Login | Logout | Register | Disclaimer

Life Cycle Assessment

The publication paper sector represents one of the most significant end uses of Canfor’s reinforcement fibres.In 1998 Canfor published a peer reviewed Life Cycle Assessment, which spanned the entire process chain with process inputs from 3 different countries. The study was conducted jointly by Stora - a Swedish forest products company, Axel Springer Verlag - a German printing house, and Canfor. The areas examined covered all aspects of the life cycle of a daily newspaper and a weekly magazine, including the ecological impacts of forestry practices, recycling, energy profiles, bleaching technologies (ECF/TCF) and carbon dioxide balances. A novel aspect of the study was the development of an entirely original method for quantifying the ecological impacts due to forestry operations. 

The overall results were very heavily influenced by energy use. In fact, the energy contribution formed the largest single category of impacts identified by the study. These impacts resulted from both the quantity and the sources of energy used. Energy mixes containing large proportions of fossil fuels had an especially large effect on the total impact calculations. 

The climatically neutral nature of wood as a raw material and as an energy source for the pulp and paper industry was highlighted by the study. A direct consequence of this is that in the case of the daily newspaper, more carbon dioxide was naturally bound into the wood fibre in the newspaper, than was released by fossil fuels during the process of producing and delivering the paper to the reader. This confirmed that paper is one of the few useful products that have a minimal impact on global climate change.

	Lifecycle Assessment of Graphic Paper and Print Products - Part 1 Proposal for a Forestry Assessment
	Lifecycle Assessment of Graphic Paper and Print Products - Part 2 Industrial Processes