Sustainability Strategy: 2020 Goals
We understand that all our stakeholders — investors, customers, employees and the people who live in communities where we operate — expect us to achieve short-term results without compromising long-term prosperity. It’s not enough for us to say we are sustainable; we must be able to prove it with responsible governance, reliable systems and demonstrated progress toward tangible goals.
In 2010, we developed a new sustainability strategy, based on benchmarking, gap analysis, and leadership engagement. This strategy builds upon our past sustainability performance with an expanded set of commitments that are further integrated into our business planning and processes. For each commitment we set specific targets to achieve by 2020, which are described in the goals and progress section of this website. As always, we will continue to report on our progress against these targets annually.
All our commitments and targets are organized under our three pillars of sustainability — performance, people and planet. Our company vision prominently highlights these critical areas, our businesses have incorporated them into performance dashboards, and we have restructured our online sustainability report to reflect their importance.
METHODOLOGY
We undertook the strategy development during 2010 to improve upon our existing sustainability strategies and practices. The underlying belief supporting this work was that a more comprehensive sustainability strategy, with stronger governance that drives sustainability deeper into our business processes, would enable us to better deliver value, innovate, and compete in the years ahead.
We started our strategy development with the sustainability expectations outlined in Ceres report "The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability." The report details twenty specific expectations and actions for companies to successfully integrate sustainability into business by 2020. For each expectation, we established a spectrum of four levels of achievement (no or minimal action; industry average; above average; Ceres expectation). We also added a few expectations to the Ceres set based on areas that are of continued focus for us as a company, such as safety and philanthropy.
Our next step was to evaluate ourselves, as well as 11 other companies, against each sustainability expectation along the four-tier spectrum. Our benchmarking pool included peer companies from our industry and companies generally regarded as sustainability thought leaders (for example, those included on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index). Our evaluation of each of these companies was based on publicly available information.
Finally, we vetted the results of this benchmarking review with internal subject matter experts in areas ranging from governance to energy management.
BENCHMARKING & ANALYSIS RESULTS
The results of this exercise showed that Weyerhaeuser compared favorably to our direct industry peers (i.e. competitors) but had some opportunities for improvement when compared to companies considered sustainability leaders.
Areas of excellence included public policy activities that are strategic, consistent and transparent; board oversight of sustainability; and transparency around sustainability disclosures. Areas identified as opportunities for improvement included meeting our financial targets; fully integrating sustainability into policies and decision making; engaging our employees; and adopting a broader set of company-wide environmental goals.
Mid-level and senior company management were engaged throughout the process.
STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
Based on these benchmarking results, we assessed our options for addressing gaps or improving existing practices. For each potential action, we reviewed the business case, identified internal resources required, and sought input from internal subject matter experts. We then engaged mid-level and senior management in reviewing and discussing potential action items to include in our sustainability strategy. Once we established a set of agreed-upon commitments and goals, our senior management team and board of directors governance committee approved the strategy, which lays out 19 sustainability commitments with goals and metrics for each. We will work toward achieving these targets by the year 2020.
MOVING FORWARD
A significant first step was the board of directors governance committee decision to modify its charter. The committee is now titled “Governance and Corporate Responsibility,” has more direct oversight and engagement over our sustainability strategy, and will be briefed at least annually on our progress toward sustainability goals. This change addressed one of the gaps identified during our benchmarking review.
We have also incorporated our three pillars of sustainability — performance, people and planet — into our company vision, business performance scorecards, and a number of other critical documents. Our businesses have included sustainability goals in their planning processes and are already making progress toward our 2011 targets.
Focus areas in 2011 include:
- Integrating components of our sustainability strategy into business systems and planning
- Engaging and educating employees about our new sustainability strategy
- Finalizing our product stewardship policy
- Certifying our headquarters building to Green Globes standards
FEEDBACK
We welcome your input and feedback on our new sustainability strategy.
