20 WESTERN PALLET
Wood Pallets and the Carbon Conversation
Atmospheric carbon has increasingly been a hot-button issue. How that topic relates to challenges and opportunities for the wood packaging sector was the topic of a recent WPA webinar entitled The Carbon Conversation. The session was presented by Dr. Brad Gething, Vice President of Science & Technology at the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association (NWPCA).
Dr. Gething noted that “conversation” was an apt term to mark our current location in our journey to more fully understand the carbon impacts relevant to the industry. While the industry has already benefited from substantial work in areas such as developing an Environmental Product Declaration for wood pallets, he emphasized that much work remains.
“This topic of carbon and how it's affecting or might affect the wood packaging and power industry is something that we're still seeking to understand further,” he stated.
Environmental Product Declaration for Wooden Pallets
The presentation started with an overview of the EPD for wooden pallets. To review, an Environmental Product Declaration is an independently verified disclosure tool (like a nutrition label) that communicates transparent information about the impact of studied products.
- The study measures the impacts of a wooden pallet through a full life cycle assessment (LCA): gathering, transporting, manufacturing, use and repair, and its end-of-life usage.
- This EPD for Wooden Pallets is the first for a product in the distribution packaging space.
- This EPD is certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a third-party organization.
As noted in an exploration of the wooden pallet EPD at PalletCentral.com, customers are taking the lead on sustainability initiatives and are making business decisions based on environmental factors, right now. Talking about the EPD sets you apart from the competition, and helps your customers justify their shipping platforms.
- 80% of consumers and 84% of employees say they are more likely to buy from or work for a company that stands up for the environment. (PWC 2021 Consumer Survey)
- In 2021, a quarter of U.S. companies included some form of environmental or social metric as part of their executive incentive plans, up from 16% in 2019." (Study by proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co.)
Dr Gething stressed that there is potential for the carbon offset to be greater than the carbon output of producing a pallet. "This is a great take-home message that we have, and a great story that we can tell," he said. “We call these potential offsets because again, these are averaged into the manufacturing process and represent an overall industry average that's being done. But the take-home here certainly is clear that we have the potential to reduce more carbon more than we emit.”