Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1071930
to help industry complete the survey, solicit peer assistance, and to watch a video on how to prepare for specific survey questions. Find it online at www.palletcentral.com/lcasurvey. If you run into problems in completing the survey, help is a phone call away. NWPCA members have volunteered assistance. Contact Bob Wenner of Pallet Service Corporation at (763) 391-8020 x5790, or Hinton Howell of Cottondale Wood Products at (205) 758-2761. From the USDA Forest Service, please contact: Sevda Alanya-Rosenbaum, Bioenergy LCA Researcher, U.S. Forest Products Lab at (610) 316-7871. We thank you in advance for your willingness to assist with this project. Once complete, the wood packaging industry will have a verifiable, certifiable environmental "nutrition" label for your products, and you can proudly share the results with your customers. By the time you read this, the survey and an instructional video will be up and running. Surveys need to be completed by February 28, 2019. Visit www.palletcentral.com/lcasurvey for the survey information or contact Dr. Brad Gething, NWPCA, at bgething@palletcentral.com. PC palletcentral.com PalletCentral • November-December 2018 37 "For many years, "sustainability" relative to lumber, pallets, and the forest products industry has been an often-discussed subject. More recently, our customers and others are asking for supporting data to confirm this sustainability. Early indications are extremely positive relative to the "life cycle assessment" (LCA) of pallets. Metrics associated with the LCA will validate this remarkable story of our forest lands, a natural resource that sequesters CO2 every day. The process that entails the planting of three trees each time a single tree is removed guarantees a future of prosperity. This lumber cultivation cycle is a true definition of a renewable resource. The lumber industry as a whole in the U.S. responsibly procures its material. The industry employs millions of people, generates billions of dollars in revenue, hundreds of millions in taxes, as well as daily needs ranging from cribs for our babies to the pallets needed to most efficiently move products around the world." ~Hinton Howell, Cottondale Wood Products "Please do your part! What a great opportunity we have to create this marketing tool for our industry. With every great opportunity, comes some sweat equity. Spending the time to pull together the data from your company and participating in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Survey is critical to the success of our businesses and our industry. We have a chance to be out front and leading, showing the world what great products we manufacture and recycle. We must get the critical mass of information to be able to complete this project and keep the wooden pallet as the product of choice, showing all its strengths/advantages verses all the competing products that constantly are trying to take our market. Completing this survey will keep us in front for years to come." ~Bob Wenner, President of Pallet Service Corporation, Chairman of The Pallet Foundation