Sustainability is the future, which is why Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, finds it a privilege to announce and celebrate that the Company’s enterprise division has now lent a decade of support to the Arbor Day Foundation’s reforestation program. Since 2009, the company’s enterprise division helped contribute to the planting of more than 500,000 trees in the U.S., with this year’s efforts counting toward the Arbor Day Foundation’s Time for Trees initiative, under which the Arbor Day Foundation seeks to plant 100 million trees worldwide by 2022.
“We understand the vital importance of replenishing and maintaining our forests and are committed through our philosophy of Kyosei to promoting environmental responsibility to our employees, partners, and customers,” says Shinichi Yoshida, executive vice president and general manager, Canon U.S.A. Inc. “It’s an honor to continue into our 10th year of supporting the Arbor Day Foundation, which we believe can help drive positive environmental impact in 2019 and beyond.”
The Arbor Day Foundation implements reforestation initiatives across the country to rebuild forests that are in desperate need of regrowth. Through this program, Canon contributes to the planting of one tree for every eligible imageRUNNER ADVANCE solution sold between April 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019, up to a maximum of 50,000 trees. These solutions can help users work conscientiously and allow administrators to enable settings that can help users save energy and paper.
This year, active replanting efforts are taking place all over the nation. Canon’s aid for 2019 is planned to help support reforestation efforts for the Superior National Forest (MN), habitat restoration for rare species in the Upper Altamaha Watershed (GA), and restoration of the longleaf pine ecosystem in the Big Thicket National Preserve (TX).
“Canon’s longstanding support has been invaluable to our forest revitalization efforts across the nation,” says Dan Lambe, president, Arbor Day Foundation. “The Foundation appreciates Canon’s continued corporate support to address one of the world’s most challenging environmental issues.”
Desertification is one of the major environmental problems faced by Maghreb. The sustainable use of forests in these countries would help to mitigate and adapt to this global change.
This is why MENFRI, the Mediterranean Network of Forestry Research and Innovation, gathered together forestry experts in Barcelona this summer to discuss opportunities and challenges brought by innovative solutions such as forest certification in the Mediterranean region.
“If in the northern Mediterranean PEFC certification is well developed, it’s not the case in the south,” explained Sarah Price, Head of Projects and Development at PEFC International, who travelled out to Spain to take part in the meeting. “The MENFRI project is therefore a great opportunity to discuss how forest certification could help Mediterranean forests and their products to be better valued.”
“What is the value PEFC as a sustainability organisation can deliver – beyond certification?” asked Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International CEO and Secretary General, during his reflections at the 23rd PEFC General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. “Currently, around 10% of forests are certified globally, and our current approach is certainly suitable to more than double this number, but we now need to start addressing the needs of the remaining 80% of global forestry to ensure it too becomes sustainable and is key in addressing societal challenges such as climate change.” “Sustainable forest management is goes beyond safeguarding forest as an ecosystem. It is also about securing sustainable livelihoods for the hundreds of millions of people living, working and depending on forests. It is also about rural communities, about indigenous people, about small, family run enterprises, providing countless jobs far away from cities. “It is about all of us truly valuing the numerous benefits forests provide us with.” Click read more below for additional detail.
Sonoco (NYSE:SON), one of the largest diversified packaging companies, has recognized U.S. Paper Mills Corp.'s facility in Menasha, Wis., with a Bronze Sustainability Star Award for the plant's successful efforts to achieve a 26 percent waste reduction.
The plant achieved this significant waste reduction by recovering fiber from the waste streams in the pulping process and reducing moisture content in its waste stream by optimizing equipment. The fiber recovery component alone reduced waste by 50-60 tons per month.