Here’s everything you need to know about the new wooden pallets EPD!
Last month the U.S. Forestry Service, along with the NWPCA and The Pallet Foundation, released an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for all wooden pallets developed throughout the country.
This EPD on wooden pallets is undoubtedly a big moment within our industry because it effectively quantifies the environmental impacts posed by the entire development of wooden pallets. This type of quantification helps pallet industry leaders like The Pallet Guys better understand the comprehensive impact of pallets on the environment, which in turn assist us in making more informed decisions about how we source our lumber.
So What Exactly Is The Big Deal About This EPD?
For many years, industry leaders like us have publicized the positive environmental impacts of recycled and used pallets, and there has been a good amount of research to back up the overall sustainability of wooden pallets.
But we’ve never had an officially certified document like this new EPD that stands behind how wooden pallets impact the environment in both negative and positive ways, at least until now.
This latest EPD provides a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that showcases the versatility and many reuses of wooden pallets that we’ve known about for a long time, so it’s a much-needed validation that bolsters our ongoing sustainability initiatives!
What The EPD Results Tell Us
The Life Cycle Assessment found within this wooden pallet EPD now officially provides data that shows how proper disposals and recycling measures can make the entire wooden pallet manufacturing process a carbon-neutral product.
It also provides substantial evidence to indicate just how environmentally friendly it is to remanufacture and recondition pallets via recycled wood materials, so there’s absolutely no denying just how encouraging these findings are for the entire pallet industry.
The Pallet Guys have always been an industry leader when it comes to pallet recycling, and now we have tangible proof as to how our practices play a significant role in environmental sustainability!
What The EPD Means For Pallet Manufacturers Like The Pallet Guys
This latest EPD is a very promising document that goes a long way to justify all of the positive environmental impacts that our wooden pallet production and recycling has on the planet. It also helps in terms of solidifying wooden pallets as an eco-friendly shipping solution as compared to many other alternatives.
What’s also important from our perspective of the EPD is that we can more critically analyze our everyday practices and fine-tune what we do towards a more sustainable future.
Three of the main guiding purposes of the EPD for pallet manufacturers include the following:
- Encouraging New Pallet Production Innovation: The EPD shows that the manufacturing of new pallets has the most negative impact on global warming and the environment as a whole, so these findings help solidify our efforts to maintain innovation within our manufacturing processes so we’re lowering our impact during this product stage as much as possible.
- Encouraging Remanufactured/Recycled Pallets: The EPD also shows tangible evidence towards the lowering of environmental impacts associated with recycled/remanufactured pallets, so this is encouraging for The Pallet Guys who have always been supportive of this type of eco-conscious industry practice. We’ll be sure to work with our customers on getting them high-quality recycled pallets that help all of us be more environmentally sustainable and lower our greenhouse gas emissions.
- End-Of-Pallet-Life Strategy Prioritization: One of the most important parts of the EPD is that it shows how wooden pallets can be a carbon neutral product when they’re properly disposed of or recycled once the pallet has entered the ending days of its life cycle. This means that we’ll be upping our game in terms of our eco-friendly recycling/disposal strategies in order to completely off-set our environmental impacts during our latter production stages.
What The EPD Means For Business Leaders And Pallet Customers
There are multiple impacts for our customers when it comes to the findings of this recent EPD.
The first impact is that the EPD proves how recycled pallets are a very environmentally friendly solution, and that pallets in general are also an eco-conscious shipping solution as compared to other alternatives.
This research also shows how teaming up with industry experts like The Pallet Guys can actually go a long way in terms of helping businesses with environmental goals like becoming carbon neutral. We’ve always prided ourselves on our industry leading recycling protocols, and we’re experts at the many different protocols listed within the EPD that indicates a successful offset of negative impacts within the lifecycles of each and every one of our pallets.
Another important impact on our customers is that the EPD helps provide our customers with more tangible, certified data in terms of the positive environmental impacts associated with our recycling operations. This type of data can then in turn have a very positive impact on our customers’ abilities to create points of differences within their own industries, because they’ll better know how their supply chain and logistics are eco-friendly!
Reach Out To The Industry Specialists At The Pallet Guys To Learn More About How We’re An Eco-Conscious Pallet Supplier!
The Pallet Guys have always prided ourselves on our recycling efforts, and we’re excited by how this new EPD authentically proves how our eco-consciousness has always been justified.
So always feel free to reach out to us online or call us at 832-895-7555 to get in touch with our team and ask us any questions about our sustainability efforts!
