The results are in, and wood is very, very good. For years, people in the wood pallet sector knew that the industry was green and had a positive environmental story to tell. Now there is scientific proof and validation to these claims. And if you don’t use them to differentiate your product, you may be leaving one of your best marketing tools on the shelf.
After years of planning and industry research, the Pallet Foundation has funded and developed an Environmental Product Declaration for U.S. wood pallets. It is the first of its kind in the distribution packaging space and includes a cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for wood pallets. Much of the technical work in designing the EPD was guided by the staff of the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association (NWPCA), who worked in close collaboration with the US Forest Service Forest Products Lab to develop the LCA.
To explain the importance of this research and how you can use it to your advantage, Brent McClendon, the president and CEO of the NWPCA, and Dr. Brad Gething, the director of science and technology integration at the NWPCA, sat down with the Enterprise publisher for an in-depth discussion.
Pallet Enterprise: Give our readers a 30,000-foot view of what an environmental product declaration is and why it is important for pallet users.
Brent McClendon: Let’s start with answering the question about what is an environmental product declaration (EPD). An EPD is an independently verified disclosure tool. It’s a nutritional label, if you will, that communicates transparent information about the life cycle and impact of products. It helps purchasers better understand products, environmental attributes, and make more informed decisions. They can use our EPD analysis to develop their own sustainability scorecards and statistics.
Our EPD for wood pallets is the first of its kind in the packaging space. It establishes wooden pallets as a leader of environmental stewardship. When you consider the life cycle of pallets, wood has a potential net carbon positive impact. No other product is going to be able to boast results like these in a certified way. This isn’t rhetoric; it is supported by scientific analysis.
Dr. Brad Gething: Beyond giving third-party-certified information, the major benefit is the industry developing a baseline that others can use for future comparisons. Since we were the first to do an EPD in this space, we have been able to establish a framework that truly gets at the true environmental burdens in a way that previous life cycle assessments were not able to accomplish.
This is the industry putting its best foot forward and saying, ‘Here are our impacts.’ This is an International Standards Organization (ISO)-based process, done in a fully transparent manner. So, it is based on sound, scientific analysis. We are not just making this up as we go along- each step in the process was reviewed and certified through Underwriters Laboratories. We looked at everything from raw materials procurement, manufacturing, repair, transportation and end-of-use practices for wood residuals. Wood really shines in our industry as it also replaces fossil fuels when wood waste is used for biofuels.
Pallet Enterprise: Who can use this research? Is it open to the industry? Manufacturers or only recyclers? What if you don’t turn wood waste into biofuels?
Dr. Brad Gething: The EPD is open to the entire industry, whether you participated in the survey or not.
The information was provided by members of the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association. Our EPD is based on a 48×40 footprint pallet, which is common in the grocery industry. This EPD is known as a “Sector EPD” and averages the attributes of different aspects of woods pallets. The final results are designed to be an industry benchmark that anyone can use regardless of the type of wood used in pallet (softwood and hardwood) or the condition (new or used). It’s not based on a particular stringer or block design. The EPD can be used to apply to many different supply chains. Pallet companies and users can utilize the EPD to make basic estimations of the environmental attributes of wood pallets.
Pallet Enterprise: One of the biggest benefits relates to the usage of wood waste. How does it affect the ability to use the EPD if a company doesn’t turn wood waste into biofuel or some other byproduct?
Brent McClendon: I think the EPD builds off the other work that the Pallet Foundation researched, such as the landfill avoidance study that we developed a few years ago. That study showed that 95% of pallets are recovered, refurbished and recycled or turned into another product at the end of their useful life. Most wood pallets don’t go to landfills.
Because this is a sector EPD, it is designed to apply to the entire U.S. wood pallet industry. To the extent that your customer is asking you to additionally qualify practices that are specific to a facility’s production process, then certainly you can be open to those conversations, but there’s absolutely no requirement on the pallet company to do that. Everyone can use the EPD as is.
Dr. Brad Gething: One of the benefits of participating in the survey was that you can see how you stack up against the overall average, which can be very helpful in identifying where you are leading, and where there is room for improvement in your processing operations.
Pallet Enterprise: What would you say to those people in the industry who don’t believe their customers care about environmental claims and think stuff like an EPD are a waste of time?
Brent McClendon: You can’t flip through a magazine or attend a conference and not hear about sustainability, the circular economy, carbon footprint, corporate social responsibility and even climate change. To the extent your specific customer isn’t asking you about environmental benefits of wood pallets, here’s an opportunity for you to be able to be proactive in this space. You can get out in front of a conversation that is a win for your product. The EPD is all about helping logistics and procurement professionals make critical decisions when it comes to the sustainability of their supply chains.
I would add that it’s quite possible that customers may not have even known that an EPD for pallets was even possible. This is the first-of-its-kind in the distribution packaging space. People complain that pallets are treated just like commodities. Now, here’s your opportunity to sell on something other than just price. You can help customers fulfill their corporate environmental and social responsibility criteria. The EPD is a tool that allows you to change the dynamic of the conversation in a way that is incredibly beneficial.
Pallet Enterprise: How will the EPD help position wood pallets in the marketplace?
Brent McClendon: Historically, a big fear of our industry is competing materials. Now, when you can talk about the positive potential net carbon positive impact of wood pallets, that’s a big benefit that other materials can’t say. In addition, wood pallets are the most recycled packaging product on the planet. Furthermore, a recent Penn State study spoke to the fact that wood pallets have a lower carbon footprint than other packaging materials. All of this together really solidifies the environmental benefits of wood pallets.
Pallet Enterprise: How does the EPD compare to previous LCAs or sustainability research put out there by Penn State University, CHEP, iGPS, plastics industry, etc.?
Brad Gething: We worked with UL, a major certification firm, to go beyond an LCA and develop the first Product Category Rule to ever exist in this space. So, there is no comparison with anything that happened before. We are standing alone, and other future EPD efforts in this space will need to follow the framework we developed if they want to make realistic, apples-to-apples comparisons.
We reviewed the prior LCAs that have been done. The big difference in our EPD approach is what’s called the functional unit. So, the functional unit is basically like the description of what the product does. And we had to develop the functional unit to develop the product category rule. Historically in other LCAs, this was based on trips. Our functional unit is a hundred thousand pounds of load being carried. This approach takes into account the service life, i.e. the number of trips, as well as the load carrying capacity of the pallet. That’s what pallets are designed to do is to transport a load from one place to another. And our EPD framework is based on that. It is a more comprehensive framework to consider. Another thing we did was to take a specific racking condition. Our analysis is based on a pallet racked across the length since that is the most aggressive racking condition in most supply chains.
Our EPD approach tried to eliminate the games that can be played by alternative materials in manipulating these factors. We feel very confident about wood’s positioning when that occurs.
Pallet Enterprise: One benefit of some plastic pallet designs is the lighter weight of the pallet. This can lead to fuel and carbon savings in the use part of the cycle. Why is use part of the cycle not in the baseline in your EPD?
Dr. Brad Gething: The reason we didn’t include it in the baseline is because the transportation distance can vary so much. How pallets are used in a supply chain, there is no use case that works for everyone. In the supplemental information section, the EPD allows you to do a clear scenario calculation for the transportation burden. We didn’t try to hide it; we have provided anyone the opportunity to calculate that impact. But if you look at the life cycle of a pallet, based upon our research, the impact of transportation in the use phase is relatively small in comparison to everything else.
In section 3.3 in the EPD, we provide the impacts of three scenarios in the use phase. The data is presented as scenarios but just not added to the overall impact. So, the data is there.
Brent McClendon: Any future comparison needs to be conducted in an apples-to-apples fashion across the board- one that incorporates all facets of environmental impact, not just transportation. That’s why we’re waiting for another EPD to come out. And then we can really truly have that ‘comparison’ conversation. We like where we stand.
Pallet Enterprise: What assumptions does your EPD make in regards to repairs, life trips, etc.?
Dr. Brad Gething: You’re getting to the good stuff now. When it comes to the number of trips, we used the Virginia Tech Fast Track Study. UL didn’t want us to use something that other future EPD efforts could not use, and there is no such thing as a PDS for plastic or corrugated pallets. That way anyone who comes after us can use this commonly available research method on pallet trips and service life.
For repairs, we assumed only one repair across the board for every pallet. We could have used assumptions from the Pallet Design System (PDS), but those assumptions are based on simulation so we didn’t have a real good number to use that would work across the board. We decided to use a low number even though we know that most wood pallets are probably repaired more than once. Clearly, we are being conservative, but we felt that prioritizing the integrity of the estimations was the most important thing out of the gate.
So, where are we going in the future? We already have ideas. Part of what we’re planning is a couple of scientific papers with the Forest Products Lab on issues such as repair ratios. We purposely used a low number so that nobody could come out and say we are exaggerating the case for wood.
Pallet Enterprise: What pallet type, design, wood species does this EPD work well for?
Dr. Brad Gething: It’s just a matter of the amount of wood in the pallet. If it’s more than the average, then the impacts are likely going to be more. And if it’s less, then the impacts are likely going to be less. Our analysis is based on 14 board feet of lumber, which averages the variety of pallets that are typically used to transport fast-moving consumer goods.
Pallet Enterprise: Your analysis developed a cradle-to-grave flow chart for wood pallets. Would that work for other material types, such as plastic?
Dr. Brad Gething: Good question. I think when you look at the flows in and out, there are some base level parts of this that I think would apply. But when you look at how pallets are manufactured, remanufactured, that is going to differ. For plastics, you have to basically melt down the recycled material and remold it into shape whereas wood pallets are much easier to repair. The reuse/repair loops are going to be unique for each material type.
