New Calculator Assists Utilities in Defining Benefits of Wood Utility Poles, Crossarms
Utilities now have a host of new tools to communicate the environmental benefits of one of their most visible assets: the wood utility pole.
There are an estimated 130 million to 150 million wood utility poles in service in North America, bringing electricity and communications services to every corner of the continent. While the poles are prevalent in the electricity distribution system, the “green” benefits they offer is often overlooked.
Utility poles are made from wood, a naturally sustainable material. While wood offers many structural and workability benefits, it also serves as a carbon sink, or reservoir of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere.
A new calculator can help quantify how much carbon is held in a utility’s inventory of wood poles and crossarms. The Wood Utility Pole & Crossarm Calculator is available in an online version or as a downloadable Excel based calculator from WoodPoles.org. It was developed by the North American Wood Pole Council (NAWPC).
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