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
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
Carbon Storage in Homes
=
Equals the CO2
generated from
driving a car for 5
years
Sandy McKellar
Canadian Wood Council
An average wood
frame home stores ~
30 metric tons of
carbon
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.
Life cycle assessment considers
every step
Manufacturing Wood Products Uses Less Energy
[kg CO2-eq/m2]
Global warming potential
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Linoleum
Vinyl
Wood
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.
2.
3.
4.
generic VCT,
generic linoleum flooring,
generic nylon carpet tile and
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.
Greenhouse gas emissions due to manufacturing
31% more greenhouse gas emissions
30,000
26% more greenhouse
gas emissions
CO2:kg
20,000
10,000
0
Wood Frame House
Steel Frame House
Concrete Block House
Source: CORRIM
Energy use due to manufacturing
950
17% more energy use
850
Embodied Engergy
16% more energy use
750
650
550
450
350
250
Wood Frame House
Concrete Block House
Steel Frame House
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