Northwest Hardwoods

Stephanie Happer

Director of Marketing

Weyerhaeuser Hardwoods

Certified Pallets:Benefit or

Unnecessary Cost?

Northwest Hardwoods

Weyerhaeuser and Certification

• All timberlands are SFI certified

• 99% of our products are SFI certified

• Hardwoods group holds an FSC certificate for the purchase and sale of FSC product

Recognzied Certification Schemes

Certification

• There are 2 general certification standards– Fiber sourcing standard (SFI)

or Controlled Wood (FSC) – Chain of Custody standard

(SFI, FSC)

What is fiber sourcing certification?

• Fiber sourcing certification means that the raw material comes from legal and responsible sources, whether forests are certified or not.

What is certified fiber sourcing?

• Fiber sourcing certification does not make a claim that the timberland itself was certified

• The claim is that the trees were harvested from timberland that are managed in a legal and sustainable manner and that the logging conducted in a legal manner and met all environmental regulations

What is Chain-of-Custody certification?

• CoC certification means that each log that comes into the mill can be tracked back to the certified land on which it was cut

• If the forest land is certified and a mill is certified, in order to maintain a chain-of-custody, the secondary manufacturer (our customer) must be certified

Premiums

• Generally most companies have not been able to get a premium

• Certification considered a requirement for doing business

• Only exception is some FSC product for LEED building

Product Claims and Labeling

• Unless a secondary manufacturer (pallet mfg., repair, etc.) is certified, they cannot use any written claims or labels regardless of whether their inbound material is certified

• Uncertified, you could make a verbal or written claim that says your inbound material is certified and to what percent.

Secondary Certification: Claims and Labeling

• Secondary Manufacturers Certification (Pallet Mfgs., Repair, etc.)1. You can get SFI fiber sourcing

certification if a minimum 66 2/3% of your inbound material is certified. You can then place the appropriate SFI logo on your pallets and other materials

2. Under FSC, you would get a controlled wood certification but there is no label with this

Product Claims and Labeling

• Secondary Certification (Pallet Manufactures)1. Chain-of-Custody certification.

Both FSC and SFI have this. 2. Drawback is that you need to

track your material all the way back to the log and there is much less fiber available as CoC certified than fiber sourcing

3. Any supplier’s materials that is certified under fiber sourcing, such as our material, does not count under the CoC standard

Benefits to Certified Wood Pallets?

• Great sustainability story• Gives a stamp to the

“natural” , chemical free claim

Sustainability Story: Congressional Resolutions

• House Resolution 81 – Passed September 2009

• Senate Resolution 411 – Passed August 2010• Recognizes hardwoods as an environmentally preferable building

material“recognizes that United States hardwoods are an abundant, sustainable, and legal resource under the United States rule of law and mandates that US hardwoods and product derivatives be given full consideration in any program to promote construction”

Trees remove CO2; wood products store carbon

Equals the CO2 generated from

driving a car for 5 years

An average wood frame home stores ~ 30

metric tons of carbon

=

Sandy McKellar

Cana

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Woo

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Carbon Storage in Homes

iStockphoto.com/HKPNC

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Wood Carbon is Stored Indefinitely

Life Cycle Assessment

• There are several independent Life Cycle Assessments supporting wood as a preferential material in the building, flooring and decking industries.

Life cycle assessment considers every step

Manufacturing Wood Products Uses Less Energy

Global warming potential

00.51

1.52

2.53

3.54

4.5

Linoleum Vinyl Wood

[kg

CO

2-e

q/m

2]

Global warming potential related to 1m2 of flooring material

Manufacturing Wood Products uses less energy and fossil fuels than other non-wood substitutes.

CORRIM and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Life Cycle Assessment of Wood

• The Dovetail Partners Wood-Plastic Composite Lumber vs. Wood Decking (July 2010) concludes:– “a robust life cycle assessment

indicates that WPC’s have substantially higher environmental impacts in comparison to a naturally durable solid wood product such as western cedar.

Summary

National Wood Flooring Association

• LCA Results from the University of Wisconsin. The study compared the LCA of solid wood flooring in four categories:

– 1.  generic VCT, – 2.  generic linoleum flooring,– 3.  generic nylon carpet tile and– 4.  generic wool carpet tile 

• The results of the study were consistent with previous European studies concluding that wood flooring has environmental advantages over other floor coverings, including less air emissions, less primary energy use and its renewable nature, among others.

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

CO

2:kg

Wood Frame House Steel Frame House Concrete Block House

Greenhouse gas emissions due to manufacturing

31% more greenhouse gas emissions

26% more greenhouse gas emissions

Source: CORRIM

250

350

450

550

650

750

850

950

Em

bo

die

d E

ng

erg

y

Wood Frame House Concrete Block House Steel Frame House

Energy use due to manufacturing

17% more energy use

16% more energy use

Source: CORRIM

Summary

• Given the overwhelming evidence that wood is sustainable, has lesser environmental impact than other materials one could conclude:– Wood pallets have a benefit that

needs stronger market communication

– Certifying pallets to any reputable scheme would add additional weight to the marketing advantage