, in the midst of uncertainty due to the pandemic, AWC quickly activated to ensure that the wood products industry – from mills to material suppliers – was recognized by the federal government as an “essential” industry to continue providing critical infrastructure to the country. We’ve seen demand for wood products grow as people have stayed home. The extra time at home has pushed people to tackle DIY projects such as building a deck. Restaurants have built out outdoor seating spaces. Even new home construction has ticked back up. And in June, manufacturing saw its best month in over a year, with wood products leading that growth.
I have had the privilege of working in this industry for 41 years, and leading AWC as we established our “new” association. We’ve received tremendous support from the industry we serve, which has allowed AWC to grow substantially over the last decade. When we spun out from AF&PA as a small, independent association in 2010, we primarily worked on building codes, standards and technology transfer, protecting the industry’s marketplace opportunities. Since then, the industry asked us to do more, and we expanded the services we provide our members, adding engagement with government on manufacturing environmental regulations, advocating with local, state and federal officials, and greatly enhancing our strategic communications and educational outreach to support each of these endeavors. Even in these unsettled times, AWC’s name and recognition has allowed us to continue to effectively represent the industry among building and fire code officials, engineers, designers, regulators and legislators. There is enormous opportunity for continued growth, for both the industry and the association, and I am pleased to announce that Jackson Morrill has been chosen as my successor to continue AWC’s good work. This month, Jackson will come on board, prepared to take the reigns at AWC as I retire at the end of the year.
Jackson comes to AWC having served most recently as President of the Composite Panel Association (CPA), which represents manufacturers of composite wood panels. He comes to AWC with over 20 years of experience working on sustainability, industry standards, environmental and other issues as a lawyer and trade association representative. Prior to CPA, he worked at the American Chemistry Council, the trade association of chemical manufacturers, practiced environmental law at a D.C. law firm, and served as an environmental legal consultant at the World Bank. Although his work for CPA was focused on a different segment of the wood products industry, the two organizations have worked together on a number of issues over the years.
As the housing market stabilizes and the tall mass timber building movement gains traction, wood products are well positioned for substantial growth as the only proven, resilient, low-carbon building material available. Please join me in welcoming Jackson as he continues AWC’s role as the voice of North American wood products.
