AF&PA Welcomes New EPA Policy on Carbon Neutral Forest Biomass

“We delivered 103.5 million seedlings, which is over a million more than our previous record. It’s great to have succeeded so well, especially considering the coronavirus pandemic. In the spring, we were concerned that we would be forced to discard seedlings due to the coronavirus, but it turns out we didn’t have to. Instead, we had a record season that will be hard to beat for a while,” says Peter Engblom, business developer at NorrPlant. Of the 103.5 million seedlings that were delivered, 63 million were pine seedlings, 33 million spruce seedlings, 7 million contorta pine seedlings and nearly 600,000 larch seedlings. “Pine dominates the forests owned by SCA. Deliveries of pine seedlings are also increasing among our external customers,” says Peter. The majority of seedlings were delivered to external customers, from Karlstad in the south to Kiruna in the north. NorrPlant also exported some seedlings to Sweden’s neighboring countries.

Sun Chemical has signed up to the Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0, facilitated by AIM, the European Brands Association. In doing so, Sun Chemical is joining forces with over 85 companies and organisations to participate in a pilot project with the goal of proving the viability of digital watermarking technologies to enable better sorting and higher quality recycling rates for packaging in the EU, in order to drive a truly circular economy. The initiative follows on from HolyGrail 1.0, a project conducted as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy programme, which brought together different stakeholders from the packaging value chain between 2016 and 2019. Having investigated different innovations to improve post-consumer recycling, digital watermarks were found to be the most promising technology.

Global label stock manufacturer UPM Raflatac has worked hard to quantify and build upon its sustainable manufacturing processes through its innovative Biofore Site™ program, which is now celebrating its third year. Implemented at the company’s 10 factories worldwide, the program has resulted in many improvements that help further cement UPM Raflatac’s position as it is leading in sustainable labeling. The Biofore Site concept includes a scorecard with approximately 40 performance measures mapped to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which align with parent company UPM’s 2030 responsibility targets. The scorecard provides flexibility for UPM Raflatac’s factory teams to develop site-specific roadmaps for achieving their Biofore Site goals. Filled out annually by each factory, the scorecards touch on standard sustainability measures like waste generation, energy consumption, and safety performance, and some not-so-conventional measures, like supplier sustainability performance, development opportunities for employees, engagement in community activities, and measures of diversity.