Why would we sacrifice the health of our children and the future of our Southern forests for a biomass plant that will have no sustainable future? Here in Georgia we are facing this threat and asking this question.
Exciting news! In late October, KFC released a new sustainable packaging policy that we can get behind. We’ve been studying the implications of the policy and talking with the company’s biggest suppliers to ensure that there’s real change on the ground for our forests. After much analysis, we are now confident that it will.
Today we released “The Use of Whole Trees in Wood Pellet Manufacturing,” a report documenting that the top exporters of wood pellets in the region rely heavily on whole trees, i.e. cutting down trees to be burnt in European power stations. According to Wood Resources International, the Southern US is now the world’s largest exporter of wood pellets to Europe. The report discredits European energy companies’ claims that wood pellets burned in UK power stations are produced from wood waste and residues. Over the next 5-10 years, burning wood in large power stations – both new-build biomass power stations but increasingly also converted coal power stations – is expected to attract several billion pounds of public subsidies annually in the UK.
A long piece about our tour of the newest threat to Southern Forests, wood pellet mills, with some insights and information about the scale and the possible wave of destruction these mills will leave in their wake with lots of pictures to see for yourself…
Earlier this month, Dogwood Alliance was scheduled to meet with executives at KFC to discuss the company’s paper packaging and how they could end the destruction of endangered forests in the South by adopting a sustainable packaging policy. This meeting was scheduled following a public statement made by CEO David Novak at the company’s Shareholder meeting in May saying that his sustainability team should meet with representatives of our organization. At the eleventh hour, we received an email from Chief Sustainability Officer Roger McClendon cancelling the meeting.
