Carbon Footprint Analysis for Wood Agricultural Residue Sources of Pulp

This document was prepared exclusively as information for the Environmental Stewardship Division of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. The views and opinions expressed in this report are not necessarily those of the client or the Environmental Stewardship Division of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. Reproduction and Availability This document and its contents may be reproduced in whole, or in part. If reproducing any part of the document, please acknowledge the document’s author(s) and the Environmental Stewardship Division of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. The focus of this research is on energy inputs, which indicates that conventional wheat straw performs the poorest, with organic wheat straw being somewhat comparable to spruce and aspen. However, while beyond the scope of this research, it appears that significantly more stored carbon is emitted by managed forests than undisturbed forests, and that this would impact the relative carbon benefits of wood-based paper compared to straw-based papers. This is explored at a high-level in this paper.