From carbon neutral to chemical free

Summary
• UPM has cut hazardous waste output by 60% in four years.
• SCA is building up its own conservation department.
• BSW has been given a Scottish Environmental Protection Agency ‘excellent’ rating.
• James Jones is Scottish Environmental Haulier of the Year.
• International Timber and Pasquill worked with Nottingham University on the H.O.U.S.E. solar-powered eco-home.
• Rougier’s environmental management plans cover 2 million ha of West African forests.

Mention environment in the same breath as timber and what instantly springs to mind are eco-certification and the battle against illegal logging. Of course these are critical issues for the wood sector. But, as TTJ’s soundings of a cross-section of businesses highlights, they increasingly form only a part of the industry’s environmental story. Businesses are adopting ever more holistic green strategies, covering every aspect of their operation. The aim is not only to supply products based on sustainably sourced raw material, but to make maximum use of the timber resource, minimise waste and pollution, and help end users reduce their environmental impact.

Highlighting just how integral green issues have become, Finnish timber and forest products giant UPM has officially rebranded itself as a “Biofore” company. The term underlines the range of its activities using “wood-based biomass to create value from renewable, recyclable materials in fibre-based, energy-related and engineered products businesses”. That means everything from timber to bioethanol.

“As the front runner of the Biofore industry we intend to lead this integration into an innovation-driven future, creating value from fibre-based products which are sustainable throughout their life cycle,” says the company.

Corporate responsibility policy

This approach is underpinned by a corporate responsibility policy covering sustainable sourcing, climate, water, forests and waste. All UPM’s wood procurement and production sites have chain of custody, its mills have cut hazardous waste output by 60% since 2006, energy self-sufficiency has increased 40% since 1997 and 60% of its fuel is now biomass-based. It has also committed to responsible water use by signing the United Nations Global Compact Water Mandate.

At SCA in Sweden a clear green marker has been laid down by the recruitment of Tomas Rydkvist. He’s the first of five eco experts being taken on to expand the company’s conservation team. SCA has 4,000 operational harvesting sites and Mr Rydkvist and colleagues will be monitoring all aspects of forestry and timber production. The aim is to minimise disturbance to habitats and ecosystems, which even means replicating the naturally regenerating effects of forest fires.

“Environmental protection is more than excluding areas from active forestry,” said Mr Rydkvist. “Natural disturbances, such as wildfires, create important habitats so we must recreate the role of ‘disturbance agent’.”

The detail to which forest product sector environmental policy goes is illustrated at fellow Swedish timber producer Södra. To meet its objective of “chemical-free forest regeneration”, it is researching a non-toxic method of dealing with the pine weevil.

The weevil is the biggest cause of damage to forests in southern Sweden where Södra is based. About 80% of seedlings uprotected against the insect die, but currently chemical insecticide is the main weapon. Working with university researchers and biologists, Södra aims to develop a physical protection device.

“As well as its effectiveness against the weevil, we’re looking at its impact on the seedling and planting and its degradability,” said project team leader Andreas Alvehus.

Award winners

The green strategies at BSW’s mills at Fort William and Dalbeattie are equally comprehensive, a fact recently recognised with accolades from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). Dalbeattie was commended for its water management systems, while Fort William received a SEPA rating of excellent, covering its all-round pollution prevention and control. To build on this performance, it recently installed a low environmental impact low pressure treatment tank to produce Easi-Edge construction timber.

James Jones & Sons has just picked up an eco award too: Scottish Environmental Haulier of the Year 2010. It won the Transport News Rewards title for its adoption of the TireBoss system. This automatically adjusts truck tyre pressure to suit the surface, minimising damage to roads and forest and, in cutting fuel and tyre consumption, help James Jones meet ISO 14001 emission targets.

Other central features of timber industry environmental policy today are transparency and communication; companies know they must be seen to be green and support their claims with solid, credible evidence.

For instance Stellac Thermowood, supplied by Inter-national Timber as ZeroClad and ZeroDeck, is backed by an audited energy and carbon trail covering harvesting, processing, transport and replanting. The emission figures from this are offset against biomass generated in Stellac production for a final carbon footprint calculation.

Panel products specialist Norbord is also focused on stating its environmental case, recently revamping its www.betterbyfar.org website where it not only details the eco credentials of all its products, but also lines up facts and figures to “challenge assumptions about forestry and wood products industries”.

Green R&D co-operation

Given the complexity of the issues and importance to overall environmental performance of sustainable supply chains, cross-industry collaboration in green R&D is also vital. The timber sector is playing its role here too, notably in its work with the construction sector.

For example, Saint-Gobain Group companies International Timber and engineered timber products and systems specialist Pasquill worked with Nottingham University architectural and engineering students to develop the zero carbon H.O.U.S.E. This timber cassette-based, wood-clad experimental eco-home is the University’s entry in the international Solar Decathlon contest to develop a house reliant on solar energy alone. The building featured at this year’s Ecobuild show, as did the RuralZed eco-house from ZedFactory architects, which was also created with products and technical input from International and Pasquill.

And in Scotland, collaboration between RTC Timber Systems and the Timber Systems Division of James Jones has resulted in the country’s first house design to achieve the Passivhaus energy-efficiency standard. The affordable housing features Jones’ JJI-joists as vertical studs in its closed panels, enabling the use of extra insulation to create an ultra-energy efficient Passivewall.

Another R&D focus is to make greater use of more prolific and lower grade or less robust timber species. A central role is being played by wood modification and the process is being increasingly widely applied. For instance, the acetylisation method used by Accys Technologies to create Accoya (radiata pine with the properties of a hardwood), is now being applied to softwood fibre to make more durable, dimension-ally stable sheet materials. The first result, Medite Tricoya exterior MDF, developed with Coillte Panel Products, was launched at Ecobuild.

The aim of Weyerhaeuser to offer products that “have minimal impact on the environment and maximum commercial benefit” is illustrated by its development of a hardwood and plywood range using plantation-grown eucalyptus.

Supporting forest regeneration

The Lyptus brand lumber, veneer, plywood and flooring produced by the US company’s Brazilian arm are based on trees that can be harvested in 14-16 years from plantations on degraded former agricultural land. It also contributes to forestry regeneration, by planting native species alongside the eucalyptus.

“The environmental commitment follows through to manufacture, with the mill using virtually every portion of the log and using the residuals for bio-fuel and charcoal,” said European commercial director John Guerin.

Plantation-grown eucalyptus forms part of Timbmet’s range too, in the form of FSC-certified red grandis from Uruguay. This clear durability class 2 timber is billed as suitable for a range of uses and can be finished to resemble other species, from oak to meranti. And, according to Fairoak Timber, which is trialling its use for windows, its appeal goes beyond environmental merit. “It’s an excellent alternative to sapele, but less expensive,” said production manager Chris Johnson.

Certification

Underpinning these diverse initiatives, the timber sector continues to press on with its best-known environmental strategy: wood and forestry certification. As our quick survey for this article showed, it’s being pursued worldwide and all along the supply chain, from forest to factory. Balustrade and mouldings producer Richard Burbidge said that 95% of its timber last year was certified under the PEFC or FSC schemes, a figure set to rise this year, and importer distributor James Latham highlighted its work with African suppliers to help them verify supply chain legality and move towards certification. The result is that most of Latham’s timber from the continent is now Verified Legal Origin, and a proportion FSC certified. Its panel business has worked with a Chinese mill to help it achieve FSC certification.

French hardwood and plywood specialist Rougier, meanwhile, continues to pursue FSC certification of its forest concessions, with three in Cameroon achieving the FSC Controlled Wood standard last year and the company’s subsidiary, SFID, gaining chain of custody approval. Across the Congo Basin it now has environmental management plans covering 2 million ha of forest.

A trader commenting for TTJ’s hardwood report this weeksaid that one in four customers now specifies certified timber, and rising. That indicates that the environmental pressures on the industry are, if anything, set to grow. But it also highlights that, exploited to the full, as the sector is increasingly doing, timber’s superior green credentials give it an inherent marketing and commercial advantage.