Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1356022
14 PalletCentral • March-April 2021 palletcentral.com sector to meet our fullest carbon footprint potential. is carbon-footprint process is explained by the WoodWorks™ – Wood Products Council website. While their mission applies to using wood in construction, their data applies to the general use of wood. ey state: Using wood reduces the carbon footprint … in two key ways – through carbon storage and avoided greenhouse gas emissions. As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, release the oxygen (O2), and incorporate the carbon into their wood, leaves or needles, roots and surrounding soil. One of three things then happen: • When the trees get older, they start to decay and slowly release the stored carbon. • e forest succumbs to wildfire, insects or disease and releases the carbon quickly. • e trees are harvested and manufactured into products, which continue to store much of the carbon. The pallet industry is a vital component of the vibrant wood products industry, without which this carbon story would be much more difficult to achieve. (Wood is 50 percent carbon by dry weight. 2 ) … Carbon is kept out of the atmosphere for the lifetime of the structure* – longer if the wood is reclaimed at the end of the [product's] service life and re-used or manufactured into other products. In all of these cases, the cycle begins again as the forest regenerates and young seedlings once again begin absorbing CO2. e other aspect to wood's light carbon footprint is the fact that wood products typically require less energy to manufacture than other materials, and most of that comes from renewable biomass (e.g., bark and other residual fiber) instead of fossil fuels. Substituting wood for fossil fuel-intensive materials is a way of avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. While the lifespan of pallets* is relatively shorter than construction projects might be, there are considerable numbers of pallets in service at all times – two billion according to the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association (NWPCA). erefore, the pallet industry is a vital component of the vibrant wood products industry, without which this carbon story would be much more difficult to achieve. 2 FPInnovations