Environment, Energy & Safety Report Industry Progress Report AMERICAN WOOD DECEMBER COUNCIL 2018 Introduction The American Wood Council (AWC) the environment, all while producing is the voice of North American wood products that are central to the lives products manufacturing, an industry and homes of all Americans. that provides almost 450,000 men and women in the United States with As part of this commitment, the family-wage jobs.1 AWC represents industry has been publicly reporting 86 percent of the structural wood its performance across a number products industry, and members make of environment, energy and safety products that are essential to everyday measures since 2014. This Industry life from a renewable resource that Progress Report, our third, shows absorbs and sequesters carbon. that there have been significant improvements over the last decade On behalf of the industry it represents, in these areas, despite the economic AWC is committed to ensuring a downturn that caused a drop in resilient, safe, and sustainable built wood products manufacturing environment. To achieve these beginning in early 2006. Some of the objectives, AWC contributes to the metrics have leveled off in the last development of sound public policies, few years reflecting a stabilization of codes, and regulations which allow performance and maturing of the for the appropriate and responsible regulatory regime after an earlier manufacture and use of wood period of intense change. The Report products. We support the utilization also provides some economic and of wood products by developing and employment data for the last decade. disseminating consensus standards, comprehensive technical guidelines, In reviewing our progress, it is and tools for wood design and important to note that many factors construction, as well as providing that influence individual parameters education regarding their application. play out over extended periods of time, so looking at longer-term trends, AWC members are very proud of their rather than focusing on changes record of energy management and between any two years, is encouraged. efficiency, mill safety, and protection of 1 Bureau of Economic Analysis 2016 data Environment, Energy & Safety Report 2018 Key Findings 450,000 • The broad forest products industry is the Family-Wage Jobs largest producer and user of bioenergy of any in the United States industrial sector. AWC member companies have met over 75 percent of their energy needs, on average, from biomass over the last decade. 17% • Using biomass from forest products Reduction of Energy Intensity manufacturing residuals displaces fossil fuel from Pre-Recession Levels use and is a carbon-neutral, renewable fuel source. • Energy intensity has improved significantly since the 2008-09 recession and is 17 percent 3x below pre-recession levels. Capital Spending by the U.S. Wood • The 10-year trend in chemical releases has Products Sector Compared to 2009 shown significant reductions, which includes formaldehyde and methanol. • Worker safety incident rates for member companies are consistently lower than all 75% manufacturing during 2004-2016. Energy Needs Met from Biomass Over the Last Decade • Capital spending by the U.S. wood products sector increased from 2012 to 2016; in 2016 spending was nearly 3 times that of 2009. Environment, Energy & Safety Report 2018 Environmental Profile CHEMICAL RELEASES FORMALDEHYDE Given methanol’s relatively lower Formaldehyde emissions intensity of toxicity, industry and regulatory focus reporting AWC members, expressed in has shifted to other performance pounds per thousand cubic feet (MCF) measures. of products produced, has declined overall since 2006. The emissions Reductions in methanol emissions intensity for 2016 is 53 percent lower are likely associated with clean air than that for 2006. The significant requirements to capture and destroy decline is likely due to a combination methanol from various presses, dryers of required state and federal air and other process equipment that pollution controls and product went into effect in 2008. reformulation efforts to reduce formaldehyde in resins. The leveling TOXICS RELEASE of emissions since 2012 is indicative INVENTORY of AWC members having met these The following chart tracks total regulatory obligations and continuing Toxics Releases Inventory (TRI) to maintain strict compliance. per thousand cubic feet of wood products production for AWC member METHANOL companies that reported to the AWC Methanol emissions intensity, survey. These data, as well as the expressed in pounds per thousand formaldehyde and methanol emissions cubic feet of wood products data, were obtained from EPA’s TRI produced by reporting AWC member database. companies, remained essentially flat since 2012, indicating AWC members’ Total TRI releases intensity has been have met regulatory obligations. The trending downward since 2003. intensity declined from 4.2 pounds/ Between 2003 and 2016, the intensity MCF in 2008 to 2.8 pounds/MCF decreased 37 percent. in 2016, a reduction of 33 percent. Environment, Energy & Safety Report 2018 POUNDS PER 1,000 CUBIC FEET OF PRODUCTION 4 3 2 1 CHART 1 0 2003 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Formaldehyde Releases Intensity Source: EPA (for facilities reporting to AWC/AF&PA Surveys) POUNDS PER 1,000 CUBIC FEET OF PRODUCTION 5 4 3 2 1 CHART 2 0 2003 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Methanol Releases Intensity Source: EPA (for facilities reporting to AWC/AF&PA Surveys) POUNDS PER 1,000 CUBIC FEET OF PRODUCTION 8 6 4 2 CHART 3 0 2003 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Total TRI Releases Intensity Source: EPA (for facilities reporting to AWC/AF&PA Surveys) Source: EPA (for facilities reporting 2010-2016 AWC Environment, Energy & Safety Survey; AF&PA EH&S Survey for previous years) Environment, Energy & Safety Report 2018 LIFE CYCLE PERFORMANCE More attention is being paid than ever before to how buildings impact the environment, including the choices of materials used in construction and how those materials help conserve energy during operation. Wood is the perfect sustainability material because it is renewable, stores carbon that reduces greenhouse gases, and is energy efficient. The North American wood products industry is committed to sustainability in its products and their use. In support of this commitment, and to stimulate product improvement, the industry prepared and has published third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Transparency Briefs that capture and describe the environmental performance of many of the products produced. All North American wood industry EPDs have been independently third-party verified by UL Environment (ULE), a business unit of Underwriters Laboratories. ULE verifies that EPDs conform to the requirements of ISO 14025, the global standard governing EPDs. ULE’s review looks at both the underlying life-cycle assessments as well as the data reported in the EPDs. These third-party verified EPDs provide users with a science- based tool to understand and weigh what environmental factors are important to them when making product selections. In total, the wood products industry has produced and made available 12 EPDs, which can be found at awc.org/greenbuilding/epd. Environment, Energy & Safety Report 2018 Energy Profile PERCENT Biomass Fuels Purchased Electricity Natural Gas Purchased Steam Other Fossil Fuels CHART 4 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Source: AWC Environment, Energy & Safety Survey 2016 Wood Product Facility Energy Sources Wood products facilities use all parts The result is that by using biomass, the of natural raw materials received, not industry displaces fossil fuel use and its only to manufacture products used associated emissions. in everyday life, but then also use the manufacturing residuals to generate The greenhouse gas reduction benefit most of the energy needed. Data of using biomass manufacturing submitted to AWC’s Environment, residuals for energy by the wood Energy & Safety Survey indicate that products industry is equivalent to member companies met nearly 75 about 24 million tons of carbon percent their energy needs from dioxide. This is equivalent to removing renewable, carbon neutral biomass approximately 4.6 million cars from the energy in 2016. road every year.2 By using biomass manufacturing The next two largest energy source residuals, the wood products industry categories in 2016 were purchased is harnessing the energy value electricity at 13 percent and natural of carbon before it is lost to the gas at 10 percent. atmosphere through other means. 2 Determined by following the methodology in the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, “Greenhouse Gas and Fossil Fuel Reduction Benefits of Using Biomass Manufacturing Residuals for Energy in Forest Products Facilities”, Technical Bulletin No. 1016 (Rev. Aug. 2014). Environment, Energy & Safety Report 2018 PERCENT 100 90 80 70 60 50 CHART 5 40 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Biomass Share of Total Source: 2010-2016 data from AWC Environment, Energy & Safety Survey; AF&PA EH&S Survey for previous years Energy Consumption The 2016 data continued the decade- has mostly held steady during the long trend, shown in the chart above, 2004-2014 period, with a 12 percent in which wood products facilities have drop from 2014 to 2016. The energy typically derived about 75 percent of intensity for 2016, measured as billion their energy needs from carbon neutral BTUs per MCF of production, was 16 biomass. This serves to decrease the use percent lower compared