Building a more sustainable world, one pallet at a time

Our vision is a world where supply chains produce zero wood waste, with a minimum negative impact on our climate and ecosystems.

Our Sustainability Strategy

To achieve our sustainability vision, Kamps has made significant investments at all stages of our “Sustainable Pallet Life-Cycle” to ensure we have the most comprehensive supply chain coverage for our customers and vendors. This ability allows us to continuously retain the maximum amount of pallets in inventory, while creating value out of “End of Life” pallets via environmentally positive by-products such as Mulch, Biofuel, and Wood Pellets.

Through our Green Scorecard Certificate, Kamps passes this positive impact along to our customers and vendors.

A circular model of Kamps' sustainable pallet cycle that features all of Kamps' pallet operations from new pallet manufacturing to pallet recycling.

2022 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.

Report highlights are featured below.

Man on forklift transporting used pallets

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 calendar year 2022, Kamps emitted approximately 46,000 metric tons of CO2-e.* By recycling over 199,000,000 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.

Large white freight trucks and trailers parked at a loading dock

The analysis of our carbon footprint by source revealed 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.

Kamps employee pulling a used pallet from a stack of recycled pallets

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 relation 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.

Close up of a pile of wooden fuel pellets

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 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 created enough energy to heat 24,000 homes for an entire year.

youtube-video-thumbnail

391,950,000 Pallets Recycled

These figures represent 2023 numbers, video above includes 2021 figures.

tree icon

0

Trees Saved
recycling icon

0

Tons of landfill diverted
CO2 icon

0

mt of CO2 saved

Our Green Scorecard Certificate

Kamps has pinpointed three major environmental impacts of our pallet recycling operations.

These environmental impact factors make up the basis of our Green Scorecard Certificate, a certificate that tracks these factors through the following environmental KPIs: Carbon Off-Sets, Landfill Diversions, and Trees Saved. Every pallet that we recondition, repurpose, or grind into mulch is recorded and its impact on our environment is reflected.

As a trusted partner and supply chain contributor, Kamps appreciates the role we play in our customers' and vendors' environmental reporting. That is why we leverage this data to provide our customers with their own Green Scorecard Certificates, based on their annual impact with Kamps. This data includes carbon off-set data applicable to Scope 3 reporting.

Total Number Recycled: Based on Kamps national network, including historical annual data post Kamps acquisition.  |  Trees Saved: Based on first-hand proprietary research performed by Kamps using lumber source data and internal manufacturing data.  |  Landfill Diverted: Assumes 18.5 kilograms per pallet on average and 100% of the pallets recycled would have otherwise been landfilled.  |  Carbon Off-Sets: Based on Version 13 of EPA’s WARM model for dimensional lumber.

Empty heading

Scroll to Top