WISA^® plywood is built responsibly from forest to the finished product

Petra Niemi

Editor, Tulus

Every stage of the production process shapes the environmental footprint of a plywood panel. Let’s take a look at the steps taken to continuously optimize the environmental impact of WISA^®-Spruce products.

WISA® plywood is produced under strict safety and environmental standards. The environmental impact of WISA products is optimized through continuous improvement and definitive actions in the early stages of production. At the same time, UPM Plywood invests in life cycle assessments and EPD declarations so that customers receive transparent information to support their own choices and buying decisions.

“Environmental performance is a summary of many factors,” says Jaakko Paloheimo, UPM Plywood’s Sustainability Manager. “It takes decades of persistent work and continuous improvement. There’s always room for further development.”

The accompanying video illustrates the production process of WISA spruce plywood, from the forests to the gates of the Pellos mills, and highlights the concrete measures taken to minimize emissions.

Solutions that support your sustainability goals built into every sheet

The WISA plywood production process begins in responsibly managed Finnish forests. The felled trees are transported to the mills. After felling, new trees are planted in the forest. Using waterways, railroads and renewable fuels helps to decrease the environmental impact of logistics. Paloheimo states that 15 to 20 per cent of the logs are transported to the Pellos mills by waterways.

Fossil-free electricity is used in all the UPM plywood mills, which reduces the carbon footprints of the products and operations. Another example of reducing manufacturing emissions is the bonding technology; all WISA-Spruce plywood products are manufactured using WISA® BioBond adhesive technology, where wood-based lignin replaces more than 50 percent of the fossil-based phenol.

The use of virgin plastics and packaging materials in WISA plywood production is minimized. Spruce plywood sheets, used mainly in non-visual applications, are secured using plastic straps, containing 98% recycled plastic from PET bottles. WISA birch plywood is wrapped and shipped in partially recycled plastic made of minimum 35% post-consumer plastic (PCR).

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