Forterra

See How it Works

“This innovation has been a catalyst to affect much more than a mass-timber supply chain,” said Hillary Wilson, Forterra’s former director of venture philanthropy. “We are trying to achieve both racial equity and environmental sustainability, creating a system that does not take away from community or nature.”

Innovation Milestones

Forterra formed a cross-laminated timber coalition in 2015 to catalyze a mass-timber market in Washington. Three years later the CLT coalition successfully advocated for a change in Washington’s state building code to allow for tall mass-timber buildings.

In 2021, Forterra successfully completed the first modular CLT prototype in the U.S. with support from the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge. CLT is the structural basis for high-quality sustainable modular homes.

With prefabricated modular homes constructed out of CLT panels and delivered to job sites prebuilt, CLT modules significantly reduce costs associated with on-site construction.

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It's much easier to find detractors and naysayers than kindred spirits. However, the Breakthrough Challenge brought us together in remarkable ways that will continue to resound across the development world in the coming years.

Jeffrey Dade, former Community Development director, Forterra