Freres Lumber: Mass Ply maker, EPDs to watch

Who Freres is in the market

Freres Lumber Company, based in Lyons, Oregon, spans a century in wood products, from veneer and plywood to engineered Mass Ply components. Their engineered business runs under Freres Engineered Wood with a clear sustainability pitch and technical resources that speak to design teams. See their sustainability hub for company stances and data points (Freres, Sustainability, 2025).

What they make

Mass Ply is the headline act. Freres offers Mass Ply Panels for floors, roofs and walls, Mass Ply Lams for beams and columns, and industrial Mass Ply formats. Surrounding that is a legacy plywood line, plus veneer and related services. Across these families, the sellable variants land in the dozens to low hundreds when you consider standard thickness steps, lengths, grades and appearances.

How “pure play” they are

They are best known for Mass Ply, yet they are not a single‑product shop. Expect a split portfolio. Mass Ply carries the brand forward in mid‑rise, education and civic work. Plywood and veneer keep breadth in channels like distribution and industrial.

EPD status today

Freres previously announced a product‑specific EPD for Mass Ply Panels validated through a program operator. WoodWorks’ maintained index still lists an EPD for “Freres Lumber — Mass Ply Panel,” alongside other mass‑timber manufacturers with active declarations (WoodWorks, 2025). We did not find a clearly live, program‑operator landing page for a current Freres EPD on December 20, 2025. If an earlier declaration lapsed, projects that prefer or require an in‑date EPD may default to alternatives listed as current.

Coverage by product range

• Mass Ply: Appears to have had an EPD historically. Verify current validity and renewal timing with the operator listing before major bids.
• Plywood and veneer: Freres does not publish product‑specific EPDs for each plywood SKU to our knowledge. Buyers often rely on industry EPDs from the American Wood Council for softwood plywood and related wood products when manufacturer‑specific documents are absent, which are recent and third‑party verified (AWC, 2025).

Net effect. EPD coverage looks partial. Mass Ply may be one document away from being fully “spec‑ready” again across all project types. Plywood rides on industry EPDs, which helps for baselines but does not unlock the same product‑specific credit pathways LEED v5 teams often want.

Why this matters commercially

Design teams tracking embodied carbon must use conservative defaults when a product‑specific EPD is missing. That can push a great product out of contention even when performance is superior. In tight bid rooms, the team with a current, verified EPD removes risk for the owner and the sustainability consultant. That clarity speeds shortlists and reduces value‑engineering surprises later.

Likely best‑seller at risk and direct substitutes

Mass Ply Panels are a Freres flagship. Where a current EPD is not clearly available, competing CLT panels with live EPDs from manufacturers such as Mercer Mass Timber or Kalesnikoff tend to get fast‑tracked on education, office and civic projects. WoodWorks’ current EPD roundup lists manufacturer EPDs for CLT and glulam from these producers, giving specifiers plug‑and‑play documentation for submittals (WoodWorks, 2025). Mercer publicly indicates it publishes third‑party verified EPDs for CLT and glulam at multiple facilities, which aligns to the same documentation buyers look for (WoodWorks, 2025).

Competitive set you’ll regularly see

• US and Canada mass‑timber specialists: Mercer Mass Timber, Kalesnikoff, SmartLam, Element5. Many present CLT or glulam with current EPDs in owner design guides and proposal kits (WoodWorks, 2025).
• System‑level alternatives: Steel and concrete remain common trade‑offs. On projects chasing operational and embodied‑carbon goals, wood often wins when documentation is ready on day one.

Playbook to close the EPD gap fast

1. Prioritize Mass Ply Panels for a product‑specific EPD refresh. It has the most spec exposure across floors, roofs and walls. One current EPD can cover dozens of dimensional variations when the declaration is scoped wisely.

2. Decide the PCR and operator by benchmarking competitors’ choices. A good LCA partner reviews which PCRs peers used and the renewal horizon so today’s declaration is still aligned when LEED v5 rolls out more widely.

3. Make data collection painless. Pull one recent reference year of utilities, resin consumption, waste, yield and CNC process data. Great partners run the wrangling so engineering and plant teams stay focussed on throughput.

4. Consider a plywood strategy. If product‑specific EPDs for select plywood grades move the needle with big distributors or public owners, start with the top five movers. Otherwise, lean on current industry EPDs from AWC for baseline documentation while Mass Ply leads the charge (AWC, 2025).

Where to learn more

Freres keeps product details, grades and dimensions public, including PRG‑320 certification language and CNC capabilities, which helps specifiers pre‑coordinate tolerances. Their sustainability section is a helpful anchor for owner conversations about forestry, cogeneration and material efficiency (Freres, Sustainability, 2025).

Bottom line for specability

Freres has a distinctive story with Mass Ply and a broad enough catalog to serve multiple scopes. The fastest path to more wins is simple. Put a current, third‑party verified EPD back in the briefcase for Mass Ply Panels, confirm coverage for Lams if they are frequent alternates, and keep plywood riding the industry EPDs. Do that and the product line stays top‑of‑list instead of top‑of‑mind. That sounds small, but it’s the diffrence between getting considered and getting chosen.