Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1071930
36 PalletCentral • November-December 2018 palletcentral.com anufacturers of wood pallets have always felt that we have the best environmental product compared to other materials, and for good reason. Wood is renewable, biodegradable, reusable, and recyclable. Your customers and others are increasingly asking for supporting data to confirm this sustainability. Now, industry can prove wood truly wins with an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) research project, funded by The Pallet Foundation. But first, we need industry data. Coming to your email next month, NWPCA is asking companies large and small to fill out surveys for new pallets and/or recycled pallets. This EPD will be the first of its kind in the supply chain, and is therefore a monumental undertaking requiring data on production of at least 170 million pallets. NWPCA teamed up with experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL), who will collect the data, crunch the numbers, and keep all information strictly confidential. NWPCA never sees the data. Filling out a survey is going to take some time, and collecting electric bills and equipment information for the energy audit segment, will take most of your time. The results, however, will be beneficial to you and your business. This exercise can save your company thousands of dollars in energy costs, according to a few manufacturing facilities who took the survey in advance. We're streamlining the process and providing guidance where possible. Questions will focus on annual production for year 2018. The requested data will include: electricity usage, fuel consumption, material flows, and environmental emissions. We realize that you may not have all the information requested, especially when it comes to process specific data. Estimates may be provided where specific measurements are not available. Industry-wide participation is crucial to collect enough data for an EPD. NWPCA staff, along with the Science & Technology and Industry Marketing Committees, understand the time commitment, and have set up a webpage M Working TOGETHER on EPDs Why your Survey is Beneficial to your Business, and Critical to our Industry ENVIRONMENT iStockphoto.com/LeManna