Wood pellets a Canadian success story
Catherine Lacoursiere over at EcoLog has an insightful post about the demand for wood pellets in Europe — and increasingly the United States — and how Canada is among the handful of benefactors.
“Canada, with its vast forestry resources, is shipping upwards of 500,000 tons of wood pellets to Europe,” she writes, adding:
The Forestry Products Association of Canada says that once Canadian companies become more focused on meeting CO2 reduction targets it will need to keep the bulk of its shipments of carbon neutral wood pellets at home. In the U.S., wood pellet demand has taken off over the last year. New England states are now negotiating with Canadian wood pellet suppliers in an effort to divert some of the European supply their way.
Interesting is that if you visit the Web site for the Wood Pellet Association of Canada you’ll be told they are “revamping” their Web site, brand and name, as well as changing their mission, reach and focus. Perhaps with oil reaching new highs, as EcoLog points out, the industry is repositioning itself to take advantage of even greater growth and opportunity at home and abroad.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
