Entry Period Begins for $1.8 Million 2025 Mass Timber Competition: Building Sustainable Schools

Funded by the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, with additional support from the Center for Green Schools (CGGS) at USGBC and WoodWorks, the 2025 Mass Timber Competition: Building Sustainable Schools is now open to eligible project teams to submit their proposals.

This year’s competition will award funds totaling $1.8 million to support projects that accelerate the pace of mass timber adoption in the United States, specifically in the K-12 learning environment. The competition entry deadline is January 13th, 2025, and results will be announced in June 2025 at the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design.

Eligible projects must be located within the United States and be a K-12 educational project including, but not limited to, classrooms, libraries, athletic facilities, offices, resource centers, portable classrooms, daycare facilities, and vocational centers. Eligible applicants include for-profit building organizations registered in the US including architects, engineers, owners, general contractors, and manufacturers; not-for-profit organizations incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation or society formed in the US such as trusts, religious bodies, and associations; US local government entities such as public-school districts, cities, counties, and states; and Native American tribal governments and organizations.

Applicant teams may apply for a funding amount that is appropriate to the project, but no higher than $500,000. Funding priorities for eligible projects include project size or complexity, replicability, and the likelihood of construction with a clear path to completion. Award recipients will agree to share cost analyses, life cycle assessments, post-occupancy biophilic studies, and other information about their project with the broader design and construction community to encourage and support other mass timber teams.

A judging panel representing the fields of education, architecture, engineering, construction, and sustainability will select the competition finalists based on their demonstration of biophilic design, carbon reduction strategies, and construction cost savings. Preference will be afforded to projects that commit to using domestically harvested and manufactured mass timber. The CFGS will assist with outreach to the education community. WoodWorks, a non-profit staffed with structural engineers, architects, and construction experts, will conduct the technical review of entries.