Climate Change
In 2006, we committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2020 using a 2000 baseline. This goal was evaluated during the process of developing our company sustainability strategy in 2010. The strategy reaffirms our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent, and now incorporates a more holistic approach to this reduction by including both direct and indirect emissions. Initially, the goal had focused solely on our direct emissions.
Shareholders benefit from lower energy costs, and the environment benefits from lower emissions of greenhouse gases. Our management strategies to drive greenhouse gas reductions include:
- Evaluating the GHG emissions from proposed energy-related investments
- Optimizing both the use of biomass fuels and co-generation systems to meet mill energy needs
- Improving energy efficiency in our manufacturing processes
We derive the majority of our energy from carbon-neutral biomass. When biomass such as wood is combusted for energy, it releases back into the atmosphere carbon dioxide that the trees had absorbed from the atmosphere during their growth – which also would have been emitted if the plant materials were left to decay. Therefore, the combustion of biomass for energy does not increase atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. And, by deriving the majority of our energy from biomass rather than fossil fuel, we are displacing emissions of geologic carbon dioxide which fossil fuel combustion releases into the atmosphere.
GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION
Our efforts are reducing Weyerhaeuser's greenhouse gas emissions footprint. Our emissions include the sum of our emissions at all of our manufacturing facilities, purchased electrical power, and transportation fleets owned or operated by Weyerhaeuser. Greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 were 26 percent less than our base year of 2000. Since 2008, our greenhouse gas emissions reductions have primarily resulted from the combined effect of operations consolidation in our higher efficiency mills, and lower levels of production. In 2010, this trend continued, with the majority of our reduction coming from operations that have been closed or temporarily curtailed due to the economic downturn. If production increases as business conditions improve in future years, we may see our total greenhouse gas emissions increase when compared with 2010.
In 2010, our greenhouse gas intensity (GHG emissions per metric ton of production) increased by approximately 20 percent when compared to 2000. This increase is primarily due to the inefficiencies of mills operating at reduced capacity with lower production than in previous years.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
In million metric tons CO2e
|
2000 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
| Direct GHG emissions |
2.26 |
1.96 |
1.85 |
1.79 |
1.58 |
1.71 |
| Indirect GHG emissions |
1.74 |
1.98 |
1.65 |
1.55 |
1.18 |
1.23 |
FOREST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES CONTRIBUTE POSITIVELY
- 5.9
- Million metric tons of product-sequestered CO2 in 2010
Forests sequester and release carbn in unequal amounts over time. The rate of forest carbon sequestration is subject to seasonal variation, annual variation due to climate and disturbance impacts, age-related variation due to the natural cycle of tree growth, and effects from forest management practices such as fertilization and harvesting. The U.S. Department of Energy 1605(b) guidelines affirm that sustainably managed forests balance harvest and growth cycles over time and landscape and can be considered carbon neutral.
We have taken a conservative approach to estimating the standing stock carbon sequestered on our lands. Only afforestation is included in our GHG inventory as areas that sequester carbon. The estimates we make for these sequestration activities are based on conservative assumptions of carbon growth on these lands and do not reflect field measurements. During 2010, these lands accounted for 740,000 metric tons of sequestered CO2.
FOREST PRODUCTS SEQUESTER CARBON
Some of the carbon stored in trees harvested from sustainably managed forests is captured in our products, limiting the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Wood products store carbon during their useful life. We use a third-party 100-year-decay method for quantifying this long-term forest-product carbon sequestration, which for 2010 indicates that we totaled 5.9 million metric tons of product-sequestered CO2.
OUR NET 2010 INVENTORY
We sequestered approximately 6.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in our forests and products in 2010. We reduced this amount by our direct and indirect emissions and by 0.09 million metric tons of CO2 reflecting a GHG emissions debit for the sale of 90,602 "Green Tags." In sum, during 2010 we sequestered more carbon dioxide than we emitted and accrued by green tag trades, effectively removing approximately 600,000 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
These estimates of emissions and sequestration represent our corporate net carbon inventory. Our inventory does not include upstream or downstream emissions not owned or controlled by Weyerhaeuser.
METHODOLOGY
Our greenhouse gas inventory process adheres to the guidelines published by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative's Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Revised Edition, and its associated calculation tools that are relevant to our operations. The initiative is a multi-stakeholder partnership convened by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Resources Institute. Following guidance in this protocol, adjustments to the baseline year and subsequent years’ data have been made on a whole-year basis for divestments and acquisitions affecting our greenhouse gas inventory. The absolute value (reported in metric tons CO2e) of our entire GHG emission inventory can change as a result of these adjustments. In accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, emissions from divested facilities are removed from the base year and subsequent years.
In 2010, we continued to make improvements to our internal greenhouse gas calculation tools and measurement of progress towards our goal. In the process of moving our greenhouse gas data into a more comprehensive web-based database, some data gaps were identified in our historical greenhouse gas emissions. These gaps have been addressed with data and technical estimates where needed so that our greenhouse gas inventory dating back to the year 2000 is a now a more comprehensive record of our performance as a company.