Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Southern Yellow Pine ...

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.2 Summary of Findings This study compared two scenarios: Business-‐As-‐Usual (BAU) and Steel Pole Replacement (SPR), comparing the implications of the use of wood and galvanized steel utility poles in the Southeast. Of the thirty-‐five independent category indicators that were assessed and quantified: • 21 indicators show a clear benefit (a difference of 25% or more) in terms of lower impact levels associated with the use of galvanized steel utility poles under the SPR scenario. For 12 of these indicators, the difference was 100% or greater. • 4 indicators do not show a clear advantage toward either the SPR or BAU scenario, differing by less than 25%. For these indicators, results are within the margin of error, considering the uncertainties in the inventory and environmental characterization data used in the assessment. • 10 show a clear benefit in terms of lower impact levels associated with the use of wood utility poles under the BAU scenario. For 5 of these indicators, the difference was 100% or greater. Five additional impact categories were identified as environmentally relevant but could not be quantified due to insufficient data. However, impact reductions of 100% or greater favoring the SPR scenario would be anticipated if measurements were possible, based on available information. This categories include: the exposure of humans, flora, and fauna to toxic substances, resulting from arsenic ore extraction and refining in China; the exposure of workers to toxic herbicides in the Southeastern US as a result of herbicide application associated with forestry operations in this region; disturbance to wetland and freshwater biomes in the Southeastern US, resulting from forestry in this region; disturbance to suitable freshwater and wetland habitats for species in the Southeastern US, resulting from forestry in this region. The findings are summarized in Table 1 below. In the table, Indicator results are reported by Impact category. If there are multiple indicators per impact category, these are bulleted and listed separately. For indicators measuring net impacts, breakout data are provided in italics. Negative results indicate cooling effects from greenhouse gases and black carbon, or avoided depletion as a secondary consequence related to reduced extraction of metal ores. The study findings should not be interpreted to imply that all environmental indicators should be “weighted” equally, but rather, that individual indicators should be considered separately in their appropriate context. Further discussion of the scenarios studied and the key findings are found in the remainder of the Executive Summary. April 2013 | ©SCS Global Services ES-‐ 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Table 1. Summary of results for each scenario, by category indicator. All values are rounded. All tons are metric tons. For most indicators, the margin of error is expected to be approximately ± 25%. Impact Categories and Indicators Units BAU Results SPR Results Extracted Resource Depletion Energy Resource Depletion Thousand Barrels of Oil eq. 698 364 Water Use Thousands of acre-‐feet 299 185 Metals and Minerals Resource Depletion • Arsenic Resource Depletion Tons Arsenic (As) eq. 3,380 0 to -‐4,000* • Barite Resource Depletion Tons Barite (BaSO 4) eq. 62 54 • Boron Resource Depletion kg Boron Trioxide (B 2O 3) eq. 1,150 720 • Chromium Resource Depletion Tons Chromium (Cr) eq. 4,160 0 to -‐4,100* • Copper Resource Depletion Tons Copper (Cu) eq. 22 41 • Fluorspar Resource Depletion Tons Fluorspar (CaF 2) eq. 136 93 • Lead Resource Depletion kg Lead (Pb) eq. 849 2,830 • Manganese Resource Depletion Tons Manganese (Mn) eq. 17 11 • Nickel Resource Depletion Tons Nickel (Ni) eq. 48 17 • Tin Resource Depletion kg Tin (Sn) eq. 149 112 • Zinc Resource Depletion Tons Zinc (Zn) eq. 43 26,100 Land Use Ecological Impact Terrestrial Biome Disturbance Acres fully disturbed biome eq. * yrs 0 615 • Western Great Lakes Forests Acres fully disturbed biome eq. * yrs 0 615 • Southeastern Mixed & Broadleaf Forest Acres fully disturbed biome eq. * yrs 276,000 0 • Southeastern Conifer Forest Acres fully disturbed biome eq. * yrs 202,000 0 Wetland Biome Disturbance Not measured Key Species Habitat Disturbance • Blanding’s turtle Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 0 615 • Wood Turtle Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 0 615 • Kirtland’s warbler Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 0 615 • Red-‐Cockaded Woodpecker Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 386,000 0 • Eastern indigo snake Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 386,000 0 • Frosted flatwoods salamander Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 153,000 0 • Gopher tortoise Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 145,000 0 • Indiana bat Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 386,000 0 • Red Wolf Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 386,000 0 • Reticulated flatwoods salamander Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 145,000 0 • Red-‐Cockaded Woodpecker (Nesting) Acres fully disturbed habitat eq. * yrs 540,000 0 Wetland & Freshwater Habitat Disturbance Not measured Impacts from GHG/BC Emissions Global Climate Change (Net) Thousands of tons CO 2 eq. 277 114 Warming Impacts Thousands of tons CO 2 eq. 474 286 Cooling Impacts Thousands of tons CO 2 eq. -‐197 -‐170 Arctic Climate Change Thousands of tons CO 2 eq. 23 28 Ocean Acidification Thousands of tons CO 2 226 237 Ocean Thermal Loading (Net) Thousands of tons CO 2 eq. 460 417 Ocean Warming Thousands of tons CO 2 eq. 618 553 Ocean Cooling Thousands of tons CO 2 eq. -‐158 -‐136 Environmental Impacts from Emissions Regional Acidification Tons of SO 2 eq. 2,470 3,670 Ecotoxicity Not measured Human Health Impacts from Emissions Ground Level Ozone Exposure Risks Persons * hours * ppm O 3 45,000 74,000 PM2.5 Exposure Risks Persons * hours * µg PM2.5 eq. / m 3 15,000 23,000 Toxic Air Emissions – Effects from Inhalation Not measured Toxic Emissions – Effects from Ingestion Not measured Risks from Untreated Hazardous Waste CCA-‐Treated Pole Disposal Tons of CCA-‐treated wood 593,000 162,000 *Accounts for the avoided depletion of arsenic and chromite ore as a result of avoided CCA production in the SPR scenario. April 2013 | ©SCS Global Services ES-‐ 3
Page 1 and 2: FINAL REPORT SCS Global Services
Page 3: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 EXECUTIVE SUMM
Page 7 and 8: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In North Caroli
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Page 13 and 14: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY To better under
Page 15 and 16: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.5.2 Lower Land
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Page 21 and 22: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY • Other survey
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