Enviva: Track & Trace Data Conforms Sustained Forest Growth

(Enviva/Biomass Magazine) Enviva, the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets, has released its latest Track & Trace sourcing data, marking one year of public reporting and two years of tracking the company’s sustainable sourcing practices. These data are a key tool used to measure, maintain and validate the Enviva’s sustainability practices throughout the Southeastern United States.

“We developed the Track & Trace system two years ago to provide unmatched transparency into our supply chain and to make important information about the health of the working forests in the Southeastern U.S. available to the public,” said John Keppler, Chairman and CEO of Enviva.

Over the past year, Track & Trace has told the story of the thriving forest environment in the Southeastern U.S., and we are pleased to report that this latest dataset continues to support that trend,” said Jennifer Jenkins, Enviva vice president and chief sustainability officer.

Track & Trace is a proprietary data system that enables Enviva to monitor every truckload of wood the company procures from the forest or sawmill, including details about the wood’s unique characteristics and origination.

Enviva does not use high-quality wood that would otherwise be milled into furniture or construction materials. Additionally, Enviva does not source wood from independently identified bottomland forest ecosystems that demonstrate high conservation value attributes, or from any forest where the landowner plans to convert to a non-forest use.

Before selling wood to Enviva, a supplier must provide detailed data on the specific forest tract being considered for harvest, including each individual tract’s precise geographic location, acreage, forest type, species mix, age and the share of wood from each harvest earmarked for Enviva versus other consumers. Enviva does not accept any wood from a harvest without this information, and Enviva records the data and verifies the accuracy of its procedures through third-party audits.

This latest dataset shows that Enviva sourced wood from 1,183 working forest harvests in 77 counties and in 5 Southeastern states over the six-month period ending in September 2017. The forests in the Southeast continue to grow and thrive, with the total amount of forested land in Enviva’s primary supply area increasing by 320, 842 acres from 2011 through 2015, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Inventory in that area has grown by 10 percent during the same time period and continues to increase as forests grow at a faster rate than they are harvested. READ MORE