• AHEP

American Hardwood Environmental Profile

AHEC has developed an easy to use on-line system to allow U.S. hardwood exporters and AHEC members to provide a comprehensive American Hardwood Environmental Profile (AHEP) with every individual consignment of product delivered to any market in the world.

Each AHEP provides access to information on the risk of illegality and the sustainability of the U.S. hardwood species contained in that consignment, together with quantitative data on the environmental impacts associated with delivering that consignment to an individual customer anywhere in the world.

Each AHEP combines output from the AHEC environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) project (undertaken in line with ISO 14040 standard for LCA and critically reviewed by an independent panel), with information derived from other credible data sources to demonstrate the legality and sustainability of U.S. hardwood lumber and veneer delivered into export markets.

AHEPs are designed to satisfy “due diligence” requirements arising from illegal logging legislation such as the Lacey Act in the U.S., the EU Timber Regulation, and Japanese “Green Procurement” laws. AHEPs also encourage market recognition of the wider environmental benefits of American hardwoods.

AHEP’s can be individually tailored to any one of 19 U.S. hardwood species which together account for over 95% of all U.S. hardwood production. Data can also be adjusted according to key parameters such as transport routes and modes. The data covers most of the environmental impact categories required by manufacturers to prepare formal Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in line with the EN 15804 standard for environmental assessment of construction materials in the EU (such as Global Warming Potential, Acidification potential, and Eutrophication potential).