Canada's forestry sector and WWF team up to create first fully carbon-neutral industry with bioenergy and carbon sinks

In an effort to tackle climate change, the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) announced today that Canada's forest products industry, one of the largest in the world, is setting a new bar for environmental responsibility and action: industry-wide carbon-neutrality by 2015 without the purchase of carbon offset credits. An initial 2-year partnership with WWF-Canada will inform and help guide the initiative. Ultimately, the ambition of the initiative is to make the sector carbon-negative by managing carbon sinks and bioenergy projects. It is hoped the effort will set an example for the forestry industry in other countries.

FPAC and WWF-Canada have initially agreed on a 2-year project that will focus on:

• Using case studies, develop recommendations and proposed guidelines for bioenergy production and wood product manufacturing so that forest product use and greenhouse gas savings are maximized, while biodiversity impacts are minimized.
• Identifying potential greenhouse gas savings from renewable energy, cogeneration and other mitigation options.
• Enhancing forestry-related life cycle analysis
• Working together on landscape-level and stand-level measures that are both carbon and conservation friendly.

The collaboration will draw on the findings of a report commissioned recently by the FPAC, and produced by the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI) titled "The Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Profile of the Canadian Forest Products Industry", making the Canadian forest products industry the first forest industry in the world to assess and report on its total carbon profile. The NCASI report will provide a foundation from which the industry can identify areas for continued progress and improvement.

The NCASI report documents the forest products industry's carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) profile which includes three distinct parts: emissions, sequestration, and avoided emissions. Emissions consist of transfers of GHGs to the atmosphere from forest products industry facilities or from elsewhere in the forest products industry value chain. They consist primarily of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion (including indirect emissions associated with purchased electricity - table, click to enlarge) and methane from decomposition of discarded products in landfills.

The sequestration component consists of carbon contained in and transferred between forests, forest products, and landfills (graph, click to enlarge). Avoided emissions consist of emissions that would have occurred were it not for certain industry activities. While avoided emissions are very difficult to quantify and not claimed in the same manner as direct emissions or sequestration, they are critical to understanding the overall carbon profile of the forest sector.

To achieve their carbon-neutral status, FPAC members, working in partnership with key stakeholders including governments and environmental organizations, will pursue an aggressive strategy focused on:

Reducing direct and indirect emissions:

• Becoming energy self-sufficient - the industry will continue to drive additional energy-efficiencies by switching from fossil fuels to more renewable energy sources such as biomass.
• Adoption of new more energy-efficient technologies.
• Increased diversion of used forest products from landfills.
• Increased use of landfill capping systems.
• Increased biomass cogeneration opportunities

Increasing the sequestration potential of forests and products:

• Identifying opportunities to maintain and enhance carbon storage in forests through landscape planning and sustainable forest management practices.
• Enhancing the pool of carbon stored in the value chain and minimizing emissions from end-of- life disposal.

Increasing avoided emissions:

• Determining ways to maximize recycling of paper and wood products.
• Understanding the carbon implications of wood-based materials in relation to available substitutes.

FPAC and WWF-Canada agree that some of the greatest opportunities for the future of the forest industry will be realized by providing leadership in sustainability and environmental performance. Already the organizations, working together, have helped chart a path for more sustainable management in commercial forestry by developing a toolkit for high conservation value forests (HCVF):
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: efficiency :: cogenration :: conservation :: climate change :: emissions :: carbon sink :: forestry :: Canada ::

Climate change is the issue on the agenda of industry leaders across sectors, as well as governments and consumers. For the forest sector, climate change presents a number of complex challenges and opportunities. These include the indirect repercussions of global warming, such as pine beetle infestations, and the opportunity for the forest sector to position itself as a climate friendly sector. Yet, there is not enough conclusive research and no policy standards that clarify the right approach for making Canadian forestry climate friendly.

Over the past two decades, FPAC members have set the pace for facility upgrades and innovative processes in a continued effort to improve their environmental performance and limit their impact on climate change. In so doing, they have reduced their fossil-fuel dependence to the point where almost 60% of their pulp and paper facilities' energy needs are self-generated from renewable sources.

From an environmental perspective, these efforts have had the following results since 1990: a 45% cut in the use of fossil fuels, a 54% improvement in greenhouse gas emissions intensity, a 40% reduction in landfill waste, and a 44% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. These environmental improvements also bring distinct economic benefits, as FPAC members have increased their production by 20%.

The new initiative has the potential to not only move the industry towards carbon-neutrality by 2015 but to go beyond, potentially removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than the sector emits. And, unlike other sectors that rely significantly on the purchase of offsets, it thinks it can get there without having to do so.

Climate change is the number one environmental threat facing the world today and becoming carbon neutral is the most significant step the forest products sector can take to reduce its overall environmental footprint. [...] WWF has already begun some groundbreaking research into the global potential of sustainable forestry for bioenergy supply and climate change mitigation, and their Climate Savers program has established a high standard of emission reductions among leaders in many business sectors.- Avrim Lazar, President and CEO of FPAC

WWF-Canada works to save nature by conserving species and protecting their habitats; by ensuring our use of natural resources is sustainable, and by helping individuals, companies and governments reduce pollution.

FPAC is the voice of Canada's wood, pulp and paper producers nationally and internationally in government, trade and environmental affairs. Canada's forest industry is an $80 billion dollar a year industry that represents 3% of Canada's GDP. The industry is one of Canada's largest employers, operating in over 320 Canadian communities and providing nearly 900,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country.

Picture: pulp mills are major emittors of greenhouse gases but they manage the resource that allows them to move away from the use of fossil fuels: biomass.

References:
National Council for Air and Stream Improvement: Special Report No. 07-09: The Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Profile of the Canadian Forest Products Industry - October 2007.