Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/877664
- 3 - 2017 Highlights 1 ISPM-15 and Pest-free Packaging The wooden pallet is being threatened by organizations who support alternative materials. For this reason we strongly support increased funding for the USDA ISPM-15 program. NWPCA is a key part of a technical working group with the USDA that identifies opportunities to leverage current industry practices to further mitigate pest risk. Read more on page 7. 2 Fire Code Compliance Manual NWPCA worked with fire safety experts to develop a section of the fire code on outdoor pallet storage that applies specifically to the wood packaging industry. A Fire Code Compliance Manual will be widely distributed to members and others in the industry. Read more on page 7. 3 BioPreferred The U.S. Department of Agriculture certified users of NWPCA's Pallet Design System™ as USDA BioPreferred ® . Over 430 PDS users automatically qualify for the program and may begin voluntarily labeling their pallets as 100% Biobased. Read more on page 8. 4 Pallet Design System™ V.5.3 This year brought the release of PDS version 5.3, which features the most advanced structural analysis models for wood pallets in the history of pallet design, a new lateral collapse resistance analysis for stringer pallets, expanded recycled pallet analysis and a more powerful numerical solver. Learn more about version 5.3 and other updates in progress on page 9. 5 2017 Events NWPCA's events in 2017, including the ALC in March, Webinars and the Congressional Fly-In, saw the highest attendance and participation in our history. Learn more about these events and upcoming events on page 11. 6 The Pallet Foundation The Pallet Foundation expanded funding of critical industry priorities in 2017. Read more about our initiatives on page 13. 7 Increased Staff NWPCA added five new staff to advance achievement of the Strategic Plan: advocacy, web presence, PDS. Kristen DeLack, PE, and Farhad Shahabi, PhD, were added to the Pallet Design System engineering team, with Kevin Richey assuming the Sr. Software Engineer duties of Curtis Wilkes. Anne Lewis, was added to the communications team, and Mishelle Cavanagh to the membership services team. Read more on page 17.