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SPURRING BIOMIMICRY INNOVATION FOR N.Y. STATE [email protected]

Columbia Forest Products is the largest manufacturer of hardwood veneer and hardwood plywood in the United States. Columbia’s decorative interior veneers and panels are used in high-end cabinetry, fine furniture, architectural millwork and commercial fixtures. In 2006, after having used conventional glues in its wood products for almost 50 years, the company underwent an extensive overhaul of its products that embraced the largely unexplored ideas of biomimicry. This overhaul eliminated the use of added formaldehyde in their wood products and solidified their position as an industry leader during a recession that largely ravaged their competitors.

The Company

Columbia Forest Products is a company that has long been dedicated to environmental responsibility. The company was the first decorative hardwood plywood manufacturer to have their products certified to Forest Stewardship Council standards in 1998 by SmartWood, a division of the Rainforest Alliance.

Columbia’s manufacturing process does not waste any wood, since no part of the log goes unused, and trees are harvested using techniques that minimize damage to the forest. To eliminate over-harvesting of a few popular tree species, Columbia ensures that each of its plants only manufactures plywood cores using locally sourced trees. By ensuring the use of tree species that are abundant in the areas where the logs are purchased, Columbia’s manufacturing processes diversifies the types of trees it uses, and thus maintains the vitality and biodiversity of American forests.

It was not until 2003, however, that Columbia became aware of the possibilities biomimicry could enable, when current Director of Technology Steve Pung met Dr. Kaichang Li at an Oregon State University lecture.

HEALTHY AND COST-EFFECTIVE INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS: PUREBOND

COLUMBIA FOREST PRODUCTS BUSINESS CASE STUDY

Dr. Kaichang Li of Oregon State University was inspired to create a natural, non-toxic glue by the adhesive powers of blue mussels clinging to an underwater rock while he was wading off the coast of Oregon.


Biomimicry Catalyst

The Problem

After investing a significant amount of money in ensuring that their wood was sustainably harvested, Columbia Forest Products realized that they required wood products that were toxin-free to meet both market demand and their own commitment to sustainability. Conventional wood glues contain levels of formaldehyde that are labeled carginogenic by the World Health Organization due to their off-gassing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs have direct health effects, including eye, nose, and throat irritation, as well as headaches with extensive exposure. The severity of effects can even extend to liver, kidney, and central nervous system damage. Some organics can cause cancer in animals, and some are suspected or known to be carcinogenic to humans. Documentation of indoor VOC levels prove that VOCs levels are consistently up to 10 times higher indoors than they are outdoors.

For four years, Steve Pung searched for a non-toxic alternative to Columbia’s conventional wood glue. Unfortunately, the market simply did not offer a cost-effective alternative, as the available glues were made of expensive synthentic materials that could not be affordably integrated into Columbia’s products.

While shopping around for a solution, Steve Pung met Dr. Kaichang Li, an assistant professor at Oregon State University’s Department of Forest Products. It was there that he saw Dr. Li present his findings on a urea-formaldahyde-free glue that he was beginning to develop.

In his presentation, Dr. Li explained how he had been wading in waters off the coast of Oregon when he noticed a group of mussels clinging tenaciously to a rock beneath the surface of the water, despite the thrashing waves all around them and the slippery, uneven surface of the rock. Li wondered how these creatures produced an adhesive that was effective enough to withstand the dirt on the rocks, the pressure of the waves and the unpredictability of the surface area. Compared with human-made glue, this adhesive, whatever it was, was remarkable.

Li went home determined to figure out the secret behind the glue. After several months of tests in his laboratory at Oregon State University, Li discovered that mussels secrete a thread-like protein called byssal threads that adhere to wet and uneven surfaces. These byssal threads are strong enough and flexible enough to absorb the energy caused by constant movement of the waves. Li now set out to find a similar protein that would work in glue.

His laboratory tested several materials, including tree bark and tannins, but realized that soy outperformed all the other materials they tested. Soy flour was also the most renewable of all the materials tested, ensuring that the formulation could consistently be produced in large quantities.

At the lecture, Steve Pung instantly recognized Li’s work as a breakthrough in glue technology. After the lecture ended and the audience had filed out, Pung quietly approached Li to ask him if this technology could be used in wood glue. The conversation that followed established a relationship between Li and Pung that would lead to the development of a urea-formaldehyde-free wood glue to be used in products at Columbia Forest Products.

Blue mussels secrete a powerful thread-like adhesive called byssal threads that allow them to adhere to wet rocks, pieces of wood and each other. Li found a comparable protein in soybean-flour.



Intermittent Challenges and a Solution

Kaichang Li’s early efforts to develop a urea-formaldehyde-free glue based on the adhesives of mussels faced major hurdles in the design process. As soon as Li had a working prototype of his soy-glue, he began taking his formula to major chemical manufacturers to search for R&D funding. He soon found that no companies were interested in funding what they considered to be a “disruptive technology.” Major players in the industry had been using urea-formaldehyde materials for too long to consider a change. They were unfamiliar with the peanut-buttery consistency of the soy glue, compared to the liquid state of most conventional adhesives. Until Li met Steve Pung, his research was at a standstill.

On Pung’s advice, Columbia Forest Products offered R&D funding for six months increments to Li to aid in an exclusive partnership between Columbia and Oregon State University. However, Oregon State vetoed this idea, fearing that an end user with such extensive rights to the finished product could prevent future sub-licenses. Li solved this problem by suggesting that Hercules, a paper chemical company, be a third partner that aided in developing the glue. Columbia readily agreed to this arrangement, and the development began.

Both Columbia and Hercules invested in the development process, and as the development process began, the team had to find a solution to the problem that the glue, while a good adhesive, did not perform as well as conventional wood glue in terms of water insolubility and strength. Soybean flour had already been used as a wood glue from the 1930s to the 1960s. However, Li’s tests revealed that despite the similarities in the protein, soy protein is simply not as strong or water-resistant as synthetic resins.

Li discovered that the only way to make soy protein comparable to byssal threads was to change its composition to match that of byssal threads themselves. Li did this by crosslinking it with his unique recipe of curing agents and propriety materials to make it water resistant. His research team dissolved soybean flour in water, penetrated it into wood, and then crosslinked it to formulate a 3D network to render the material water-insoluble. Cross-linking is achieved through a process of thermal setting, in which the glue and wood are exposed to temperatures high enough to change the state of the protein to make it stronger and more water-insoluble than synthetic resins.

Along with Columbia manufacturers, Pung began reformatting their manufacturing processes to accommodate the new soy-based glue. Columbia took approximately a year to adjust to the new manufacturing processes that the new glue made necessary. The adjustment primarily revolved around the peanut buttery consistency of the glue, as well as the limited capabilities of the existing machinery to handle such a viscous material. Although this process involved the redesign of several pieces of manufacturing equipment and processing techniques, raising the cost of production for approximately a year, the Columbia absorbed these costs of innovation until the cost of production had stabilized again.

Columbia sought to trademark its new technology as PureBond, but due to an existing trademark on another adhesive called PureBond, the company decided to trademark the entire process involving the soy-adhesive,

Soybean-flour proteins are the closest available approximation to the byssal threads produced by blue mussels. Besides being the highest performing protein tested, it is also the most renewable.



from start to finish. With their PureBond products, Columbia Forest Products became the first hardwood plywood company to offer urea-formaldahyde-free wood glue that would make affordable, VOC-free household furniture and fixtures available to the general public.

The Outcomes

As soon as the development of PureBond technology was complete at the end of 2003, Columbia Forest Products began to incrementally integrate the adhesive into its manufacturing plants on a smaller scale, amidst an open dialogue with Oregon State University. By the end of 2005, the company’s processes had been refined, and by the end of 2006, so had all the machinery. By the beginning of 2007, Columbia had successfully incorporated PureBond technology into all of its manufacturing plants and had ceased to produce any products containing added urea-formaldehyde.

For the first few years of its use, Oregon State University owned the intellectual property, Hercules owned the license, and Columbia negotiated a position as the sole sub-licensee to the soy-based product. Although Columbia Forest Products no longer holds an exclusive license to Dr. Li’s soy-based adhesive, no other company has been able to develop a rival patent thus far, since soy is the most ideal natural protein for the application. Li

recounts that some of the same companies that turned him down in 2003 are currently trying to develop a rival product, although none have been able to produce an affordable competitor yet.

For Columbia Forest Products

Effect on Production

Columbia Forest Products released its PureBond technology immediately prior to the recession, and soon found out that its new product made them resistant to the economic downturn. Most industries associated with building construction, including the plywood industry, faced significant slumps in production and revenue, given the drastically reduced demand for building and furniture materials. However, Columbia has actually gained market share, largely due to the marketability of affordable plywood free of urea-formaldehyde. Their relative defense against the recession hinged on their exclusive access to the soy-based adhesive technology and the acceptance of the product by key customers and retailers.

Columbia had finished converting all their manufacturing plants to incorporate PureBond technology and were producing only urea-formaldehyde-free products by the beginning of 2007, when the recession had begun to ravange the plywood industry. While the industry experienced a decrease by approximately half, Columbia Forest Products managed to maintain a much more favorable level of volume.

According to the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association, overall North American production, which was 1.1 billion square feet in 2008, fell to 725 million in 2009. The association predicts that the domestic industry recovered by only 5% in 2010. While overall market imports of hardwood plywood dropped, China’s share of hardwood plywood imports increased from 40% to 55%, taking market share away from American companies, but especially ravaging Canadian hardwood plywood producers, which experienced a 30% drop in production.


Columbia Forest Products’ booth at GreenBuild 2010 was framed by an undulating backdrop made of non-toxic maple veneer plywood with a poplar core. The booth was chosen as Best Designed Booth at Greenbuild 2010 by Inhabitat.


In fact, Columbia Forest Products’ Canadian operations are the last surviving hardwood plywood producers in Canada.

Throughout the slump in housing development, the only segment of the market that remained relatively stable was the group of suppliers and purchasers of environmentally responsible hardwood plywood products. Although approximately 50% of the North American hardwood plywood market now uses urea-formaldehyde free adhesives, Columbia’s early adoption of this technology allowed it to capture market share in an increasingly green industry and weather the recession while many other market players could not.

The success of PureBond technology has also spurred Columbia Forest Products to continue developing the soy-based glue for residential consumer applications, as well as for use in particle-board and medium density fiberboard.

Effect on Public Image

Although the effect of PureBond technology has not been explicitly quantified, Columbia executives feel sure that if it were not for a revolutionary product like PureBond, Columbia may not have weathered the storm as successfully as they did. They draw their conclusions from extensive market research that indicates that, in the interest of increased health benefits, the general public would be willing to spend a premium on products that do not off-gas urea-formaldehyde.

A market research study conducted in 2010 by the Miller Research Group, in Arlington Heights, Illinois suggests that the public is becoming increasingly concerned with toxicity in the indoor environment.

In the study, more than half of the 401 respondents, ranging over a variety of income levels, ages and geographical locations, indicated that they were concerned about added formaldehyde during the purchase of new kitchen cabinets, children’s products or other products for their home. Furthermore, over 90% of respondents expressed varying levels of interest in choosing urea-formaldehyde-free products over standard ones, and over 60% of respondents indicated that they would be willing to pay a premium over standard products.

Marketing Communications Manager Joanna Beckman and Steve Pung feel that without PureBond technology, Columbia Forest Products would not have achieved widespread recognition as a “good guy” that it now enjoys. Despite the fact that it supplies products far upstream from the end user, Columbia Forest Products is lauded in parenting and environmental publications. Considering that end-users of furniture never encounter manufacturers of materials so far up the supply chain, Columbia enjoys an unusual amount of fame resulting from their PureBond Technology. In fact, Columbia Forest Products receives so much publicity and so many requests for products made with PureBond that the company’s marketing department set up searchable databases that will allow interested customers to find a fabricator of furniture made with PureBond products. This PureBond Fabricator Network has improved the connection between Columbia and their end-use client base, and provided people with a tool to isolate products that do not off-gas VOCs.

For the Customer Base

PureBond technology also offers significant savings to a variety of furniture manufacturers that constitute its customer base. The general public has become increasingly concerned with an indoor environment free of volatile organic compounds, leading to a push towards safer furniture manufacture. While most other

PureBond technology is used in a wide variety of household furniture, including kitchen cabinets and fixtures. Columbia Forest Products provides information on where to obtain household furniture made with PureBond technology.



manufacturers of hardwood plywood charge a premium for products that do not emit VOCs, Columbia Forest Products strove early in the development process to ensure that safety was not available at a premium. Thus, Columbia’s prices for hardwood plywood, at $40-$50 a sheet, are the same as they were before PureBond technology was incorporated into Columbia’s manufacturing processes. This provides a significant savings to Columbia’s client-base, since the alternative supplies of non-toxic hardwood plywood in a more environmentally conscious marketplace are considerably more expensive.

Lessons Learned:

• Sustainability and environmental stewardship do not necessarily come at a premium.

• Biomimetic, “disruptive technology” may help a company develop a resilience to unforseen shock and problems that typically block “business as usual.”

• Embracing biomimicry can establish a a company as a thought-leader, improving public perception.

• Skepticism is a common but surmountable obstacle in the research and development process. Other industry players often show initial skepticism.

• Biomimetic products and materials may be integrated into standard production process with minor financial impacts.

For more information contact: Siobhan Watson Terrapin Bright Green [email protected] 646-460-8400 x238

Source Notes:

• Interviews with Joanna Beckman, Kaichang Li, Steve Pung, Todd Vogelsinger and Tom Pearsall

• Columbia Forest Product’s PureBond brochures

• PureBond Technology case study from the Biomimicry Institute

• “New Adhesive Flexes its ‘Mussels’”, from Wood and Wood Products (August 2005)

• “Bonding with the Industry”, by Metafore

• “Formaldehyde-free Cabinets: Researching Consumer Attitudes & Preferences”, by the Miller Research Group, Arlington Heights, Illinois

• Interview with Kip Howlett, President of the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association


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