Who Mercer is and what they sell
Mercer International is a diversified forest products group. They make market pulp, lumber, pallets and biofuels, plus structural mass timber through Mercer Mass Timber in Arkansas, Washington, and British Columbia. Company materials show mass‑timber capacity in the hundreds of thousands of cubic meters per year across CLT and glulam, with facility level figures published for Conway, Spokane, and Okanagan (Mercer 2024 Sustainability Report, 2025). See their sustainability hub for context: Mercer Sustainability.
Mass timber at a glance
Mercer Mass Timber states a total annual capacity of 245,000 m³ across factories, with 212,000 m³ CLT and 33,000 m³ glulam, plus a claimed 30 percent North American market share (Mercer Mass Timber Factories page, 2025) (Mercer Mass Timber, 2025). That scale puts them in nearly every conversation for mid to large projects where CLT or glulam are structural options.
Where EPDs exist today
Product‑specific EPDs are published for CLT made in Conway, Arkansas, and a glulam EPD for Conway is also listed by ASTM as an approved program operator in 2025 (ASTM EPD listings, 2025) (ASTM, 2025). WoodWorks’ current summary also shows CLT and glulam EPDs available for Spokane, alongside Conway listings, which many specifiers reference when screening suppliers (WoodWorks, 2025) (WoodWorks, 2025).
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What might still be missing
We do not see public, product‑specific EPDs clearly tied to every plant and product combination, in particular for the Okanagan facility. If a project requires plant‑specific declarations for procurement rules, that gap can slow approvals. For lumber products, Mercer can lean on industry‑wide EPDs from the American Wood Council, which meet most credit intents but do not replace product‑specific claims when owners ask for them (AWC EPDs, 2025) (AWC, 2025).
Product ranges and rough SKU breadth
Mass timber SKUs span panel thicknesses, layups, grades, and finishes, which likely means dozens of CLT and glulam permutations. Lumber, pallets, and biofuels add many more variants, easily into the hundreds when you account for species, dimensions, and treatments. That breadth is great for sales, yet it can complicate EPD scoping unless SKUs are grouped under well‑designed declarations.
Competitive set in real projects
Mercer most often encounters Kalesnikoff, Timberlab, SmartLam, Element5, Nordic Structures, and Freres for MPP in mass‑timber bids. Many of these publish product‑specific EPDs, for example Kalesnikoff lists CLT and glulam on the same WoodWorks index cited above. If an owner requests Canadian‑made glulam with an EPD, a competitor with a published plant‑specific document may be evaluated first. That is not about being greener, it is about paperwork that unlocks points and clears procurement gates.
Why coverage matters to winning specs
On LEED v5 projects and corporate carbon policies, products without an EPD trigger conservative default factors in whole‑building accounting. Teams then carry a penalty in their math. A verified EPD removes guesswork, keeps the product in play on merit, and avoids being swapped out late in design for an alternative that has the paperwork ready. The price of a single EPD is often recouped by one mid‑sized win, which many manufacturers overlook because they never see the bids they quietly miss.
Mercer’s opportunity, translated into action
Publish site‑specific CLT and glulam EPDs for each active plant, and keep them aligned to the ASTM Part B Structural and Architectural Wood Products PCR. Package declarations so common layups and thicknesses sit under one document where the PCR allows. Track PCR revision dates so renewals do not surprise the team mid‑pursuit. Most important, pick an LCA partner that actually handles the messy data collection and herds internal stakeholders so engineers are not stuck exporting spreadsheets for weeks. That is how EPDs get delivered fast and with fewer sleepless nights.
Final take
Mercer is not a niche player. They sell across multiple categories, with mass timber as the spec‑critical line. EPD coverage is good in Conway and, per WoodWorks, visible for Spokane, yet extending plant‑specific coverage to Okanagan would close a commercial loop. Specifiers are picky, and they notice gaps realy fast. The fix is straightforward: map the SKU families, publish targeted EPDs, and keep bidding at full strength.
