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Forest Products
Map showing location of U.S. facilities in this sector; please click on the map to see a larger version.
- Sector Profile
- Performance Data and Trends for this Sector
- EPA Sector Strategies Activities
- Resources
Sector Profile
The Forest Products sector includes companies engaged in growing, harvesting and processing wood and wood fiber, manufacturing pulp, paper and paperboard products from both virgin and recycled fiber, and producing engineered and traditional wood products. Companies in the lumber and wood products industry cut timber and pulpwood, mill raw materials into lumber and building materials, and manufacture finished articles such as wood panels.
The forest products industry accounts for more than 5 percent of total U.S. manufacturing output, employs nearly 1 million people. The Forest Products sector is the third-largest manufacturing sector in consumption of fossil fuel energy and is a major user of water. Although the sector is energy-intensive, it has a high level of cogeneration and use of biomass to produce energy. Annual shipments totaled $241 billion in 2002.
Performance Data and Trends for this Sector
You can find data and trends for this sector in the Forest Products chapter of the most recent Sector Strategies Performance Report.
The Forest Products chapter in the report, Energy Trends in Selected Manufacturing Sectors: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmentally Preferable Energy Outcomes (PDF) (16 pp, 356K, About PDF), outlines the trends and opportunities in energy use for this sector.
EPA Sector Strategies Activities
The Sector Strategies Program is collaborating with the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA)
to address barriers to performance improvement, measure environmental progress in the forest products industry, and promote environmental management systems. AF&PA represents more than 200 companies and related trade associations that engage in or represent the manufacture of pulp, paper, paperboard, and wood products.
Forest products industry processes create substantial environmental impacts to air, water, and land. To document these environmental impacts and identify barriers to improvement, Sector Strategies produced the Profile of the Pulp and Paper Industry (2002) (PDF) (135 pp, 1608K, About PDF) and the Profile of the Lumber and Wood Products Industry (1995) (PDF) (126 pp, 507K, About PDF) sector notebooks.
Resources
Trade Associations
- American Forest and Paper Association
- National Council for Air & Stream Improvement (NCASI)
- Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry (TAPPI)
Key Documents
- Profile of the Pulp and Paper Industry (2002) (PDF) (135 pp, 1608K, About PDF)
- Profile of the Lumber and Wood Products Industry (1995) (PDF) (126 pp, 507K, About PDF)
Sector-related Links
Industry Sector Notebooks:
- Profile of the Lumber and Wood Products Industry (1995) (PDF) (126 pp, 507K, About PDF)
- Profile of the Pulp and Paper Industry, 2nd Edition (2002) (PDF) (135 pp, 1608K, About PDF)
EPA Sector Contacts
Headquarters
Paula Vanlare
Forest Products Sector Lead, EPA Sector Strategies Program
Tel: (202) 566-2951
E-mail: Paula Vanlare (vanlare.paula@epa.gov)