Circular Design – How Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Can Be Part of Product Design

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The principles of circular design are integral to the concept of a circular economy, a new economic model that values sustainability and efficiency. Many products don’t return to the manufacturer in today’s linear economy, nor would they arrive in a recyclable condition. Sustainability wasn’t a priority when mass consumption became the norm, and many products were never designed for systematic reuse. The economic system today follows the “make, take, discard” product lifecycle, but circular design provides an opening for a sustainable economy.

Circular Design – A Definition

Circular design entails a fundamental shift from wastefulness toward sustainability from the product’s conception to its fabrication. Everything is designed for reuse multiple times instead of designing for failure or obsolescence. It’s a change that maximizes economic efficiency since products and their components are recycled instead of thrown away. Circular design enables innovation in ways that the linear economy can’t provide and entails the following principles.

Circular Design Principles

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the four principles of circular design are:

  • Understand
  • Define
  • Make
  • Release

The result is a new product lifecycle designed for sustainability with each iteration. It incorporates the three “R’s” principles – reduce, reuse, and recycle – and supports the creation and manufacturing of products that can be reused time and again.

Understand

The first principle is to understand where the most significant opportunities are ready and available. Not every product or service lends itself to circular design because the business doesn’t operate on a sustainable model.

Understanding the current product design, its shortcomings, and its lifecycle gives business leaders a direction when adopting circular design. The idea is to construct products and processes that are regenerative and restorative instead of destructive and wasteful. Changes in the model can include a more robust connection from fabrication to services where downstream recycling is regenerative and/or restorative and maintains a viable product (read: pallets) that is reusable throughout its lifecycle.

Define

The defining principle articulates the specific business processes that can benefit from circular design. The supply chain is a perfect example. The challenges in supply chain operations may differ from company to company, yet they aren’t insurmountable.

It takes a multi-disciplinary, collaborative effort between provider and customer to identify processes and transition to a more sustainable design that includes the materials used to make the products. The definition of success must be clear and attainable because the following principle relies upon clarity. If the purpose seems elusive, the proper course is to return to narrowing down and understanding the opportunity.

Make

Here is where businesses can take action and prioritize which products and/or processes are likely to succeed according to clearly defined sustainability objectives and which ones need further development. One strategy is to test concepts with rapid prototyping and to embed feedback mechanisms to optimize the design.

An easy low-hanging fruit to pluck is re-examining the raw materials that go into a product. Is it feasible to make the item with biodegradable materials, or is it a better candidate for recycling? Can it incorporate both into production? The answers boil down to what the user needs. Many times, different versions of the same product may be necessary to test and achieve circularity since the design requires innovation and creativity. This is where research and development take place, literally and figuratively. Think of the purpose of facilities like the Virginia Tech – Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design.

Release

The last principle is launching the new design, but it doesn’t stop there. Circular design demands continuous improvement and a constant focus on efficiency. That’s why it’s best to launch and learn, releasing products to redesign and refine processes, with the ultimate goal of creating a circular product lifecycle. Creating a circular economic system demands no less than a concerted, multi-pronged approach.

Circular Design and the Wood Pallet Industry

The question is: do real-world examples of circular design exist? And the answer is yes. The wood pallet industry is a prime example of how design can enable circular economics to the company’s benefit. Wood pallets don’t require new raw materials each time. Manufacturers can produce them from sustainably sourced wood, recycled wood components, or a combination of both. Another example is a pooled pallet rental system which many large enterprises rely upon in transporting their finished goods.

Either way, the pallets, and components are designed to be used multiple times, bolstering the product lifecycle with increased sustainability. The pallet industry leverages its natural advantage in sustainable processes, and companies can legitimately validate forward-thinking sustainability goals and demonstrate genuine positive action for environmental concerns. The old wasteful business model is transformed into a circular system, and companies establish trust with their customer.

Conclusion

Efficient design processes focusing on reuse can lower material costs end to end. A circular-designed product doesn’t have a single lifecycle but rather several. The overarching concept is to battle climate change by reimagining how products reach consumers, starting at the design level. The four principles of circular design provide guidance, but it’s incumbent upon business leaders to commit to the new paradigm.

The Forests of Gabon

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Forest products play a crucial role in many countries and their available resources. In the African nation of Gabon, forest products are pointing the way forward in a country that finds itself winding down its oil production and needing to find alternate sources of investment and resources.

NP readers know that we at Nature’s Packaging support sustainably sourced wood from sustainably managed forests. Wood is a multifaceted medium that is utilized in everything from buildings (mass timber), to furniture, to the wooden pallet and crate.

The government of this small African nation understand that their forests are an opportunity to open new markets and create jobs for its citizens.

Join Nature’s Packaging as we take look how the country is working to balance its need for new revenue and to sustainably manage its abundant forest land.

The Eden of Africa

Known as the “Eden of Africa”, the nation of Gabon is rich with forestland (it covers about 90% of the country) and has one of the largest elephant herds in the world.  For decades though, it has relied on its oil production to fuel the economy. The oil producing sector has shielded the country’s economy from the larger fluctuations in Africa’s overall economic woes at various times in history.

However, as their calculated oil reserves begin to dwindle the government has turned to its forests to make the transition from oil as its main economic driver to a diversity of forest products. The challenge is to balance the need to extract these resources with the preservation of its precious forests and the climate change conditions happening around the world.

To maintain that balance, Gabonese officials have implemented strict rules regarding logging that keeps the majority trees standing and developing into old-growth timber. In fact, those strict rules limit logging to two trees per hectare every 25 years. Additionally, to combat illegal logging they have developed a program to track logs via bar code markings.

In the past, Gabon exported the majority of its raw timber product to other countries for them to finish. That has changed through government legislation that forbid selling the raw materials directly to other countries (France was a big customer). Now, the government is working to create industrial economic zones that provide tax breaks and other incentives to have businesses build factories and facilities that provide finished forest products right on their own. These include:

  • Furniture
  • Plywood products
  • Veneers from exotic tree species

To assess the interior forestland and track toward sustainable management of such a large area, Gabon officials built a satellite research station to track and create a database of the areas most degraded from industrial activity. This has led directly to a decline in illegal logging and deforestation overall. Some of the areas that were degraded previously were then re-purposed to more industrial agriculture services like palm oil.

This conservation and active sustainable management has led to a boom in the elephant population as well. In the 1990’s, the elephant population in Gabon numbered around 60,000. Now the population has grown to over 95,000. It is said that elephants are a sign of a thriving forest and certainly the elephants in Gabon are thriving.

Gabon and Forest Products

Gabon’s booming veneer business has made it the largest producer of exotic veneers in Africa. Their rich resource of exotic woods has made them a much sought after medium for crafting fine furniture and wood materials. And they are actively developing plywood manufacturing sectors through the grant of special economic zones that are located strategically close to resources and populations in need of employment.

The timber industry in Gabon is responsible for more than 30,000 jobs and this number is projected to increase as workers in the oil and gas sectors transition to forest based jobs. That 30,000 already represents about 7% of their total available workforce.

Gabon and Carbon

As the second largest reservoir of carbon sequestered through forestland (the Amazon is the largest), the burgeoning worldwide carbon credit market has created new opportunities for Gabon to utilize the natural carbon sequestration of its forest for profit in the CC market. It has sought and received carbon offset certifications from independent auditors.

Though this has not come without controversy as Gabonese officials chose to re-evaluate their credit calculation method and have since quadrupled their available carbon credits into the tens of millions of dollars. The concern is the market being flooded with these credits and thus driving down prices overall and the veracity of the credits themselves. Government officials have pointed to the initiative as a model for using new markets to fund the conservation of their forestland.

While Gabon’s story around forest products as a resource continues to play out over time. The model that they have provided to other African nations has prompted other to develop the same type of resources where available. However, the challenge becomes whether or not these other nations will adhere to principles of sustainable management of forestland and the need for economic opportunity. Time will tell.

Made From Trees-Forest Products Move Markets

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Every day, many of the items used in daily life were made possible by forest products industries. The type of forest products in demand the most are various types of lumber. Used to make everything from furniture to home construction to wood pallets and containers; lumber is vital to many industries.

The transportation and logistics industries use wood pallets to move nearly everything. 1.8 billion pallets are in use every day, shipping 90% of the world’s goods. 90% of those pallets are made of wood, making them some of the most important forest product-derived items in the world.

Forest Products and Processes Add Sustainability

Forest products play a major role in the supply chain. Within the subject of climate change and the impact to the environment, the supply chain is under pressure to increase sustainability and reduce carbon emissions. The forest products industry is at the forefront of harvesting and creating renewable resources and products that are reusable and recyclable.

As part of that process, modern logging practices are incorporating sustainable principles to help forests remain healthy and productive. Well-managed forests generate some of the most valuable resources for mitigating climate change and provide useful products that positively impact daily life.

Wood Packaging Logistics and the Supply Chain

Wood packaging used in the supply chain includes pallets, boxes, crates used to transport goods. Well-designed wood packaging keeps goods from being damaged during transit. When heat treated and stamp-certified according to international standards like ISPM-15, wood packaging ensures that goods move seamlessly between countries and facilitates international trade.

Wood Pallets in the Supply Chain

Wood pallets are a core component of the supply chain. Their functionality makes them easy to load and unload via forklifts and pallet jacks. Their durability helps protect items shipped and their design makes them easy to store for reuse.

Wood pallets set the standard for supply chain strength, resilience, and sustainability. 95% of wood pallets are recycled and reused multiple times throughout their lifecycle. Pallets, as a crucial link in the supply chain, are leading the way toward a circular supply chain that eliminates waste.

They are also increasingly popular with consumers for DIY projects as the public recognizes their versatility. When they do reach the end of their useful lifespan, wood pallets are often down-cycled into other useful products like mulch, wood pellet fuel or craft wood.

A current challenge for wood pallets in the supply chain is availability. A consistent supply of quality pallets has always been in demand. When the pandemic hit, so did a broad increase in products shipped via e-commerce. As shipping has rebounded from those initial lock-downs, demand for pallets has exceeded supply.

At the same time, delays in other parts of the supply chain were causing the price of lumber to increase. Industries that use pallets to ship products began to appreciate the wood pallet as a principal component of a stable supply chain.

Forest Products-Above and Beyond

A relatively new arrival in the world of sustainable forest products is mass timber. Mass timber is an engineered product made up of multiple pieces and layers of wood sandwiched together. The result is an incredibly strong and resilient building material that is used in the construction of large buildings that were once built with steel or concrete alone. Mass timber technology is being used to build in Canada and Europe, and is now beginning to launch significantly in U.S. building construction.

Wood Fuel Powering Industry

Burning wood for fuel is nothing new. But the processes used for this age-old forest product are changing. Rather than using traditional firewood for heat in homes, people are turning to pellet stoves.

The pellets used in these stoves are commonly made from compressing wood byproducts that would otherwise go to waste. Wood pellets contain very little water, making them light and easy to handle and transport. They burn hot and clean and are considered to be carbon neutral.

The same pellets can be used to produce steam and electricity.

Biomass consisting of wood and plant products is finding a place as a clean energy option. It can be burned directly or processed into gas or liquid fuels. While not as clean as solar or wind energy, it is vastly cleaner than fossil fuel use and is renewable.

Residential buildings and industries are turning to biomass and other renewable sources for their energy needs.

Forest products surround us in our everyday lives. Renewable forestry practices have created an industry that leads the way in a world rightly focused on sustainability and net zero carbon emissions.

Wood On The Web: 5 Great Resources for You

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The world wide web has delivered easily accessible resources for nearly every industry. What was once available only in classrooms, libraries, or laboratories can now be found with the click of a mouse.

Online forestry and forest products data and information is available for readers to learn about progress in forestry, research, forest products, environmental advocacy, and economic advancement.

At Nature’s Packaging, we strive to bring you interesting and useful resources on the web and here are five great forestry and forest products website resources for you. There’s something here for everyone from the curious consumer to the industry professional.

The Penn State Extension-Wood Products

The Penn State Extension offers a variety of online learning resources, including courses, articles, videos, and webinars. It also features in-person conferences and workshops.

The extension has 11 overarching areas of study, including food safety, business and operations, community development, animals and livestock, and forests and wildlife. It’s in this last section where students and learners of all ages will find a treasure trove of forest products information.

From urban forestry to maple syrup, this site covers a lot of ground. The Wood Products section is filled with information ranging from the basics of lumber to research on insects.

The Penn Extension site has something for everyone interested in wood products. From builders to landowners, students to casual enthusiasts, and newbies to experienced members of the forest products industry.

The site is easy to navigate, with efficient and effective content filters. You can browse by educational format, author or instructor, or date posted. This is a terrific general knowledge site that promotes an understanding of the many layers of the wood products industry.

International Society of Wood Science and Technology

The International Society of Wood Science and Technology is a non-profit, international professional organization. Members have access to conventions, international meetings, scientific missions, publications, and more.

Their website offers teaching units and other educational materials, accreditation information for Wood Science and Technology Programs, and access to recent issues of their publications.

Members have access to the full archives. They offer reduced-price student memberships as well as regular memberships. One of the greatest things about this organization, and its website, is the Short Term Scientific Mission.

Members are eligible to apply for these special research grants. They are used to send individuals into the world to collaborate and research away from their home base.

What’s special about the website is that anyone can see previous projects completed with STSM grants. Articles and videos discuss project goals and outcomes achieved during the visiting researcher’s stay.

Think Wood

Builders, contractors, and architects are the audience for the Think Wood website. This is a beautiful site that will appeal to the design eye of these professionals. Think Wood partners with industry groups to provide education and inspiration around advances in wood products.

The site offers articles, videos, and infographics without cost. They aim to provide the resources their audience needs to benefit from building with wood.

Topics range from forest management and carbon sequestration to meeting building and fire safety codes. They even offer continuing education courses.

While it’s designed for building professionals, this site is very accessible. It has a lot of information about sustainable forestry and proactive steps to reduce the carbon footprints of all sorts of projects. It’s also a great place to learn the basics of mass timber.

Think Wood excels at the visual. The site has incredible pictures of wood projects in all stages of completion. Their project gallery is filled with stunning photos accompanied by a lot of great information.

Inspiration is where Think Wood excels.

ForestProud

ForestProud is all about climate solutions. The Society of American Foresters recently merged with the #forestproud project to create a community that supports and promotes climate action in our forests.

The site is full of articles that link forest management with real-world positive outcomes. They talk about mass timber and urban renewal. They discuss biomass, wildfires, and carbon credits.

All of this information could be overwhelming. But it’s well-organized and helps visitors focus on connecting with forests as a climate solution.

This is a “finger on the pulse” website. It encourages community members to send in selfies wearing their branded t-shirts or with their stickers.

It links visitors to videos about sustainable forests and forest resources. It offers articles to educate. It even gives suggestions for relevant podcasts. This group has a social media presence and knows how to use it to further its cause.

ForestProud is a very accessible website. It’s welcoming and warm. Visitors can browse and learn, or they can choose to interact. It’s a well-conceived initiative to promote forest management and climate action.

National Wooden Pallet and Container Association

The National Wooden Pallet and Container Association is a professional non-profit association that supports the wood packaging industry. Its website is filled with information for both professionals and curious web surfers alike.

As industry advocates, the association offers networking, educational opportunities, and specialized software tools for pallet design. Members can register for events and find the latest industry news.

They also use their website to serve as the voice of the unsung hero of the supply chain: the wood pallet. Both members and non-members can access issues of the organization’s Pallet Central magazine right on the site.

The NWPCA site is designed for industry professionals. But there is a lot of information about sustainability for the general public as well.

Favorite Web Resources

These five websites are an excellent place to start for anyone interested in forestry and forest products. The key is to build a network of websites that adds and advances your knowledge of the industry.

Do you have a favorite wood related website to share? Join us on our LinkedIn page and comment on the websites in the forestry and forest products niche that you like.

 

Forest Products Marketing Unit

Marketing Forest Products

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For over 100 years, the Forest Products Laboratory has been at the forefront of optimized forestry. Their research, which started with the preservation of railroad ties, now spans hundreds of areas.

They develop technologies for wood products to maximize their economic potential. Their research is also key to combating deforestation and climate change while making the most of every harvested tree.

The Forest Products Laboratory does not exist in a vacuum. Its research is meant to be shared and used throughout the industry. Wise and efficient use of forest products results in healthy, sustainable forests and widespread economic opportunity.

Purpose

So why do they need a marketing unit? Marketing for FPL isn’t about advertising or image management. The U.S. Forest Products Marketing Unit (FPMU) is about establishing relationships with public and private entities.

These partnerships allow the research done at the FPL to benefit the forest products industry, the public, and the environment.

Organizing the distribution of information, innovation, and technology to the vast and complex forestry and forest products industries is no small task. But without these efforts, the FPL’s exhaustive research would be widely under-used and its technologies would go largely un-implemented.

The FPMU helps share and assist in the use of beneficial forest product practices across the country. With the help of federal funding, they pursue initiatives to promote smarter, better forest products, and processes.

History

Begun in 1992 and expanded in 1996, a formal relationship was established between the FPL and the forestry industry. To transfer research and technology from the lab to the outside world, the new joint Technology Marketing Unit had an ambitious goal. They would create a national framework that balanced the environmental and economic use of the nation’s forests.

That meant establishing strong cooperative partnerships with state and private industry leaders. The research and development being done at the FPL needed an organized way to reach the entities it could most benefit.

The new unit reached out to other technology marketers and diverse public and private forestry organizations to create a team. This team was dedicated to planning projects, identifying customer needs, and implementing technology to meet those needs.

When the 1996 agreement was written, a primary goal was to administer woody biomass grants. The focus of this program was using wood for energy.

In the years since its formal founding, the FPMU has expanded in scope. Their cooperative projects now include initiatives from nanotechnology to the reduction of the size and rate of forest fires.

Objectives

The FPMU has a set of objectives that cover a lot of ground. They focus on new and existing partnerships, coordination of services, and bringing the experts at the FPL to outside institutions.

For the FPL to have the greatest impact, it needs a strong core of cooperation among a large number of external entities. The FPMU establishes, grows, and maintains that vital core to extend the reach of the FPL.

The overarching objective of the Forest Products Marketing Unit is to provide coordination and assistance on a national level. This collaborative commitment is designed to maximize the economic and environmental use of FPL research and technologies.

Current objectives include incentives for increased use of biomass, accelerating reforestation, market creation, technical assistance, administration of grant programs, and more.

Managing resources nationally is a complex task. Focusing on innovative marketing and technological advances, the FPMU extends opportunities for forest product use and management across urban and rural landscapes.

Governance

The governance of the Forest Product Marketing Unit is a little bit complicated. The national scope and coordination with other entities make program direction and oversight key to its success.

Here’s a top-down look at the basic governing structure:

  • The Forest Products Laboratory Director serves as the overall program director. They provide direction for the FPMU to achieve its yearly goals.
  • Forest Service Deputy Chiefs provide broad oversight of the FPMU. They are also tasked with the important job of approving major planning elements for the FPMU. These elements include the Implementation Plan, the yearly Plan of Work, and the yearly operating budget.
  • FPMU staff includes a program manager, forest products technologist, natural resource specialist, research forest product technologist, research forester, partnership coordinator, IT specialist, and program support. This group is tasked with the day-to-day implementation of projects and programs.

This small but mighty team allows the FPL to work at a national level to guide both efficient economic use of all forest products and conserve and promote healthy forests.

U.S. Forest Products-Annual Market Review 2015-2021

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The market for forest products in the U.S. is healthy, but for how long? Global macroeconomic pressures are inflicting inflationary pains on everything from wood pallets to essential household items, and the forest products business is no different. Since early 2020, the COVID pandemic’s lock down and public health and safety measures nearly ground the world’s economy to a standstill. Today, we’re still coming out of hibernation, so to speak, but there’s plenty of room for optimism too.

Forest products have weathered the pandemic and subsequent lock downs relatively well. That does not mean serious challenges remain, yet the overall outlook has a positive trajectory. With those considerations in mind, here’s a breakdown of the most critical takeaways from the latest report U.S. Forest Products Annual Market Review and Prospects, 2015-2021.

Purpose of the Annual Market Review

The annual market review aims to build a holistic analysis of the forest products industry, including a breakdown of each market segment, such as sawn softwood and sawn hardwood. The report also outlines the developments that are shaping forest product consumption. The booming housing market is a prime example, as demand for raw lumber and building supplies remains historically high.

There’s even a brief mention of how biomass energy dovetails with the federal government’s emphasis on sustainability and climate change. Altogether, each of these factors forms a comprehensive picture of the U.S. forest products industry. The author of the review, Delton Alderman, has included everything that may affect the business moving forward over the next five years or so.

Current State of the Forest Products Market

Interestingly, the report’s bottom line is this: The table end of the covid-19 pandemic is still influencing the U.S. economy at large, and the forest products market business is no different. Specifically, the review identifies the most significant contributors to the disruption as the waning global demand for wood products, geopolitical events, and the trade disputes that have been ongoing for several years.

But according to the report’s author, a healthy U.S. housing market should be a boon to the forest products industry as home prices continue to rise along with a lack of available homes for sale, including new home construction that simply can’t keep pace with consumer demand. That’s a high-level look at the report, so let’s drill down into little bits of information and data that go into the review.

Information and Data in Annual Market Review

The report’s author builds out the review by looking into information and stats that focus on forest products. The study delves into consumption, trade, prices, credit, production, and the aforementioned macroeconomic effects. The review categorizes each market segment. The downside is that the nomenclature used by the author may be different from the terminology you use internally within your company or industry. Additionally, there is also data on product prices, international trade, domestic markets, and policy initiatives.

When is the Annual Market Review released?

Published in conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Products Annual Market Review and Prospects, 2021-2025 comes out every year. The overriding difference this year is the depth and significance of the disruptions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the report looks at the market in its entirety instead of focusing on a single sub-sector.

The time frame in question may differ from report to report as economic conditions dictate how far into the future industry leaders should look for near-term trends. This time, the report outlines what the industry may soon face from 2021 to 2025. It’s the minimum amount of time necessary for a proper statistical analysis that seeks to forecast trends in juxtaposition with past data. From that point onward, the review breaks down the statistics and greatest influences for each category of forest products.

Forest product categories in the report

According to the report’s definition of forest products, the U.S. market can be broken down into several categories:

  • Timber products production, trade, and consumption
  • Sawn softwood
  • Softwood log trade
  • Sawn hardwood
  • Hardwood log trade
  • Pulpwood
  • Furniture
  • Structural panels
  • Engineered wood products
  • Hardwood plywood
  • Particle board and medium density fiberboard
  • Hardboard
  • Insulation board
  • Fuelwood

Additionally, the author explains the impact of economic conditions on each market segment. By taking this approach, the report can give a 360-degree view of the forest products industry and where it may turn in the future. Business leaders need an accurate portrayal of the industry to make investments and plan for successes – or further economic disruption due to factors beyond their control (i.e., rising inflation).

Currently, we are still in the nascent stages of a recovery from COVID-19, which most likely will affect the industry’s trajectory over the near term. And countries are facing headwinds from the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent recessionary environment.

Some segments will feel the impact more than others. The purpose of the review is to provide a starting range on how these forces will affect those markets. Without these insights, industry-leading companies would have a much harder time getting a snapshot of the market and whether or not the exacerbating factors are beyond their control.

Take some time to review the report, which can be found at the link above, and see how the economic conditions may factor into your strategic decision making.

 

Green Supply Chain Practices

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There are multiple ways to implement sustainability practices in a supply chain. Choosing which areas to tackle first can seem complicated. But some common practices cross industries and apply to most companies.

Materials

Choose recycled or sustainably produced materials (like wood pallets). This is one of the most basic applications of the reduce-reuse-recycle framework. Every business can choose green materials at some level.

If shipping products, then choose wood pallets. Wood pallets are less expensive and 95% are reused and recycled. Shipping is already very energy-intensive. You can help reduce its impact with your choice of materials.

Purchasing

Companies make procurement choices every day. Take the time to choose suppliers in your industry that are already using green materials and processes. Try to find suppliers that incorporate sustainable practices already.

Purchasing from an environmentally responsible established supplier strengthens their position in the market and provides an incentive for other suppliers to follow the lead.

Remember hidden costs. You may pay more with a green supplier, but do you save in responsible waste disposal and/or recycling of more materials? Audit the product lifecycle and determine where costs can be re-distributed or eliminated.

Transportation

Transportation is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As energy-saving options come on the market, take a closer look at your transportation suppliers. Choose those who are investing in clean-energy options. Just like all other purchasing, balance the cost of choosing greener transportation with the overall benefit to the communities you serve, your reputation, and the stability of your supply chain.

Packaging

Packaging can be one of the largest contributors to product wastefulness. Look at the entire lifespan of your packaging. How much of it ends up in the landfill, and how much of it can be reused or recycled?

Consumers are looking for less packaging. They’re also looking for innovative disposal methods. Can you use compostable packaging? Give your customers an easy choice with clear and visible instructions for environmentally friendly disposal.

First Steps-Greening the Supply Chain

No matter how big the company, the first steps in greening the supply chain is to understand that it is complex endeavor that will require time and resources to be truly effective. A green supply chain is intentional. The strategies come from the top down and involve every part of the chain. Build a plan and tackle each issue comprehensively.

Examine each step, from the acquisition of raw materials to the last mile of delivery. The key is to make incremental changes in daily operations that are part of a larger strategic plan. Identify the weakest points and work to strengthen them.

Talk to suppliers about sustainability practices. Some will have implemented strategies that lend themselves easily to the effort. A company’s vision and plan for sustainability is part of a larger strategic plan and supplier partners that can help by virtue of their own sustainability practices are essential.

A great benefit to investing in the green supply chain is that the effects can be larger than the intended scope of the initial investment. Helping a supplier/partner to improve its sustainability practices can create a stronger, more resilient supply chain overall.

That goodwill becomes a part of your company’s legacy and reflects positively on the reputation in the business community as a good partner.

The goodwill is a small, but essential, step in creating sustainable industries that become the standard.

The pandemic has exposed the fragility of supply chain problems as a worldwide issue. We are also realizing that greening supply chains makes them both more environmentally responsible and more resilient. Taking the first steps in greening the supply chain may seem daunting, but the small steps that a company takes can make a difference.

Every company that invests in sustainable practices, like using recycled wood pallets, is contributing to a greener global business environment. Those contributions will add up collectively to help lower costs and reduce waste.

Examining the company’s environmental footprint might seem troublesome, but seeing it as an opportunity to make positive, eco-friendly changes is good for business.

 

Wood biomass

Woody Biomass: A Nature’s Packaging Study-Part 1

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Developed countries, such as the U.S, rely on fossil fuels for energy. In fact, a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration reveals that primary energy consumption for the year 2020 in the U.S. was equivalent to 93 quadrillion btu.

Sources of fossil fuels such as natural gas, petroleum oil, nuclear, and coal play a significant role. They’re meeting the energy demands of the U.S. and the global society. However, these forms of energy contribute to greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions.

Lowering the use of fossil fuels is vital for environmental sustainability. Fortunately, demand for renewable energy sources has been rising in recent years. This is why renewable energy resources like solar, biomass, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric are crucial to achieve sustainability goals and mitigate climate change.

Woody biomass is a sustainable source of energy. One of the main benefits of woody biomass is that it is a carbon-neutral fuel source. Using woody biomass can help offset emissions from other fossil fuels. This makes it a crucial part of a sustainable energy strategy.

What is Woody Biomass?

Woody biomass is material obtained from woody plants and has been an important source of energy for millennia. Some notable wood energy facilities are:

  • Commercial wood furnaces
  • Liquid fuel refiners
  • Wood pellet factories
  • Power plants

Woody biomass is a natural renewable energy source from organic materials that can serve as a greener energy source. It is an attractive energy option for homes and industries as it can help generate electricity, produce heat, and be used in the creation of bio-based fuels. These can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.

Where does Woody Biomass come from?

Woody biomass material is derived from several sources. These include urban trees, logging slash and residues, and shrub prunings. Other materials include waste from wood industries and programmed forest thinning operations.

Woody plants are short rotation crops that are fast-growing. These include trees that re-sprout after every harvest. For instance, species such as willow shrubs are often cut back soon (after the first year) to allow multiple stems to grow.

In some cases, growing single stem trees for the first harvest produces woody biomass resources. These trees are then trimmed for more yield. Most wood species, however, re-sprout slowly with every harvest which means that overall yield may decline over time with multiple rotations.

What is Woody Biomass made from?

Woody biomass is organic. It’s made of materials from living organisms (plants and animals) that can be transformed into valuable energy. Common materials for making woody biomass are biomass feedstocks – wood, plants, and waste.

As mentioned above, woody biomass comes from trees and other woody plants such as shrubs. Timber is among the valuable forest products. Woody biomass is one of the tree products, woody debris, and residues. These materials may include:

  • Trees that are lower quality due to disease or growing conditions.
  • Cut residues from timber harvest (barks, small logs, branches, stumps, needles, and limbs).

A tree’s biomass constitutes around 25 to 45 percent of logging residues. These residues are less valuable in terms of forest product utility and they typically do not support the future growth of trees. Removal of this residue material from the forest can help stimulate growth of trees and ecosystems that improve the health of the forest.  These logging residues are collected and recycled into bio-energy products like woody biomass.

In addition to these traditional collection practices, woody biomass can include perennial grasses and agricultural residues. From industrial settings, woody biomass source materials can be derived from municipal solid waste, urban wood waste, and mill residues as well.

Woody Biomass as Renewable Resource

Woody biomass is a sustainable and renewable energy source that can be a viable alternative for fossil fuels.

Through the process of pyrolysis, which breaks down biomass into constituent chemical and organic matter components, woody biomass is utilized in the creation of bio-fuels. The resulting bio-fuels can serve in a variety of applications as a source of energy for both vehicles and facilities

Woody biomass is a renewable resource that can be sustainably managed. Proper management can promote carbon sequestration. It can also be used improve soil health and enhance wildlife habitat.

 

***Join us next week as we continue to learn more about woody biomass at Nature’s Packaging***

Woodview Media

Wood Pallets: An Eco-Friendly Choice

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Sustainability is an ongoing challenge for industry supply chains. Consumers often don’t recognize the enormous complexity of a reliable supply chain. According to the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association, nearly two billion pallets are in use every day in the United States.

Within the industry, there are staunch advocates for both wood pallets and plastic pallets. Each group claims their choice is the most environmentally friendly.

Researchers at Penn State University decided to take an unbiased look at the debate. They found that wooden pallets are more eco-friendly and sustainable than plastic.

Top 3 Eco-Friendly Benefits of Wood Pallets

Renewable Resource

Wood pallets are made using sustainably sourced wood. The timber is often cut for other uses and the by-products are used for pallet construction. Pallet wood does not come from old-growth forests.

The forest products industry has worked hard over the decades to become a model of sustainability. In 2020, the NWPCA and Pallet Foundation put together an Environmental Product Declaration for wood pallets.

Working with the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Products Lab, the UL-certified document is a testament to the positive environmental impact of wood pallet construction. Two new trees are planted for each one harvested, and 1.7 billion trees are planted in the United States every year.

In 2007 there were over twice as many hardwood trees in the U.S. than there were 50 years earlier. Trees are a naturally renewable resource, and responsible management creates more carbon-capturing trees than it harvests.

Plastic pallets are made with petroleum products. The extraction of these non-renewable fossil fuels produces air and water pollution as well as soil contamination. The Penn State study found that plastic pallets create far more aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicity and contribute much more to global warming than their wooden counterparts.

The simple fact is that wood pallets are made of trees, not oil. They are less harmful to the environment at every step, and they contribute to a more environmentally sustainable supply chain.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The most eco-friendly products are those that can be reused. Wood pallets can be used multiple times for their main purpose and be repurposed repeatedly. Damaged pallets can be repaired or made into other shipping materials.

When a pallet is no longer viable for shipping, the wood becomes everything from furniture and home décor to mulch and biofuel. A simple search for pallet wood on Pinterest reveals hundreds and hundreds of projects that use wooden pallets that have been retired from active use.

Reusing pallet wood for home projects reduces the use of new hardwood timber, reduces the purchase and consumption of materials that are not sustainably sourced, and decreases our reliance on plastic.

Recycling pallet wood into products like mulch and animal bedding saves newly harvested timber for other uses.

Estimates are that about 93% of pallets in the United States are made of wood and that 95% of those pallets are recycled by companies, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers.

Wood Pallets are Biodegradable

The recycling of wood pallets has grown tremendously over the past 20 years. That alone made wood pallets increasingly environmentally friendly and extended their useful lives.

But at some point, pallet wood is not going to be useful anymore. When it reaches the end of its lifespan, a wood pallet does the most eco-friendly thing of all: it biodegrades.

Properly treated and disposed of pallet wood decomposes. It adds nutrients to the soil, provides homes for plant and animal life, and leaves nothing behind but the fertile ground for new trees.

The small percentage of pallet wood that ends up being disposed of does exactly what we want our trash to do, it benefits the environment. After being recycled, reused, and repurposed for years, responsibly discarded wooden pallets nourish the environment rather than disrupting ecosystems and clogging our waterways.

Proponents of plastic pallets point to their durability and longevity. And they certainly can be strong and make many trips as pallets. But they’re not sustainably sourced, they’re not easily reused or recycled, and they don’t biodegrade.

Wooden pallets are an integral part of a reliable, environmentally friendly, sustainable supply chain. As consumers become aware of their complicated environmental footprint, they will be looking for companies that use wood pallets in their supply chains.

Hearne Hardwooods web homepage

Wood on the Web: Hearne Hardwoods

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It’s time for the Nature’s Packaging – Wood on the Web series. In these posts, we explore interesting and unique web resources all about wood. In this blog post we look at Hearne Hardwoods, a specialty lumber yard with some very unique offerings.

Have you ever seen a beautiful piece of wood furniture and said to yourself, ‘Wow! Look at that beautiful wood grain. Where do they find pieces like that’?

Well, in some cases they find those beautiful pieces of wood at Hearne Hardwoods.

Hearne Hardwooods web homepage

About Hearne Hardwoods

Hearne Hardwoods Inc. was started in 1997 by Rick and Pat Hearne as a small, family-owned, specialty hardwood lumber company located in Oxford Pennsylvania on a historic 18th century homestead. From their simple beginning, the family grew it from a four person company with eight thousand square foot of usable space to a thriving business with eighteen employees and over fifty thousand square feet of manufacturing, storage, and a marvelous showroom. As the company has grown, so has their ability to provide unique wood products for new markets. Originally they were strictly a raw material yard providing exotic woods from around the world. Now, they have “branched” out to include manufacturing musical instrument blanks and this side of their business has grown significantly.

Hearne hardwoods strives to offer selections of some of the world’s most unique and gorgeous wood pieces from sustainably managed forests delivered to customers in a friendly, welcoming manner. All Hearne Hardwoods customers are treated with respect and warmth. The staff onsite are very knowledgeable about their inventory and are ready to help every customer with their project, big or small.

Today, Rick Hearne and his son, Brian, travel across the globe in search of the wonderful treasures of nature that inspire woodworkers and instill a sense of awe in their customers.

Hearne Hardwood Products

Hearne offers several different categories of products:

  • Raw lumber – rough sawn, random width and length with wide selection of species from Apple to Ziricote.

  • Live edge slabs – most kiln dried, some air dried. Sawn and sold as flitches (sawn from a single log and sold together). Available bookmatched.

  • Tonewoods – high quality guitar and ukele parts.

  • Lumber piles – basically means what it says. Raw materials sold as a unit.

  • Burls and Blocks – these are used for inlays, furniture pieces, gun stocks, turned pieces, etc.

  • Veneers – used to cover large areas. Great for paneling, doors, and cabinets.

  • Hardwood flooring – custom made to fit your personal style and taste.

  • You Name It! – unique pieces ideal for art, sculpture, and table bases.

Sustainability

Sustainable forest management is vital to preserving forests in general and especially when dealing with unique and exotic hardwoods from around the world. Hearne Hardwoods is pledged to procure forest products from legal sources who practice sustainable forest management.

They have invested in a rosewood plantation based in Central America that includes a nursery and a sawmill. They are committed to building a renewable resource that benefits the local populace as well. The plantations are diversified ecosystems of indigenous trees and plants that allow the local communities to prosper from the land. They have also mahogany, cedar, avocado, mango, and orange trees within the tracks of the plantation.

As part of sustainable management, the trees initially grow among corn stalks and when they grow tall enough they will provide shade for organic coffee bushes.

Another part of their commitment to sustainable management and renewable the resources is their project to replant fifteen saplings for every tree harvested. The trees are GPS tagged in a forest management plan and their positions are provided to the local government for tracking and so that future members of the community are aware of the resources and can take part in their growth and harvesting.

 

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