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Stephanie Happer Director of Marketing Weyerhaeuser Hardwoods. Northwest Hardwoods. Certified Pallets: Benefit or Unnecessary Cost?. Northwest Hardwoods. Weyerhaeuser and Certification. All timberlands are SFI certified 99% of our products are SFI certified
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Stephanie Happer Director of Marketing Weyerhaeuser Hardwoods Northwest 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
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.) • 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 • Under FSC, you would get a controlled wood certification but there is no label with this
Product Claims and Labeling • Secondary Certification (Pallet Manufactures) • Chain-of-Custody certification. Both FSC and SFI have this. • 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 • 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”
Carbon Storage in Homes An average wood frame home stores ~ 30 metric tons of carbon Equals the CO2 generated from driving a car for 5 years = Canadian Wood Council Sandy McKellar
Wood Carbon is Stored Indefinitely iStockphoto.com/HKPNC Sandy McKellar Sandy McKellar
Life Cycle Assessment • There are several independent Life Cycle Assessments supporting wood as a preferential material in the building, flooring and decking industries.
Manufacturing Wood Products Uses Less Energy • 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.
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.
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
