Red Pine CCA-Treated Utility Pole

Declaration details

Manufacturer

Stella-Jones Inc.

Program operator

Smart EPD

Declaration number

SmartEPD-2024-042-0191-01

Date of issue

October 18, 2024

Valid until

October 18, 2029

Product category rules (PCR)

Sustainable Minds Part B: Utility poles (version 1)

Standard

ISO 14025:2006 and ISO 21930:2017

Functional unit

1 utility pole of product

System boundary

Cradle to grave (A1 – A3, A4, A5, B1 - B7, C1 - C4)

Product specificity

Product Average

Manufacturing specificity

Facility Specific

Manufacturing plants

Riviere Rouge (2549 Chemin Francisco, Rivière-Rouge, QC, Canada); Prince George (7177 Pacific Street, Prince George, BC, Canada); Gatineau (426 Chemin de Montréal Est, Gatineau, QC, Canada); Guelph (7818 Wellington Road 22, Guelph, ON, Canada); Truro (278 Park Street, Truro, NS, Canada); Kirkland Lake (100 Highway 672, Dobie, ON, Canada); Neepawa (MB-16, Neepawa, MB, Canada)

Product category

Wood

Product SKU

Stella-Jones Red Pine CCA-Treated Utility Pole

Product service life

60 years

Verifier

Kamalakanta Sahoo

LCA software

SimaPro 9.6

Program instructions

Smart EPD General Program Instructions v.1.0, November 2022

Life cycle assessment results

Results per 1 utility pole of product.

Environmental Impact Assessment Results

Resource Use Indicators

Waste and Output Flow Indicators

Carbon Emissions and Removals

ND = not declared. Life cycle modules: A1-A3 product stage, A4-A5 construction process, B use stage, C end of life, D benefits and loads beyond the system boundary.

Material composition

Hazardous substances

CCA Sludge

Scenarios

Transport to the building site (A4)

Fuel type

Diesel fuel

Vehicle type

Truck

Transport distance

1370 km

Capacity utilization

28.5%

Weight of products transported

787 kg

End of life (C1-C4)

Collected separately

596 kg

Landfill

596 kg

Product or material for final disposal

596 kg

Product description

Utility Poles from CCA (Chromated Copper Arsenate) treated red pine wood, produced by Stella-Jones at the following 7 Canadian facilities: Riviere Rouge, Gatineau, Prince George, Neepawa, Truro, Guelph

Interpretation

This chapter aims to interpret the results to easier understand which impacts are the most relevant, where they appear and how accurate the results are. The mandatory LCIA results are presented graphically and described. Only the global warming indicator is analyzed in a sensitivity analysis to keep the number of pages to a reasonable amount. The global warming indicator is chosen as it is identified as the impact category that is most relevant for customer to understand and communicate.

Each module contributes in varying degrees based on the impact category. For the global warming indicator, one of the largest contributors to fossil CO2 emissions is the transportation from supplier to manufacturing facility, accounting for approximately 18% of the total amount. The maintenance of the wooden utility pole, as well as the replacement represent approximately 15% and 19% respectively of the total CO2 emissions. The remaining modules have a similar share in impact based on the global warming indicator.

The share of impact ozone depletion impact category differentiates from the global warming impact category, where the maintenance of the utility pole represents a significant majority together with the impact from the installation process. These processes were modelled based on the Part B PCR for wooden utility poles by Sustainable Minds.

For acidification and eutrophication, the main contributor is the copper oxide used for production of CCA preservative, accounting for around 24% of the total impact.

The impact from transportation to production facility represents approximately 43% of the total smog impact.