Long-Lived Wood Products: Carbon and Competitive Advantages for Hardwood Mills

  • Stringer, Jeffrey (PI)
  • Ammerman, Bobby (CoI)
  • Conners, Terrance (CoI)
  • Fackler, Francis (CoI)

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

Recognition by existing voluntary carbon markets, including but not limited to the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), of carbon sequestered in long-lived wood products (LLWPs) has provided primary forest industries an o pportunity to capitalize on the sale of carbon credits through their contribution to the production of LLWPs and provide a much needed stream of alternative revenues. This project proposes to develop guidelines and worksheets that will allow hardwood sawmills throughout the U.S. to determine the benefits and costs associated with participating in carbon markets. We will develop worksheets that can easily be used by individual hardwood sawmills to estimate the costs associated with participating in carbon markets including: 1) costs of developing adequate chain-of-custody (CoC) inventory controls, 2) determination of carbon footprint (CO2 equivalents (CO2e) of green house gas (GHG) emissions based on energy consumption) and guidelines for reducing energy consumption, and 3) determine administrative costs associated with participation in carbon markets. Further, the worksheets will allow sawmills to: 1) determine the amount of certified timber that must be procured at a given carbon market price to provide positive revenues; or conversely, 2) determine thresholds for carbon markets prices to regenerate positive revenues based on the costs associated with participating in carbon markets. This project builds on partnerships between university researchers, extension specialists, community development associations, individual hardwood mills, and industry associations. It is our hope that the project will provide information that could provide some degree of financial relief to mills and rural economies, many of which are struggling in today's economy.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date6/1/096/30/12

Funding

  • Forest Service: $79,566.00

Fingerprint

Explore the research topics touched on by this project. These labels are generated based on the underlying awards/grants. Together they form a unique fingerprint.