Sustainable wood Pellet conference considers certification n mid-February, Canadian Biomass attended the Canadian Wood Pellet Heating Conference in Montreal. It coincided with the Montreal Wood Con-vention and benefited from sharing some seminars and networking opportunities the con-vention offered since the two conferences are such natural partners. Sawmills are now becoming pellet producers, which makes it beneficial for both indus-tries to have the oppor-tunity to gather together to consider opportunities and tackle issues of con-cern (see article about Res-olute Forest Products on page 14). Gordon Murray, the executive director of WPAC and a regular contributor to Canadi-an Biomass , launched the pellet conference with a call to action. He urged pellet pro-ducers to coordinate efforts with appliance manufacturers to increase domestic use of wood pellets. “We hardly sell any wood pellets at home despite being the coldest country in the world. We all do our own thing and not nearly as successfully domestically as we should be doing it together,” said Murray. “Today, pellets make up 0.3 per cent of all domestic heating fuels. Let’s shoot for three per cent,” said Murray. To meet this goal, he suggested the industry work together to develop a marketing strategy to meet a 20 per cent annual growth. But before the industry can grow and gain some momentum in Canada, it is important to ensure that the fuel sold to individual consumers is of a high enough quality to burn well in residential stoves. The standardization of fuel pellets is an important factor that came up again and PM 40065710 Biomass_MarApr2014.indd 1 BIOMASS CANADIAN Volume 14 No. 2 Editor -Amie Silverwood (289) 221-8946 [email protected] Associate Editor -Andrew Macklin (519) 429-5181 [email protected] Contributors -Gordon Murray, Treena Hein, Ed Chovanec, David Grandaw, Nadine Block Editorial Director/Group Publisher -Scott Jamieson (519) 429-3966 ext 244 [email protected] Market Production Manager Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] National Sales Manager Ross Anderson Ph: (519) 429-5188 Fax: (519) 429-3094 [email protected] Quebec Sales Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] Western Sales Manager Tim Shaddick [email protected] Ph: (604) 264-1158 Fax: (604) 264-1367 Media Designer -Chris Springle Canadian Biomass is published six times a year: February, April, June, August, October, and December. Published and printed by Annex Business Media. Printed in Canada ISSN 2290-3097 Circulation Carol Nixon Ph: (514) 425-0025 ext 30 e-mail: [email protected] P.O. Box 51058 Pincourt, QC J7V 9T3 Subscription Rates: Canada -1 Yr $49.50; 2 Yr $87.50; 3 Yr $118.50 Single Copy -$9.00 (Canadian prices do not include applicable taxes) USA – 1 Yr $60 US; Foreign – 1 Yr $77 US Occasionally, Canadian Biomass magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-re-lated groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission ©2014 Annex Business Media, All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca I again at the conference. Standardization is required in all lev-els of the process from the harvest to the end product. This involves a high quality management system that keeps up to date records, proper employee training and daily in-house testing with standardized tests and equipment. Word of mouth is the best advertising and a bad batch of pellets can sully the industry’s reputation. It is in pellet producers’ best inter-ests to have all pellets sold for home heating conform to a minimum standard. A standard that guaran-tees a high quality pellet is important to ensure the customer is burn-ing a clean and efficient fuel but consum-ers would also benefit from knowing their pellets came from a sustainably-managed forest. Public perception is that pellets are being produced from whole trees and that North American forests are under pressure from pellet plants and their insatiable need for wood. Just as ethanol producers have been accused of driving up food prices, wood pellet producers are under suspicion for using too much wood. Rather than fight the battle against misinformation alone, the forest indus-try has some publicly trusted standards in place to demonstrate when wood has been harvested sustainably. Building on these standards can only drive the indus-try forward. 2014-03-21 10:36 AM Amie Silverwood, editor [email protected] 6 Canadian BIOMASS
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