Kamps, Inc., the nation’s leader in pallet recycling services and pallet sales is pleased to announce the release of our 2022 Environmental Sustainability Report (ESR). This is the second year in a row we have released our ESR. The ESR details our broad environmental impact, from both corporate and operational standpoints. Our ESR is the next step in the evolution of our Green Scorecard initiatives, ensuring that we are tracking, reporting, and making actionable progress on items that our stakeholders deeply care about.
The Importance of Our Environmental Sustainability Report
As an organization that has such a profound impact on supply chains and communities across the nation, Kamps values the role we play in our stakeholders’ well-being. Our ESR is important because it allows us to quantify this role and back our claims by the latest research. It also serves as a vital exercise for our internal teams to take a step back and assess the impact they make on our planet and build future strategies around the results.
Last, as a customer-focused organization, Kamps is particularly attentive to the role we play in our customers’ environmental story. Our ESR is an assurance to our customers that we are aligned with their environmental aspirations, and can provide significant impact to their sustainability story through our services.
Read Our Environmental Sustainability Report
The world around us continues to change, find out how Kamps’ innovative spirit is helping us meet sustainability goals and how we can help your organization reach its own.
Key Highlights From Our Environmental Sustainability Report
2022 Carbon Footprint Analysis & Methodology Improvements
While recognizing the size and scale of our business operations, Kamps conducted an initial baseline carbon footprint assessment to understand our carbon impact.
The results of our operational carbon footprint analysis revealed that during the calendar year 2022, Kamps emitted approximately 46,000 metric tons of CO2-e.* By recycling over 199 million pallets through Kamps-owned facilities, approximately 0.23 kilograms of CO2-e are emitted for every pallet recycled. This is lower than the industry average featured in the Wooden Pallets EPD and Life-Cycle Assessment.
It is also important to mention that our Scope 2 emission calculation methodology was improved upon as well from the previous year. In our 2021 ESR report, Kamps used a methodology of calculating Scope 2 emissions by using historical electricity cost data, average KwH costs, and regional grids to calculate emissions. This year, Kamps went directly to the electricity providers to collect exact KwH usage for four “model” plants of varying sizes – based on facility size and volume output. These model plant numbers were then applied to facilities of similar size to generate the total KwH usage and carbon emissions for the entire Kamps-owned plant network. Our goal for our 2023 report is to increase our accuracy by analyzing every facility’s exact KwH usage and carbon emissions data.
*The figures above include data from Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
Kamps Logistics Fleet
The analysis of our carbon footprint by source revelead that more than half of our operational carbon footprint can be attributed to fuel consumption associated with Kamps Logistics fleet operations. To lower these emissions, Kamps Logistics has partnered with a national communications and SaaS company to track fleet performance to help with route optimization. In 2021, the overall route time decreased by 15%. In 2022 the overall route time increased by 1.63%, however, total miles traveled by also increased by ~80%.
Kamps investigated the reasons for the increase in overall route time. Our findings were that the majority of the increases came from newly acquired locations in their first 1-3 years utilizing Kamps Logistics. Expanding our geographic area of service and increasing the number of pickups and deliveries also played a significant role.
For example, our overall pickups and deliveries increased by 32%, while our overall route time only increased by 1.63%. Kamps expects our strategy of comprehensively integrating acquired locations onto Kamps systems and standards to yield positive results in the coming years. We also intend to investigate additional ways in which we can economically reduce our footprint.
2022 Carbon Off-Sets
In 2022, Kamps recycled over 390 million pallets across all locations. This volume includes the Kamps national network, as well as historical annual data for acquired locations post Kamps acquisition. Following this logic, and EPA’s WARM Model, Kamps off-set 10,309,336 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
To paint a picture of our carbon emission off-sets in relations to our footprint, Kamps also conducted a carbon handprint analysis specific to our company-owned facilities during Kamps owned and operated periods in 2022.
Kamps has estimated that by recycling 199M+ pallets through our Kamps owned and operated facilities in 2022 (which displaces the need to procure a new pallet) and forecasting over a 24-trip period, which represents the useful life of a new wooden pallet, our business contributes to the avoidance of over 850,000 metric tons CO2-e of GHG emissions over this timeframe. And by producing close to 1M cubic yards of mulch from scrap pallet pieces, Kamps off-set approximately 3,000 metric tons CO2-e of GHG emissions.
Green Energy Report
Kamps seeks to extend the life of our products as much as possible, while finding the most environmentally friendly “End of Life” disposal process.
One of our strategic “End of Life” disposal processes is the creation of Green Energy, via renewable sources such as Biofuel and Wooden Pellets.
To achieve this, we transfer ground scrap pallets to co-generation plants that power municipalities, schools, and more. As an example of this, one of the co-generation plants that accepts our Biofuel in Michigan can produce approximately 650 kWh of energy per every ton of Biofuel, resulting in over 25,000 MWh of energy produced in 2022.
A secondary source that produces energy is our wooden pellet products. Wooden pellets are low carbon heating alternative to charcoal, natural gas, and heating oil.
Our wooden pellets are created from scrap pallets and wood waste that arrives or is generated in our facilities. Because our pellets are manufactured from these sources, research shows that they have a carbon benefit when compared to common fossil-derived fuel sources, with each production scenario delivering at least a 65% reduction in carbon intensity.
In 2022, Kamps produced over 60,000 tons of wooden pellets, which creates enough energy to heat 24,000 homes for an entire year.
Additional Resources to Download
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