Resource Extraction

Forest Products Association Of Canada

Challenge

The forest industry is directly and indirectly responsible for significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from harvesting activities, manufacturing, transportation and product disposal. At the same time forests, soils, biomass and forest products all have the potential to store carbon for varying degrees of time. Activities aimed at reducing emissions, increasing carbon storage and reducing reliance on fossil fuels can positively influence the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

FPAC and WWF-Canada both believe that providing leadership in sustainability and environmental performance will realize some of the greatest opportunities for the future of the forest industry. With this in mind, FPAC and WWF-Canada committed to use their collective resources and influence to effect positive change.

Strategy

In 2007, FPAC commissioned a report 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 would provide a foundation from which the industry could identify areas for continued progress and improvement. The NCASI report documented the forest products industry’s carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) profile which included three distinct parts: emissions, sequestration, and avoided emissions. The full text of the report will be available at: http://www.ncasi.org/.

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

1) 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 cogeneration opportunities

2) 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.

3) 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.

WWF-Canada and FPAC would use the best available information to inform the analysis and planning, and accounting protocols would be guided by the best relevant methods. Activities carried out in support of this initiative were not intended to presume the outcome of other related initiatives pertaining to climate change, including governmental measures and/or the development of protocols for project-specific tradable offsets.

Additionally, FPAC and WWF would propose certain measures that warrant further consideration as possible ways to reduce GHG emissions or enhance carbon sequestration. It is intended to identify those measures that show the most promise for additional benefits beyond business as usual projections. FPAC and WWF are working together to compile and summarize available information about their applicability, with a view to encouraging their implementation within the forest industry as well as across the forest products value chain.

Result

Canada’s forestry sector saw the writing on the wall more than a decade ago and began to seriously address climate change – streamlining and modernizing operations, producing and using renewable fuels, developing bio-products .Forest biomass is Canada’s largest source not just of bio-energy but of renewable energy. It’s bigger than wind, solar and tidal combined.

The energy produced from forest biomass in pulp and paper mills today is sufficient to replace three nuclear reactors and to power the City of Vancouver for a year. Additionally, Forestry companies have reduced emissions ten times Kyoto targets or by 60 percent- 8 million tonnes removed from the atmosphere. But the work continues.