Last October, storm "Vaia" hit northern Italy with 150 km per hour winds, damaging forests in Trentino, Friuli, Veneto and Lombardy – the regions that provide two thirds of all Italian timber. The winds knocked down 20 million trees – over 8.5 million cubic metres of wood – equal to the amount of wood harvested in five to seven years of average silviculture. Regional governments estimated damages of more than a billion euros. No single event of extreme weather had ever caused such extensive destruction to Italian forests. But also the reaction it triggered appeared, in its own way, unprecedented. In the aftermath of the disaster, PEFC Italy launched a ‘fair supply chain’ to mitigate the environmental and socio-economic impact. They urged public forestry consortia, mountain communities and private firms to collect and purchase timber from the damaged forests at fair prices.

Amazon announced the early completion of its commitment to host 50 solar systems on its fulfillment and sortation center rooftops globally by 2020. Additionally, Amazon was ranked #1 in the U.S. for the amount of corporate on-site solar installed in 2018 by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). The on-site solar systems reduce Amazon’s reliance on fossil fuels, and can generate as much as 80 percent of a single fulfillment facility’s annual energy needs. Amazon’s on-site solar investments support Shipment Zero – Amazon’s vision to make all Amazon shipments net zero carbon, with 50% of all shipments net zero by 2030 – as well as its companywide goal to use 100% renewable energy across its global operations and infrastructure.

“EPA’s proposed rule recognizes Washington’s stringent, but attainable standards to protect human health for all communities, and we will work to see that this dynamic is ultimately maintained,” said Harman. “Washington has a long record of scientifically-based environmental stewardship. The 2016 rule proposed for withdrawal imposed federally-mandated, unachievable standards that provide no measurable human health improvement.” BACKGROUND: AF&PA has long advocated that the Obama Administration’s federal rule wrongfully over-rode Washington’s comprehensive approach to high water quality standards. In February of 2017, AF&PA joined with eight other organization in filing a joint petition with EPA, arguing that the Washington state standards provided a more attainable, yet protective approach to water quality. Click Read More below for additional information.

The difference between people’s perception of the impact of paper on the environment and fact has been highlighted in a groundbreaking study by Two Sides Of all the world’s materials, paper is perhaps the most misunderstood. While no one doubts the environmental damage the burning of fossil fuels and disposal of single-use plastics is doing to the planet, there’s still a lot of confusion around paper and how its use affects the climate. To counter the many misconceptions about print and paper, and its impact on the environment, Two Sides commissioned a wide-ranging European study to assess people’s perceptions of paper and the often large differences between these perceptions and fact. Not only did the study uncover a series of common misconceptions about paper, but it underlined the enduring value paper and print has in a society increasingly dominated by digital media. Click Read More below for additional information.

We received 668 comments during the 60-day global public consultation on our revised PEFC Chain of Custody and PEFC Trademarks standards. The Working Group responsible for revising these documents will now consider all the comments at their next meeting in September. The global public consultation is an essential part of the PEFC standards setting process. Up to this point, a multi-stakeholder group (known as the working group) has developed the documents. For these two standards, this includes group representatives from forest industries, certified companies, certification bodies, labour organizations and PEFC members. The public consultation is when we share the work done by the working group with the rest of the world. This is important for gaining additional feedback and insights. No matter where they live, stakeholders can give their input and share their knowledge, helping to shape these vital standards. Click Read More below for additional information.

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we have spoken a lot about the importance of small-forest owners. They are the reason we were created. But how do we ensure that they can access certification? The answer is group certification. Group certification enables small-forest landowners to group together and organize themselves, pool their resources and work as a team to achieve certification. This makes PEFC certification affordable and practical for smallholders. Around one million small-forest owners have achieved PEFC certification through group certification, and the number continues to grow. This is a testimony to the fact that forest certification is possible for small landholders, and that it is a powerful and cost-effective way of promoting forest conservation and sustainable management. Click Read More below for additional information.

This summer, Zac Wagman of Project Learning Tree (PLT) Canada embarked on a cross-country adventure to celebrate and promote youth working in green jobs that include wildlife management, forest management, forest-based programs, conservation and environmental education. Wagman started his Green Ride for Green Jobs bike ride across Canada in May and is riding from coast to coast (more than 5,400 miles) for the rest of the summer. Wagman plans to make more than 100 stops, one of them being with Domtar Dryden employees, and highlight 2,000 green jobs in Canadian communities. “We want to raise awareness of the incredible jobs and career pathways that exist in forestry,” says Wagman. “Nobody I knew growing up worked in forestry or had anything to do with forestry, so I didn’t even know it was an option. Had I known back then how rewarding and fulfilling this industry is, I would have likely gone down this pathway a lot earlier.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Hosted in Tokyo on 24 June, the SGEC/PEFC Forest Certification Forum commemorated our 20th anniversary and celebrated the enduring role of forest certification in improving the social and environmental conditions of the world’s forests. The Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council (SGEC) is our PEFC national member for Japan. For Japan, as for the rest of the world, consumers and industry alike are increasingly demanding the materials they use and buy are certified as originating from sustainably managed forests. The country is therefore experiencing a rising interest and demand for the certification of its forests. “With the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games approaching, the PEFC endorsement of the Japanese forest certification system means this, and other construction projects, can benefit from certified timber, provided locally through SGEC,” said Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International CEO. Click Read More below for additional information.

Three years into its five-year initiative to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCK) (Crown) (www.crowncork.com) has achieved 94% of its Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target. As of December 31, 2018, Crown achieved a 9.43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per billion standard units. Absolute emissions have decreased by 1.7% even as production has increased by 8.4%. In 2016, the Company announced plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 10% per billion standard units of production from 2015 levels by the end of 2020. In addition, in 2018, 100% of Crown's U.K. facilities were powered by direct supply of renewable electricity. This milestone brings the Company's use of renewable electricity worldwide to 6.7% and supports its pledge to the RE100 initiative, which focuses on accelerating the transition to zero carbon grids on a global scale. Crown has committed to transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2050. Click Read More below for additional information.

The creation of PEFC in June 1999 was a turning point for small-forest owners in Europe. It marked the start of an international forest certification system that put their needs first, enabling them to achieve certification and access demanding markets. But it wasn’t long before forest owners outside Europe could also benefit… As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, over the next few months we’re going to be taking a look at our history. Today it is our early years. After the establishment of PEFC in June 1999, we needed an office and to decide which country we would be based in. Luxembourg was chosen, and within a year, the PEFC Secretariat office was up and running and the small team had got to work. In order to communicate to the PEFC members and the wider forestry sector, the first PEFC newsletter was released in March 2000 – take a look! And not to forget, back then we were called the Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC) Council. Click Read More below for additional information.

Smurfit Kappa has opened a new recycling plant in the Tuscan region of Italy, strengthening its recovered paper service in the region. Smurfit Kappa Marlia will process approximately 15,000 tonnes of recovered paper annually and this is expected to increase to 25,000 tonnes next year. The new plant is strategically located in the district where 60% of Italian containerboard and 90% of tissue paper is produced. The Marlia depot works closely with the local council, supermarkets and businesses to collect used paper and board which is transported to the Smurfit Kappa Ania Paper Mill in Lucca where it is used as raw material to produce new containerboard. Speaking about the new facility, General Manager, Luca Mannori, said: “We are delighted to have this new plant up and running, which is further evidence of our ongoing commitment to sustainable development and an important addition to the region. Click Read More below for additional information.

A growing number of actual and proposed bans on single-use plastic products, such as grocery bags, straws and water bottles, are feeding a worldwide appetite for bioalternatives, such as reusable, refillable and/or recyclable products and packaging. As a result, we’re seeing renewed markets for existing paper-based products and new opportunities for innovation in plant-based biomaterials. Take a look at some of the latest global efforts to reduce our dependency on plastic: •Canada announced in June that it plans to ban single-use plastics starting in 2021. •Mexico City’s ban on plastic bags, utensils and other disposable plastics will go into effect next year. •New York, California and Hawaii, as well as several major U.S. cities, have banned plastic bags, joining 127 countries that have similar bans or regulations already in place. •Schools in the United Kingdom will eliminate all single-use plastics, including cling film, by 2022. •India, one of the world’s most populated countries, will ban all single-use plastics by 2022. •The European Parliament voted to ban single-use plastic cutlery, straws, stirrers, cotton buds, cups and more in a sweeping initiative that will include all European Union member states. Click Read More below for additional information.

Highlights of the past year include: •Co-founded the Alliance for Period Supplies to help women and girls in need access period supplies; •Met absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals four years early, down 27% (vs. 2005 baseline); •Reduced use of fiber from natural forest landscapes by 30% since 2011; •Diverted more than 21,000 metric tons of material to higher value alternatives; •Reduced our water use at our facilities in high-stress regions by 24%; and •Introduction of alternative energy sources across six manufacturing sites, including wind, solar and cogeneration projects. Click Read More below for additional information.

With summer in full swing, REI Co-op and AutoCamp are bringing new immersive experiences to Yosemite National Park. REI has launched six fully guided day tours for visitors to fully experience the wonder of one of the nation’s most epic natural places. Guests staying at AutoCamp’s newly opened high-end outdoor lodging property can arrange their REI-led hikes with optional transportation to and from the comfort of their custom Airstream or luxury canvas tent. A guided day tour with the expertise of a local guide is an incredible way to bask in the park’s majesty, including North America’s tallest waterfall, giant Sequoia groves, sparkling lakes and abundant wildlife,” said Seth Heald, REI director North America operations. “We are excited to partner with AutoCamp and expand on our collaboration as they too are focused on providing unique and unrivaled experiences.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Environmental claims such as “go green - go paperless” and “save trees” are regularly used by banks, telecoms, utilities, insurance companies and many other service providers, as they encourage their customers to switch from paper to lower cost electronic bills and statements. However, a Two Sides global anti-greenwash campaign operating since 2010 has found that the majority of these claims are unsubstantiated and misleading. To date, Two Sides has successfully engaged with 441 companies worldwide to remove or change such claims about print and paper. Sectors showing the highest occurrence of greenwashing include telecom providers, banks and financial institutions, utility providers and governmental organizations. In North America, 120 companies, including many of the Fortune 500, have changed or removed their environmental claims following discussions with Two Sides. “Environmental claims in the U.S. and Canada must meet the guidelines and rules of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission¹ and the Competition Bureau of Canada² which include having credible and specific science-based facts to support claims. Unfortunately, we have found that these requirements are rarely met and corporations use ‘go green’ claims purely for marketing and enticing more customers to digital options. Click Read More below for additional information.

“From his first days in office, President Trump demonstrated support for U.S. manufacturing by directing his Administration to expedite permits for modernizing or constructing efficient and globally competitive manufacturing facilities and to reduce unwarranted regulatory burdens. We strongly support the continuation of these efforts, including regulatory certainty for our industry’s sustainable use of bioenergy and systemic regulatory reforms to ensure government regulation does more good than harm. Moreover, the pulp and paper industry has made consistent voluntary progress in improving our energy efficiency by more than 10 percent and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 20 percent since 2005 and has achieved a record 68.1 percent paper recovery for recycling. We applaud sustainable regulation that promotes both economic and environmental progress for our nation.” Click Read More below for additional information.

While there is a definite day on which PEFC was founded – the 30th June 1999 – the idea that led to PEFC evolved during a range of meetings and discussions that lasted over a year. PEFC was neither the only, nor the most significant, outcome of these discussions. But what could be more significant than PEFC, an organization that evolved to become the world’s leading forest certification system? Passion, or more concretely, the understanding of small- and family forest owners that they all share the same passion for forests, for responsible forest management. That they all benefit from collaboration and cooperation, from sharing best practices and mutually supporting each other. And that they needed to start speaking with one voice to get themselves heard – and PEFC became part of this voice. Click Read More below for additional information.

Stewart Holm, AF&PA Chief Scientist: “Proponents of AB 161 have continually repeated environmental and health concerns about paper receipts that simply are not true. Paper receipts are safe for consumers and point-of-sale employees, and to make claims to the contrary to frighten the public is irresponsible. The scientific community has not established any health risks associated with exposure through paper receipts, which is why Californians have received no warnings about the dangers of handling receipts under Proposition 65. Furthermore, paper receipts are an environmentally responsible option. “If the bill’s supporters were truly concerned about alleged health hazards of paper receipts, state lottery tickets, parking tickets, boarding passes and other government receipt documentation would not be exempt from AB 161. These legislators know paper receipts produced by the state of California are as safe as any receipt generated by local businesses, but they have no problem burdening business owners and consumers in the name of unfounded science.”

Climate change is mitigated by emission cuts and by binding atmospheric carbon dioxide to plants and soil. UPM is doing research to evaluate the size of the carbon sink generated by its brassica carinata plantations – a new feedstock for biofuel production – in Uruguay. Carbon sequestration or capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in plants and soil, is an efficient way to mitigate climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasises in its 2018 report how important carbon sinks in forests and soil are in alleviating the impact of climate change. “Cultivating carinata in Uruguay benefits not only the environment, but local farmers and UPM´s businesses as well,” confirms Liisa Ranta, Sustainability Manager, UPM Biofuels Development. “The plant provides an excellent feedstock for our biofuels production. And because the carinata farms absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the carbon footprint of our renewable fuels is diminished further. As important, local farmers will have extra income from cultivating carinata as a second crop.” Click Read More below for additional information.

With the deadline of 9 July approaching, don’t miss your opportunity to give your feedback on the revised PEFC Chain of Custody and PEFC Trademarks standards. These two vital international standards are entering the last stage of their revision, and now we need to hear from you. Give your comments, feedback and suggestions, to help us ensure these standards meet your needs and expectations. Give your feedback – deadline 9 July 2019. To provide you with more information about the proposed changes to both standards, we held a series of webinars during the public consultations. To find out more about our ongoing standards revision process, including which standards are currently under revision and which ones have already been approved, visit our PEFC Standards Revision website. Click Read More below for additional information.

20 years ago, European small-forest owners came together to create an international forest certification system that had their needs at heart. On 30 June 1999, PEFC was born. From January 2019 to June 2020, we are celebrating the achievements from 20 years of caring for forests globally and locally. Through a series of chapters, we will tell the story of PEFC, from the early ideas back in 1999, until today. From July to June, we will publish texts, photos and videos about PEFC’s history, approach, members, stakeholders and much more. Each month, one chapter will shed light on another facet of PEFC. Voices of the past and present will speak about highlights from the last 20 years, key events that have shaped the organisation, and the future of PEFC. Click Read More below for additional information.

Volunteers at the UPM Changshu Mill in China spread green awareness and social wellbeing through youth-driven projects. Wang Feng smiles as she recalls a special moment she experienced while walking down the street one day. “A group of kids came up to me and said, ‘this is the lady who teaches us how to look after our planet,” says Wang, an energy engineer at UPM’s Changshu Mill. Wang is a familiar face to many children in Changshu, as since 2011 she has been regularly visiting local schools to educate kids about low-carbon living and energy saving as part of the UPM Green Future project – an experience she describes as “extremely rewarding”. “I have gained a lot from interacting with young people who are eager to learn. My family and friends are also very proud of what I’m doing,” says Wang, who additionally takes part in organising educational summer camps on the mill site. Click Read More below for additional information.

UPM Raflatac, a global leader in the manufacture of pressure sensitive label materials, is proud to announce that its factory in Mills River is the first manufacturing facility in North Carolina whose electrical supply is generated entirely by renewable sources through Charlotte-based Duke Energy's NC Renewable Energy Program. This year, the Mills River factory opted to increase its renewable electricity use from 4 percent to 100 percent. Renewable electricity is generated from sources like wind, solar and hydropower. UPM Raflatac has a 2030 target to reduce fossil CO2 emissions from its operations and purchased electricity by 30 percent. The switch to 100 percent renewable electricity for the Mills River facility is a major step toward meeting that target. Click Read More below for additional information.

Many paper industry products are such an imbedded part of our lives that we often take them for granted, but just think about what our lives would be like without the tissue segment of our business. While paper products are inherently sustainable, the growing circular economy discourse has drawn single-use products like tissues and paper towels into the conversation—and often not in a positive way. However, a closer look at the tissue product sector reveals some interesting sustainability facts that may not be top of mind. First, consider that tissue products are highly engineered to perform multiple functions at once. Bathroom tissue, for example, must be strong, soft and absorbent enough to perform its primary purpose, yet break down in a matter of seconds to pass through wastewater systems. To make products that perform according to a wide range of functions and align with consumer needs, paper towel and tissue manufacturers must use the appropriate mix of wood fiber pulp and recovered paper, as each brings different properties to the table. Achieving ultra-softness and absorbency, for instance, requires the use of fresh fiber. U.S. manufacturers are committed to responsible and sustainable wood fiber sourcing. As part of an overall paper industry sustainability goal, paper towel and tissue producers are continually increasing the amount of fiber procured from certified forestlands and through certified fiber sourcing programs. Click Read More below for additional information.

Mid-June, the PEFC team travelled to Korea for the 2019 Asia-Pacific Forestry Week. One of the largest and most important forestry gatherings in the region, the theme was ‘Forests for peace and well-being'. Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International CEO, opened our participation, speaking on the panel of the first APFW plenary session, focused on forests for peace and well-being. “Forest certification is more than just sustainable forest management. It’s about collaboration of people to enable ongoing dialogue, conflict resolution and problem solving at all levels for peace.” Click Read More below for additional information.

American Wood Council President and CEO Robert Glowinski and American Forest & Paper Association President and CEO Donna Harman issued the following statement regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) issuance of a new rule to reclassify certain major sources as area sources under the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the proposed rule on “Once In, Always In” on June 25, 2019. Robert Glowinski, President and CEO of AWC: “The old ‘Once In, Always In’ policy arbitrarily put a manufacturing facility into a regulatory time warp from which it could never escape. In contrast, EPA’s proposed rule would allow mills that are able to reduce their emissions below Clean Air Act thresholds to be free of onerous additional reporting, monitoring and recordkeeping requirements as long as they operate to stay below the cutoffs. Click Read More below for additional information.

Enjoying a cup of coffee or tea on the go can help make our busy lifestyles a little more tolerable. It affords busy parents a moment of nirvana as they rush to deliver kids to school and get to work on time, and provides everyone the option to enjoy their beverage of choice even if they don’t have time to finish it in store. The facts support a compelling case that the makers of paper cups – the paper and wood products industry – have a long commitment to sustainable business practices that protect the environment, spur innovation and advance recycling. The first thing that sets paper cups apart from other cups: They are made from sustainably managed, renewable materials whose cultivation benefits the environment. Paper products, like cups and paper-based packaging, are made with wood fiber from sustainably-managed forests, which is a 100 percent renewable resource. The wood fiber used to make paper products like cups comes from forests that are managed using sustainable management practices. In fact, adhering to such practices is a condition of AF&PA membership. The U.S. currently grows more wood than it harvests, and there are an estimated 20 percent more trees in the U.S. now than in 1970. Click Read More below for additional information.

2018 Sustainability Highlights: • 2019 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year - Sustained Excellence designation • 15 million pounds of film trim reclaimed from production processes in 2018 • 1.7 total case incident rate and 0.4 lost workday case incident rate safety record in 2018 which represents a total case incident rate reduction of over 50% since 2010 • 56% reduction in volatile organic compounds ("VOCs") since 2015, with 600 tons per year of VOCs eliminated through solvent-free production • Attained Extraordinary Environmental Enterprise (level E4) recognition from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Environmental Excellence Program for the Danville plant in 2018. Click Read More below for additional information.

Sidewalk Labs released its Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP) for Toronto’s eastern waterfront yesterday. Entitled “Toronto Tomorrow”, the plan is expected to create significant Canadian jobs, tax revenues and GDP contributions. Derek Nighbor, President and CEO of Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) issued the following statement today in response to the MIDP: “The Toronto Tomorrow proposal prominently features the use of wood from Canada’s sustainably managed forests as a cornerstone of its project – including a plan to build with mass timber, to use wood to build affordable and below market housing for Torontonians, and to invest $80 million in mass timber manufacturing. In Canada and around the world, wood is experiencing a resurgence as a building material of choice because it is environmentally friendly as well as beautiful, durable, and high performing. This project is a great way to address a number of community needs in Toronto, while providing a boost to our rural and northern forestry communities. We could not be more excited to see this visionary project taking root in Toronto for millions to see and experience.”

“Paper-based packaging made from recycled fibers is a key part of the circular economy and exemplifies why paper has a great environmental story to tell. As a leading technical association in this sector, we welcome RPTA to the Two Sides network of companies,” said Phil Riebel, Two Sides North America President. “RPTA is pleased to join Two Sides North America, as we are committed to similar objectives,” says Paul Schutes, Executive Director, RPTA. “Both organizations promote the responsible, sustainable production and use of our members’ products.”

“It’s not only about land use — in our operations we also take into account the limits and requirements set by nature and the ecosystem as a whole. The modern forestry practised by UPM is a great example of responsible land use,” emphasises Timo Lehesvirta, Director of Forest Global UPM. In addition to wood sourcing, other important elements of UPM’s approach are biodiversity, water protection, soil use and the benefits that forests provide. “Forests are an important part of the solution for mitigating climate change. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, produce oxygen and recycle water. When forest grows and produces wood raw material, it also acts as a carbon sink, which has a further positive effect on the climate,” he points out. Click Read More below for additional information.

Huhtamaki participated in a life-cycle analysis study that surveyed the full carbon footprint of different types of cups used for coffee. According to the study, paper cups often have the lowest carbon footprint, and recycling lowers it further by 54%. Huhtamaki recently introduced a 100% renewable, plant polyethylene coated FutureSmart paper cup. This life-cycle analysis (LCA) on paper cups was carried out in 2018-2019 by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. It was commissioned by Huhtamaki and the Finnish paperboard manufacturer Stora Enso. "In many everyday uses, paper cups have the lowest carbon footprint, and they offer better food safety - they are always hygienic. Overall, the carbon footprint of a paper cup is small compared to the food itself. For example, for a take-away latte, paper cup accounts only for 4% of the climate impact. The remaining 96 % is coffee and milk production and the energy of making the drink", says Richard Ali, Sustainability Director for Huhtamaki Foodservice Europe-Asia-Oceania. " For more details, please download "Taking a closer look at paper cups for coffee" Life Cycle Analysis - click here : https://www.huhtamaki.com/globalassets/global/highlights/responsibility/taking-a-closer-look-at-paper-cups-for-coffee.pdf

Office Depot, Inc. announced the release of its 2019 Corporate Sustainability Report, incorporating sustainability information for Office Depot, CompuCom and Grand & Toy. Additionally, the report contains the company’s public-facing sustainability goals around energy consumption, transportation emissions and local communities. “We are committed to decreasing the company’s environmental impact through waste diversion programs, greener packaging, transportation innovations and product solutions that extend throughout the lifecycle,” said Gerry Smith, chief executive officer for Office Depot, Inc. “We look at sustainability as another challenge we can help our customers address. By supporting the social and environmental values of our customers, we are able to significantly scale our impact beyond our walls and into the workplace of every customer.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Amazon.com Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Volvo are among more than 700 companies being targeted in a campaign backed by a large group of investors advocating for greater transparency when it comes to environmental impact. HSBC Global Asset Management, Investec Asset Management and close to 85 other investors representing a combined $10 trillion in assets are asking companies to comply with the reporting process managed by the Carbon Disclosure Project, a British nonprofit research group that solicits and scores corporate environmental disclosures. Investors and interested observers need “consistent, comparable information collected in one place so that they can benchmark performance and use the data to inform their decisions,” said Emily Kreps, global director of investor initiatives at CDP. HSBC and Investec didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The effort targets companies the group says have failed to disclose such information for years at a time. Click Read More below for additional information.

“We are delighted to welcome the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee (MFCC) as our 51st national member of the PEFC Alliance,” said Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International. “It is great to see that the collaboration with MFCC has been successful and has already led to the acceptance of Myanmar as a member.” We are collaborating with MFCC on a three-year project to support the country as it transitions to the sustainable management of its forests. The project is co-funded by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. “Forest management is not a matter of one country or one region anymore. It becomes a global synergy,” said Barber Cho, Secretary General of MFCC. Click Read More below for additional information.

Pratt Industries, America’s largest 100% recycled packaging company, is providing $75,000 in cash prizes to Manhattan’s Community Boards to spur the growth of residential recycled paper collection in the Borough. The contest, financially funded by Pratt Industries, has been collaboratively designed by The Manhattan Borough President’s Office, The Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board (MSWAB), and The Department of Sanitation New York (DSNY). For the past two-plus decades, Pratt has operated New York City’s only paper mill, which exclusively uses 100% recycled paper, the majority of which is generated through New York City’s curbside recycling program. After the new 100% recycled paper is produced, it is used at Pratt’s corrugated box plants in NYC and throughout many of its other factories in the U.S. to manufacture tens of millions of pizza boxes as well as corrugated boxes for companies such as Amazon, Home Depot, Procter & Gamble and a who’s who of other consumer packaged goods companies. Those boxes, once used and ready to be recycled once more, as well as most of the other paper collected by DSNY, is then recycled yet again at the NYC paper mill. Click Read More below for additional information.

From groceries to clothing, making truly ethical and environmentally sustainable choices can prove challenging. After all, from start to finish, there are countless steps that go into bringing a product to the shelf. We’ve long recognized this challenge – and the importance of keeping the entire supply chain environmentally responsible. One way we do this in our paper mill and manufacturing process is through meeting the standards for the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) Chain of Custody certification. Along with meeting rigorous standards to ensure our products and materials are sourced from well-managed forests, it’s also our way to stay transparent about our sustainability efforts. Setting sustainability goals and making commitments is important but holding ourselves accountable to those goals is what helps us – and our customers – truly have a positive environmental and societal impact. Click Read More below for additional information.

The results of a new survey commissioned by Two Sides reveal a telling insight into the public’s perceptions and attitudes towards print and paper. Carried out by independent research company Toluna, consumers from across the U.S. (n= 2,094) and Canada (n= 1,044) were surveyed on environmental topics and preferences relating to paper and print. It is clear from the survey that consumers are concerned about the environment, but there are some obvious gaps between consumer environmental perceptions and the real facts. This is particularly evident for questions related to forest management and recycling. •58% of U.S. consumers surveyed believe U.S. forests have been decreasing in size since the year 2000. In fact, U.S. forests had a net growth of over 1,500 NFL football fields per day since 2000. •Only 15% of Americans and 21% of Canadians think the paper recovery rate exceeds 60% when it is over 68% in the U.S and 70% in Canada. Click Read More below for additional information.

Are you guilty of wishcycling? Also known as aspirational recycling, wishcycling happens when you put something into the recycling bin without checking whether it’s actually recyclable. We get it! You don’t want to add more waste to the planet, so you toss your item in the recycling bin, hoping it’ll get recycled. Worst-case scenario: If you made a mistake, the recycling facility will be able to fix it. Right? The answer is no. Although people have the best of intentions, wishcycling is one of the biggest issues waste management faces today. This video from the American Forest and Paper Association explains wishcycling. Click Read More below for additional information.

“We understand that forest certification is a tool to demonstrate sustainable forest management. We also understand that certification delivers products originating in sustainable forests to the marketplace.” Forest certification gets people together to talk, challenge each other, explore and find solutions for problems at all levels - locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. It can also help to pull people out of poverty by giving new income generation opportunities. It contributes to all the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by bringing together hundreds of thousands of people to engage in constructive, consensus-building dialogue for local, national and international problems at landscape level. Certification builds trust and confidence between different interests through consensus and conflict resolution processes, which are the basis for ensuring and maintaining peace at all levels. Click Read More below for additional information.

Just in time for our 20th anniversary, the PEFC Alliance welcomes Vietnam as its 50th national member. “Besides celebrating 20 years of caring for our forests, we have another reason to rejoice. The 50th national member marks an important milestone for PEFC,” said Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International. “We started with eleven European national members, and now we have more than 50 spread across the entire globe. We are very happy and grateful to everyone who made this success possible.” Together with Myanmar, Vietnam was voted in by the PEFC General Assembly through a postal ballot. The Vietnam Forest Certification Office (VNFOREST) is actively working on the development of their national forest certification system. Click Read More below for additional information.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on June 7 the company was one of the first winners of the Commercial and Industrial Carbon Challenge, a program that requires companies to commit to reducing carbon emissions. International Paper will use the money to create a turbine generator, optimize its power boiler and recover steam at its mill. The projects are expected to reduce the company’s emissions by 225,000 tons, about the same as taking 3,200 cars off the road a year, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Click Read More below for additional information.

Like all our International Stakeholder members, Sappi will be a vital support in our work to ensure the sustainable management of the world’s forests. “Credible, internationally recognised, robust forest certification systems like PEFC are fundamental to Sappi’s commitment to sustainability. These systems give assurance to our value chain of the origin of our woodfibre and responsible forest management practices,” said Steve Binnie, CEO of Sappi. “Given that stakeholder engagement underpins our approach to doing business at Sappi, we welcome the opportunity to become a PEFC International Stakeholder member,” added Graeme Wild, Group Head of Sustainability and Investor Relations of Sappi. “The collaboration reinforces our contribution towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals and in particular SDG 15 - Life on Land; given our common priorities to promote sustainable forest management and support smallholder forestry around the world.” Click Read More below for additional information.

UPM Plywood has published Environmental Product Declarations for their WISA products, in compliance with the standardised EPD model. These third-party-verified and internationally comparable Environmental Product Declarations help building contractors and designers better understand the environmental impact of construction products and materials. An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a voluntary and reliable way to present a product's environmental impact throughout its whole lifecycle, from raw material sourcing to disposal. UPM Plywood's Environmental Product Declarations have been created according to the EN 15804:2012+A1:2013 and ISO 14025 standards for four product groups: coated and uncoated spruce plywood, and coated and uncoated birch plywood. Most of UPM Plywood's products fall under the product groups covered by the declarations. Click Read More below for additional information.

When Bonny Skene attended Conservation Camp in 10th grade, she wasn’t looking for a career in forestry. “My parents always encouraged me to try new and different things, and Conservation Camp was definitely new and different,” she says. “I didn’t know much about forestry, although I grew up in a forest in Dryden, Ontario. But I attended the camp, and I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot.” Several years and two degrees later, the experience came full circle when Skene, now Domtar’s regional public affairs manager in Canada, started working at the Dryden Mill as an IT manager in 1996. “You just never know where an opportunity will lead you,” she says. “I wasn’t a kid who dreamed of being a forester or working in the industry. But the experience was helpful when I ended up in a forestry industry career.” Conservation Camp is led by Domtar’s Dryden Mill in partnership with Dryden High School and other Dryden community partners, including Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Dryden Forest Management, the Dryden Trappers Council, Brinkman Reforestation and Raleigh Falls Timber. Click Read More below for additional information.

Global apparel retailer Gap Inc. announced a new partnership with its longtime sourcing and franchise partner in India, Arvind Limited, to drive industry-leading solutions that address global water scarcity. The apparel industry is one of the most intensive users of water in the world and, in India, 54 percent of the population faces high to extremely high water risk. The two companies will open a new innovation center to promote the adoption of proven techniques and technology that reduce water use by the textile manufacturing industry. Further, Arvind and Gap Inc. are also investing in a new water treatment facility that will eliminate the use of fresh water at Arvind’s denim mill in Ahmedabad, India. The facility will save three billion liters of fresh water by the end of 2020 and preserve the local community’s vital freshwater resources. As water becomes increasingly scarce due to climate change and growing human needs, the apparel industry is facing pressure to reduce its demand for fresh water. When it opens in 2020, the new center will be an innovation hub for apparel companies, manufacturing suppliers and vendors, sustainability experts, academics, and other environmental stakeholders to advance and scale water stewardship across the apparel sector. The 18,000-square foot space will feature: installations that showcase water management best practices and recycling technologies; a library; lab space to develop water management solutions as well as classroom training and conference space. Once completed, the center will generate scalable solutions that can be replicated at other mills and laundries. Click Read More below for additional information.

We are installing state-of-the-art rooftop solar power units at six key manufacturing plants across India. The rooftop solar power project will reduce 20 MT of CO2 emissions annually; equivalent to planting about 100,000 trees. All installations are equipped with net metering, online performance monitoring and high-end safety systems. The rooftop solar power units will be operational within the year. The project was carried out in partnership with Swiss headquartered Talesun Energy and EnergyX. “This project forms part of our larger environmental sustainability program that includes reduction of carbon footprint, developing innovative recyclable laminate structures and helping shape a circular economy. It is important for industry players like us to help build awareness amongst consumers that by using flexible packaging, they are being environmentally responsible”, said Dr Arup Basu, Managing Director, Huhtamaki India.

June 5, is World Environment Day. The 2019 theme is Beat Air Pollution —something we at AF&PA and the greater U.S. paper and wood products industry have been dedicated to for decades. Our latest greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal, which is part of AF&PA’s Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 sustainability initiative, aims to reduce emissions from member company facilities by at least 20 percent between 2005 and 2020. Our last sustainability report shows that members achieved a 19.9 percent reduction in 2016, nearly reaching the goal. And this is after they surpassed the previous goal of a 15 percent reduction in GHG emissions in 2014. Members achieved these great reductions by using efficient manufacturing processes, generating carbon-neutral biomass fuel on-site and replacing traditional fossil fuels like oil and coal with less carbon-intensive natural gas. In 2016, carbon-neutral biomass and renewable fuels provided, on average, about two-thirds of member facility energy needs. Click Read More below for additional information.

For decades, only trees in forests came within the scope of forest certification. However, trees also grow outside forests, in hedgerows, scattered on farms, along streets in urban areas… With the approval of our revised Sustainable Forest Management benchmark standard last year, this is set to change. This was the message the PEFC team took to the World Agroforestry Congress, held last month in Montpellier, France. The inclusion of Trees outside Forests (TOF) makes PEFC certification accessible for the first time to millions of farmers who own or manage trees on agricultural or settlement land. This will increase income generation opportunities for rural populations and in parallel support the delivery of a range of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Click Read More below for additional information.

Paper often gets a bad rap, but despite fears about paper’s impact on the environment, it’s actually a practical and sustainable choice for many parts of daily living. We’re learning more about the benefits of supplementing technology with print when it comes to education, estate planning and even celebrating life’s milestones. And thanks to our industry’s continuing focus on paper sustainability, our environmental footprint decreases every year. It’s time to clear the air on five of the most persistent paper sustainability myths. Myth 1: Cutting down trees to make paper destroys habitats. Myth 2: Paper production contributes to water pollution. Myth 3: Paper manufacturing is bad for the climate. Myth 4: Electronic communications are more sustainable than paper communications. Myth 5: People don’t recycle paper. Click Read More below for additional information.

Thailand has become the latest country to achieve PEFC endorsement of its national forest certification system. “This is a giant leap for forestry in Thailand,” said Mr. Sakchai Unjittikul, Chairman of Thailand Forest Certification Council (TFCC), our national member for Thailand. The newly endorsed system will allow Thai forest owners and managers to demonstrate their sustainable forest management practices in line with global standards and requirements. TFCC joined the PEFC alliance in November 2016 and applied for endorsement in April 2018. Click Read More below for additional information.

The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) is proud to announce the launch of a comprehensive new standard for responsible forest management in Canada. After five years of rigorous consultation with industry, environment, and social stakeholders and indigenous groups, the new standard targets the most pressing issues threatening Canadian forests today, including the woodland caribou crisis; the rights of indigenous peoples; workers' rights including gender equity; conservation; and landscape management. "We are facing some of the most important issues in Canadian forest management history," said Francois Dufresne, president, FSC Canada. "It was important for FSC to equally involve a diverse group of experts and interests to establish a new national framework that can be adopted across the entire forest industry." Click Read More below for additional information.

Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) embraces third party certification and participated in FSC’s consultation process which was used to develop the new requirements. Today’s announcement marks the end of FSC’s multi-year consultation process with a number of key partners. “Canada’s forest product companies comply with hundreds of federal and provincial laws and regulations every day. We are among the most strictly regulated forestry sectors in the world,” noted FPAC President and CEO Derek Nighbor. “Even though third party certification is voluntary in Canada, 100% of FPAC’s member operations are certified by FSC, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). This support of independent certification systems is another reason why Canada is known as a world leader in sustainable forest management. We and all Canadians can take great pride in that,” he added. The FSC standard is one of three voluntary programs used in Canada that has been endorsed by Canada’s Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM), all of which set high environmental, social, and economic thresholds for sustainable forest management. In the coming days, FPAC will be working with its members to review FSC’s new forest management requirements, as well as the changes taking place related to FSC chain-of-custody certification. Significant changes are expected between July and December, which will add to the complex transition that FSC users in Canada are embarking on.

A new tree nursery located in Pavas will produce 16,000 trees and shrubs to contribute to the tree planting process of different parks and green areas around the capital of Costa Rica, San José. The structure was built by the Municipality, in conjunction with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), through the Productive Landscapes Project of MINAE/GEF /UNDP. The nursery consists of two 400 m2 greenhouses, an air irrigation system that saves water consumption, and a security mesh for the perimeter. It covers an area of 6,000 m2 and required an investment of US$ 32,000. The funds to build the structure were contributed by the Productive Landscapes Project of UNDP, as part of its cooperation with the María Aguilar Interurban Biological Corridor (CBIMA), which consist of the Municipalities of San José, Montes de Oca, Curridabat, La Unión and Alajuelita. Click Read More below for additional information.

Fly ash from SCA’s industries can be used to build high-quality forest roads, as shown in a study carried out by SCA and Skogforsk (Forestry Research Institute of Sweden). “Sustainability runs through everything we do, and being able to re-use fly ash for our roads is another step towards integrating the forest with industry,” says Tomas Johansson of SCA Skog. Every year, SCA builds approximately 1,000 kilometers of forest roads. At the same time, SCA’s industries produce thousands of tonnes of fly ash in conjunction with their use of forest raw materials such as branches and crowns for energy. “Using the fly ash where it does the greatest good is important. We know that it works extremely well for soil stabilization, since we’ve tried it at both Östrand and Tunadal,” says Tomas, and continues: Click Read More below for additional information.

Plastic use is expected to double in the next 20 years. This growth will stem especially from population growth and higher living standards in China, India and Africa. Meanwhile, in developed markets, per capita plastic usage has levelled off at approximately 80 kg annually. In rapidly developing countries, the corresponding total is currently 10-20 kg. The first step to solving the global plastic waste problem is building a proper recycling infrastructure, affirms Vesa Kärhä, CEO of the Finnish Plastics Industries Federation. There is also a lot of work to be done also in waste management, attitudes, and in the diligent implementation of existing legislation. Despite the absence of efficient recycling systems, plastic is still needed: it plays a critical role serving a rapidly urbanising population in applications such as food packaging and health care. Unnecessary use of plastic should be radically reduced. Recycling solutions, too, need urgent attention. But, in addition, plastic must also be produced more sustainably. One solution is UPM BioVerno naphtha, a renewable plastic raw material made from pulp residue. Click Read More below for additional information.

For the 15th of our “Conversations with Green Champions,” Rolland President Philip Rundle speaks about environmental responsibility with sustainability-minded Hemlock Printers. Hemlock is a quality and sustainability leader in commercial printing • Offset, digital and display printing and fulfillment operations in Burnaby and Richmond BC, near Vancouver, and sales offices in Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area. • Winner of 13 Canadian Printing Awards in 2018 including Gold, Most Environmentally Progressive Printing Project and Silver, Most Environmentally Progressive Printing Company. • FSC Recycled or FSC Mix papers account for some 90 per cent of Hemlocks’ printing – publications, marketing materials, displays, packaging, books, catalogs, stationery. Click Read More below for additional information.

The circular economy has quickly become a central element of European economic policy. The aim of politicians and businesses is to reduce the use of fossil raw materials through recycling and reuse, and to replace them with renewable alternatives. The European Commission is currently preparing legislation that aims to step up the recycling of oil-based plastics. “We are collaborating closely with industry; the Plastics Alliance we have brought together includes representatives from the whole value chain. Their task is to solve the problem of how to increase the recovery, recycling and reuse of plastics in Europe,” explains European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen. Click Read More below for additional information.

AptarGroup, Inc. released its 2018 Corporate Sustainability Report. The 2018 Sustainability Report highlights the robust sustainability initiatives that have been implemented across Aptar’s global operations. As in previous reports, Aptar summarizes various milestones measured and achieved in three key areas of people, planet and product. The 2018 Sustainability Report is based on the Global Sustainability Reporting (GRI) Standards: Core Options, as released in October 2016. In preparing the report, Aptar obtained limited external assurance for absolute energy metrics, carbon emissions and renewable energy purchases. Aptar also responds to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Investor Climate Change, Supply Chain and Water questionnaires each year. Click Read More below for additional information.

Two Sides’ efforts to combat misleading claims related to print and paper has resulted in over 400 companies worldwide, including 118 in North America, removing unsubstantiated ‘green’ claims in their marketing materials. Despite our repeated efforts to contact TIAA and BlackRock, they continue to ignore consumer preferences and fact-based research to make unsupported environmental claims in their literature and mailings. Common consumer misconceptions about print and paper are reinforced by service providers as they increasingly encourage their customers to switch to electronic bills, statements, and correspondence to reduce costs. The incentive to switch is often based on unfounded environmental claims such as ‘Go Green – Go Paperless’ and ‘Choose e-billing and help save a tree.’ Not only are these claims misleading, but the drive to digital is not without environmental impacts and not welcomed by many consumers. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Pearson, the world’s learning company, today publishes its 2018 Sustainability Report, demonstrating ongoing progress in integrating social and environmental issues across the business and advancing equity in education. A key element of Pearson’s business strategy is to help improve employability prospects through providing products and services that drive better learning outcomes. As sustainability is increasingly integrated into Pearson’s core business, employability for underserved groups and supporting sustainability skills are becoming areas of focus. An example of this in practice in 2018 is our work with 225 US institutions, including community colleges, who used Pearson’s GED College Ready score level to help their students progress to the next level of their education, sometimes without placement tests or developmental courses. This is significant because it reduces barriers for students without a high school diploma to gain access to the next level of education, saves time by demonstrating mastery of certain topics, and improves their future employability prospects. To read Pearson’s full 2018 Sustainability Report and learn about its 2020 Sustainability Plan, visit http://www.pearson.com/sustainability.

Kimberly-Clark today switched on one of Singapore's largest solar energy installations at its manufacturing facility in Tuas, which produces Huggies diapers and Huggies baby wipes. The 7,730 photovoltaic panels mounted on its roof will generate 3.5 Gigawatt hours of clean energy, enough to power up a thousand 3-bedroom HDB flats for a year. With this investment, renewable energy will now replace 15% of conventional energy use at the plant, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by approximately 1,600 metric tons per year. This is equivalent to removing nearly 350 passenger cars from roads annually. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Stakeholders globally are invited to give feedback on the revised Certification Body Requirements standard. Give your comments, feedback and suggestions to help us ensure it meets your needs and expectations. Give your feedback – deadline 21 July 2019. Want to know more? To provide you with more information about the proposed changes to this standard, we will be running two webinars during the public consultation: * 6 June, 15.00 CEST; * 4 July, 11.00 CEST. Sign up for one of the webinars now! Click "read more" below for additional information.

American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Donna Harman issued the following statement regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) memorandum outlining plans to implement robust benefit-cost analysis across the agency’s rulemaking process. The memorandum follows the agency’s June 2018 advanced notice of proposed rulemaking regarding the benefits and costs of rulemaking and indicates the process will begin with the Clean Air Act. “We applaud EPA for taking the historic step to advance common-sense regulatory policy that ensures its regulations will do more good than harm. For over 38 years, every president has directed regulatory agencies to embrace this sound principle when designing regulations. But Administrator Wheeler breaks new ground with plans for binding regulations to ensure that the benefits of EPA’s regulations will justify the costs. We welcome this new foundation for sustainable regulation and the news that similar regulations under other EPA statutes will follow the Clean Air Act rulemaking. All will serve to protect the environment while allowing the economy to grow and create new opportunities for all Americans long into the future.”

Innovation drives sustainability - In this spirit, leaders of the packaging industry such as SOMA, Flint Group, Miller Graphics and Futamura, joined forces to create print samples on film. At the SOMA Flexo Challenge Conference 2019 held in Czech Republic, the live printing of the print design showcased that sustainability is a top priority with high print quality result. Czech Republic based SOMA, producer of flexographic printing presses, slitter rewinders, laminators, plate mounters and die-cutters. SOMA flexographic printing press Optima 2 dramatically enhances print quality, make-ready times, and running costs and therefore reduces ecological impact. The main focus is to implement sustainable technologies, such as water based ink system and reduce make ready in terms of time & waste. With the ARUN system the registration and impression is adjusted automatically without any operator effort. The result is that jobs get up to speed faster and there is almost zero feet of setup waste. The SOMA Ink Cartridge system offers printers a means of reducing ink costs by minimizing ink volume and residual waste. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, environmental degradation, resource depletion, and packaging waste demand an urgent and coherent response from the packaging industry. Flint Group partnered up with SOMA and Marvaco to work on an environmental friendly full HD Expanded Gamut Printing (EGP) on paper. At the SOMA Flexo Challenge Conference 2019 held in Czech Republic, the live printing of the print design showcased that sustainability is a top priority with high print quality results. With the ambition to become the innovation leader in flexographic plates, sleeves and ink solutions, Flint Group addressed this challenge by delivering nyloflex® XPH thermal printing plates, suitable for water based and UV inks. The round top dot plate is processed with the nyloflex® Xpress Thermal Processor. A sustainable easy-to-use system of several components, to reliably deliver a complete solution for lightning-fast plate making and high-end flexo printing. The benefits of 30% less waste, up to 88% reduction in electricity, and a plate processing time of only 45 minutes, result especially in reduction of operating costs, improved productivity as well as excellent print quality. In addition the rotec® CFX Bridge with carbon-fiber structure has been used as a high quality adapter with a long lifetime. Click "read more" below for additional information.

An innovative Kenyan company which turns plastic waste into affordable roof tiles for homes has been given a financial boost by FTSE 100 packaging and paper company, Mondi Group. Eco Blocks and Tiles has been selected by Mondi as the Lead2030 SDG 12 challenge winner and will receive $50,000 in financial investment, plus 12 months of business coaching, to equip the company with the expertise to grow. Lead2030 was launched by One Young World, the global forum for young leaders, in November 2018 to support youth-led innovation to contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Powered by some of the world’s leading businesses, Lead2030 aims to find, fund and accelerate youth-led solutions for each of the global goals and enable young innovators to scale and accelerate their impact. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Biodiversity is not only a question of nature’s wellbeing, but also of economics – especially for the bioeconomy business. But how can it be measured, and what might bracket fungi and ospreys tell us about the condition of our forests? Last autumn, researchers with paper bags in their hands, bent over, intently examining samples of bracket fungi could be spotted by various creatures in the forests of Southern Finland and Kainuu. Some human berry-pickers may have spotted them, too. Occasionally the researchers were joined by Reijo Penttilä of the Natural Resources Institute Finland. Penttilä leads a bracket fungus transplantation project and has been researching bracket fungi for over 30 years. Researchers from the University of Helsinki and Luke completed a transplantation feasibility study using ten species over a period of nearly ten years. Click "read more" below for additional information.

UPS announced an agreement with Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to purchase 170 million gallon equivalents of renewable natural gas (RNG) through 2026. This is the largest commitment for use of RNG to date by any company in the United States, with a range of 22.5 - 25 million gallon equivalents per year. RNG is a key part of UPS’s strategy to increase alternative fuel consumption to be 40% of total ground fuel purchases by 2025, supporting the logistics leader’s efforts to reduce the absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of its ground fleet 12% by 2025. “The world has a trash problem. And the world has an emissions problem. Renewable natural gas, produced naturally from bio sources such as landfills and dairy farms, not only turns trash to gas, but it turns it into clean gas,” said Mike Casteel, UPS director of fleet procurement. “Since RNG is supported by existing national infrastructure used to transport natural gas, it’s a winning solution that will help UPS to reach our ambitious sustainability goals. At the same time, we hope our unprecedented seven-year commitment serves as a catalyst for wider adoption of RNG by other companies.” Click "read more" below for additional information.

The International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA) issued its Global CEO Leadership Statement 2.0, which includes seven sustainability commitments the global industry will take action on for a better world. The full statement is available at: www.icfpa.org/resources/ The new leadership statement reflects changes in the industry and was endorsed by the American Forest & Paper Association’s (AF&PA) Board of Directors at their February meeting, as well as company and association CEOs from ten countries at the ICFPA’s ninth international CEO Roundtable last week in Vancouver, Canada. Click "read more" below for additional information.

With Netflix joining the long list of digital brands using print, the phenomenon of ‘reverse publishing’ is one of the biggest developments in brand content. The latest digital brand turning to print to reach a new audience has been announced as Netflix. With a market value of $21.2bn and a global user base of 150m, the streaming service hasn’t had to do a great deal of marketing – print or digital – instead preferring to plough much of its profits into making its own content. So the launch of its own magazine has come as a bit of a surprise. With a working title of Wide, the 100-page publication will include features, interviews and articles about Netflix-produced content, focusing on the people that create it. But rather than targeting its millions of users, the magazine is aimed at the highly competitive Hollywood awards community, promoting its shows and stars in the middle of voting season for the upcoming Emmys. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Mopria, a global non-profit formed to provide standards and solutions for printing and scanning, has released the results of their Mopria Workflow Survey. The findings indicate that paper is still important in office workflows. The survey results refute a common assumption that workers prefer digital only workflows and demonstrate balanced preferences between paper and digital media. Mopria surveyed 1,377 individuals between the ages of 25 to 65 who work in an office setting. Among the key findings, the results showed that: •84% take notes on paper •80.5% of workers enjoy the feel of pen and paper •71% believe they are more likely to remember their notes later if they take it on paper Click "read more" below for additional information.

PEFC invites stakeholders globally to give their feedback on the revised PEFC Chain of Custody and PEFC Trademarks standards. These two vital international standards are entering the last stage of their revision, and now we need to hear from you. Give your comments, feedback and suggestions, to help us ensure these standards meet your needs and expectations. Give your feedback – deadline 9 July 2019. Want to know more? To provide you with more information about the proposed changes to both standards, we will be running a series of webinars throughout the duration of the public consultations. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Logistics and transportation are essential to most companies. Virtually everything we use or own has been moved somewhere, whether as a raw commodity, finished goods—like paper and other FSC products—or in interim stages along the way. According to the 2017 Commodity Flow Survey, paper manufacturers shipped over 164 million tons of product. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests…and SmartWay helps companies learn how to move their products in the most efficient, responsible way. EPA’s global sustainability program, SmartWay, has developed strategies and tools to help organizations make their freight operations more efficient, while reducing harmful pollution. FSC has joined SmartWay as a SmartWay Affiliate, to raise awareness of the impact of its members’ transportation footprint and to encourage its members to include freight operations in their sustainability efforts. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Project Learning Tree Canada (PLT Canada) is excited to launch its Green Ride for Green Jobs awareness campaign with a cross-country engagement tour to encourage even more youth to work in Green Jobs and help fill critical roles in forests and parks. PLT Canada’s Zac Wagman, Green Jobs Manager, will begin theGreen Ride in Victoria, B.C., and will travel more than 8,750 km over four months to St. John’s, Nfld on a Montreal-made Picolo Vélo wooden bicycle. Wagman will visit up to 50 PLT Canada Green Jobs employers in 30 different communities across nine provinces, profiling over 25 youth, and sharing stories of their Green Jobs experiences over social media. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Five of the most exciting new advances in paper and pulp, from wallpaper that blocks Wi-Fi to a test that can detect cancer. Paper has a great number of advantages when it comes to communication – it’s portable, light, accessible and easy on the eye. But great strides are being made in medicine, technology and construction using this most humble of materials. People may have been reading and writing with it for over two thousand years, but it seems that paper has a lot more to offer. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Walmart is powering more stores with solar energy as its eyes get closer to its goal of having 50% of its operations powered by renewable energy by 2025. New York City-based C2 Energy Capital announced it has executed 46 power purchase agreements and leases with Walmart to provide solar power at the retailer’s operations in five states The solar installations are expected to supply approximately 10% of 60% of each stores’ overall electricity use and will produce more than 65,000,000 kWh of renewable energy annually, enough energy to power nearly 5,500 homes. Walmart on Wednesday issued its inaugural Environmental, Social and Governance report, which noted that 28% of the chain’s electricity needs are supplied by renewable sources. Click Read More below for additional information.

In 2018, the U.S. paper recovery for recycling rate reached a record 68.1 percent as compared to 65.9 percent in 2017 and 67.2 percent in 2016. This is great news for the environment and for our industry! We have a goal to exceed 70 percent paper recovery for recycling by 2020 and are constantly doing our part to improve the quantity and quality of paper recovered for recycling. The U.S. paper recovery rate has more than doubled since our industry committed to setting and achieving paper recovery goals in 1990. In addition, the rate has been at or above 63 percent each year for the past decade. The paper recovery for recycling rate is a metric used to convey how much of the paper used in the U.S. is recycled into new products in a given period—one year (2018), in this case. Click Read More below for additional information.

After dipping from 92.8 percent in 2016 to 88.8 percent in 2017, the U.S. recovery for recycling rate for old corrugated containers (OCC) rebounded to 96.4 percent in 2018. AF&PA has published annual U.S. recovery rate data for OCC since the introduction of the Corrugated Recycles symbol in 1993. The rate has followed a steady trend upward from 54 percent in 1993 to the current record-high rate. Given the recent volatility in the recycling markets, it is instructive to note the three-year average (2016-2018) is a steady 92.7 percent. The U.S. OCC recovery for recycling rate is calculated by dividing the U.S. recovery of OCC for recycling by the U.S. apparent consumption of new containerboard (i.e., material used to make corrugated boxes that has not yet converted into boxes) over a given period, usually one year. AF&PA’s calculation of the U.S. OCC recovery for recycling rate is consistent with the calculation methodology used by major U.S. trading partners around the world (e.g., the European Union, Japan). Click Read More below for additional information

Domtar's new Outside Voice series highlights the perspectives of stakeholders and leaders on important sustainability topics. On the particulars, we may not always agree. But we believe in hearing and learning from others who offer valuable insights and a different point of view on issues that are important to us all. Our first Outside Voice is Tensie Whelan, former president of Rainforest Alliance and current professor at New York University Stern School of Business. She leads NYU’s Center for Sustainable Business. Whelan believes climate change is among the greatest environmental challenges we face, with immediate and future consequences that we cannot ignore. She recently spoke with our Outside Voice team about the work of corporations, governments, activists and individuals that can help or harm efforts to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures. Q. What aspects of climate change concern you most? A. I think climate change creates the biggest threat to humanity to date. It creates the twin problems of reduced access to water and too much water. It brings more frequent extreme weather — flooding and drought — which affects our food sources, our industries and our homes. Click Read More below for additional information.

“I am delighted to announce that the PEFC International Board is recommending the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee for PEFC membership,” said Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International, during his visit in Myanmar last week. Following the recommendation, the PEFC General Assembly is now voting on Myanmar’s application for membership. We will announce the result of the vote in early June. While in Myanmar, Ben attended a seminar in Yangon, hosted by PEFC and the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee (MFCC), our prospective national member for the country. Our collaboration on current and future projects was a key focus of the seminar, as we seek to develop our partnership with MFCC in order to bring sustainable management to Myanmar’s forests. “We look forward to welcoming MFCC into the PEFC family and to advancing sustainable forest management with you in Myanmar,” said Ben, speaking at the seminar. Click Read More below for additional information.

Walmart Inc. issued its inaugural Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, which details the company’s goals, progress and achievements for fiscal year 2019 toward its commitment to increase economic opportunity for associates and local communities, build sustainability in supply chains and activate climate change initiatives. Walmart is disclosing progress to date in several areas including: Activating Climate Change Initiatives, Enhancing Sustainability in Supply Chains, Increasing Economic Opportunity for Associates. Click Read More below for additional information.

UPM Raflatac’s Biofore Site™ concept engages factory employees and fosters a culture of sustainability by setting factory-specific development goals aimed at contributing toward UPM’s 2030 responsibility targets. For many years, UPM Raflatac factories have operated third-party certified environmental management systems in accordance with the ISO 14001 standard to ensure continual environmental performance improvement. The Biofore Site concept builds on this foundation and expands it to include also economic and social aspects. Since the piloting in 2017, each factory has created a unique path to improve their scorecard performance. From installing LED lighting on the factory buildings to installing electric car-charging stations, UPM Raflatac factory teams continue to find new and exciting ways to further concept. A multi-parameter Biofore Site scorecard, based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, is used to monitor each factory’s progress. Click Read More below for additional information.

The Vietnamese government has formulated a Forestry Development Strategy to help achieve this goal. This includes the target to establish, manage, protect and sustainably use 16.2 million hectares of forestland by 2020, and to certify at least 3 million hectares by 2030. “Sustainable forest management is a key focus of the Vietnamese government. We are prioritizing sustainable forest management in accordance with international practices, in order to increase the certified forest area by 2030,” Vice Minister Ha Cong Tuan confirmed. The newly established office will coordinate forest certification activities in Vietnam and manage the national forest certification system, including its application to PEFC for endorsement. Click Read More below for additional information.

SCA is actively involved in efforts to save the endangered ortolan bunting, which thrives in clearcut areas. It hopes to make it easier for the bird to find food by digging large hollows in areas where the ortolan has been sighted. Last autumn, SCA’s nature conservation experts joined county administrative boards and a few ornithologists to visit forests in Sundsvall where the ortolan bunting had been sighted. The aim was to find possible measures to create favorable conditions by providing more food for the bunting and its young. One idea was to dig large patches of mineral soil of about one quarter of a square meter to reveal the topsoil. The ortolan seems to thrive in all types of clearcuts where the topsoil has been disturbed by scarification, for example, because bare ground in a protected location makes it easy for them to find insects when feeding their young. Click Read More below for additional information.

SCA cooperates with approximately 25 contractors as part of the planting work. This in turn means almost 500 planters will be active in the forests, from Svappavaara in the north to Hassela in the south. The planters are from many different countries, including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Ukraine and Nepal. They begin planting in mid-May and continue into October. The planters work both in SCA’s own forest and on the land of private forest owners, who have contracted SCA to help with planting. Before the planters leave for the forest, they must have successfully completed the Skötselskolan (Forest Management School) training course, which is a industry-wide online training course. Those working as planting supervisors, meaning people leading planting work in the forest, must also have completed a practical course covering consideration for nature conservation and cultural heritage. Click Read More below for additional information.

Last month, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette shared a sticker with their subscribers that stated: “In honor of Earth Day, the Post-Gazette will not print on Monday, April 22.” This claim prompted Leeann Foster, Assistant to the International President of the United Steelworkers, to write a letter to the newspaper, addressing the greenwashing claim that digital-only news is more environmentally friendly. She shared, “It simply is not black and white to say that digital communication is green and paper is not. In 2016, for example, 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste was generated globally…Paper, however, is a highly and easily recyclable product that is used again and again to make more paper and boxes.” Supporting her letter with facts, Ms. Foster provided a link to our popular Two Sides Myths and Facts page. Her full letter was posted on the USW Paperworkers Facebook Page and was shared, commented on, and liked by the community. Click Read More below for additional information.

Extreme weather conditions will increase globally due to the magnitude of climate change. The change in variables like heavy rain falls, wind and snow damages or drought are posing a threat to the balance of nature. Droughts have already increased the risk for forest fires in many areas. Together with the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) UPM is actively doing research on how climate change will affect forestry and wood sourcing and thus UPM’s business operations in the long run. “We will utilise these results in developing our business operations. At the same time all of this is valuable information we can share with our investors and our other important stakeholders,” explains Tuomas Niemi, Manager for Reporting and Standards at UPM. Click Read More below for additional information.

Has a constant stream of negative press questioning recycling’s effectiveness led some consumers to worry about whether recycling is “worth it?” Fortunately, there is good news to share. Survey data released by the Paper and Packaging Board (P+PB) in its 2018 Campaign Impact Report reveals that 83 percent of consumers surveyed agree recycling paper of all kinds is still worthwhile. The P+PB Impact Report also shows that the paper and packaging industry is viewed more favorably than other materials industries including plastics and that just over 6 in 10 (62 percent) of those surveyed agree that paper’s benefits outweigh the risks when considering paperboard/packaging, paper and the environment. “What these numbers and the data in the full report suggests,” says Mary Anne Hansan, president of the Paper and Packaging Board, “is that when consumers are aware of the benefits of choosing paper and paper packaging, these materials remain valued choices.” Click Read More bellow for additional information.

John Mullinder started his journalistic career in New Zealand before emigrating to Canada in the mid-1980s. Over the past 27 years, Mr. Mullinder has led a national environmental council for the country’s paper packaging industry. Frustrated by encounters with people who knew so little about forestry and paper production but had plenty of opinions about killing and saving trees, John was compelled to write a book called, Deforestation in Canada and Other Fake News. “Many people believe that cutting down trees is deforestation and the emotional image they associate with this is an ugly clear cut,” states Mr. Mullinder. “I debunk these myths with hard facts, well-documented evidence, references and real images of deforestation.” Deforestation is often incorrectly defined and associated with the forestry products industry. In reality, deforestation is defined as the permanent destruction of forests to make the land available for other uses. One reason Mr. Mullinder chose to show an agricultural scene on the cover of his book is to point out that the primary causes of deforestation are due to agriculture, oil and gas projects, and urbanization. Click Read More bellow for additional information.

International Paper is continuing work on its commitment to sustain forests through two new collaborations with the Arbor Day Foundation: the Time for Trees initiative and Community Tree Recovery. As one of 17 founding members of the Arbor Day Foundation's Evergreen Alliance, International Paper is championing the Time for Trees initiative, a commitment to plant 100 million trees in forests and communities worldwide by 2022. The initiative leverages trees as a simple, natural climate solution, improves community resilience and helps preserve clean air and water, healthy food and a livable climate. International Paper has also committed to planting 46,000 trees through the Arbor Day Foundation's Community Tree Recovery program – a public and private partnership aimed at distributing free trees to residents in communities affected by natural disaster. International Paper's support of this program also promotes community resilience, a focus of their community engagement strategy. Click Read More bellow for additional information.

Mondi Group, a global leader in packaging and paper has today released its 2018 reporting suite Sustainable Packaging and Paper by Design, including its full Sustainable Development report and Integrated report and financial statements. The Sustainable Development report shows positive progress on climate change achieved through the introduction of biomass and recovery boilers in Mondi’s mills leading to 100% electricity self-sufficiency, with 64% of fuel from renewable sources. In total, there has been a 14.5% reduction in specific CO2e emissions against the 2014 commitment baseline, continuing the positive trend which shows a 38% reduction since 2004.

The Navigator Company and National Geographic have taken an important step towards protecting the environment by replacing the plastic bags used to encase their magazines with sustainable paper envelopes. Around 150,000 plastic bags were used per year but as of this month, this is set to change. For the first time in Portugal, the magazine will reach its subscribers in a more ecological and environmentally-friendly form, made from The Navigator Company paper.

Employees from DS Smith’s Kemsley Mill in Sittingbourne recently joined Swale Borough Council Park Rangers to clear litter and waste from parkland around the Kemsley site. The clean-up, which was initiated by the Kemsley Charity and Communities Committee on the 4th April, saw a total of 20 volunteers come together to clean the site as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean, which runs from 22nd March to 23rd April.

On April 22nd, we celebrated Earth Day. This annual event started back in the 1970s and has made a positive impact on the environment. Earth Day has catapulted public awareness of the environment and action to commit to sustainability that has led to important legislation that can help the planet’s resources sustains for generations to come.

Global packaging leader Smurfit Kappa is investing in a series of upgrades to its flagship kraftliner mill in Piteå, Sweden. The project will focus on increasing the sustainability and efficiency of both its cooking plant and recovery boiler. Other developments planned for the mill include the installation of high-spec purification filters and an advanced combustion system. The work will be carried out during a planned 15-day closure of the mill next month.

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’re kicking off Earth Week 2019 on April 22, which is International Earth Day. While we incorporate sustainability into all parts of our business every day, we are excited to have a whole week dedicated to enhancing nature’s gifts and improving life in our communities. Colleagues and, at many sites, their family members and friends will raise sustainability awareness through volunteering, learning and playing in the world around us.

Sustainability is the new workplace standard: A global, 20,000-participant survey released by HP found that 61 percent of workers believe sustainability is mandatory for businesses. It also found that employees are more productive, motivated and engaged when working for an employer who is leading the charge in social responsibility.

Earth Day is April 22, 2019, and to celebrate, we are sharing some environmental highlights from our businesses. Air, land, and water are areas where the JDI team works every day to reduce our environmental footprint.

Beer doesn’t grow on trees, but one brewer wants you to appreciate them anyway. Just in time for Earth Day, Busch and the National Forest Foundation (NFF) have published a book about America’s trees. The hard-cover coffee table book, made of recycled paper, showcases about two dozen trees in an effort to raise money for conservation efforts and get people adventuring in the great outdoors. The book, “Rooted in Love,” goes on sale today for $20 and will be available through the end of April. All proceeds go directly to the NFF, which helps conserve approximately 200 million acres of forests.

As spring arrives in Geneva, forests are coming back to life and animals are enjoying the first warm days, we hear from Julian Rad, a runner up in our 2018 ‘Experience Forests, Experience PEFC’ photo contest. Julian tells us about his photo ‘Sniffling’ and why forests and wild animals are his favorite photo motives.

The SFI Annual Conference brings together thought leaders and influencers from the forest products industry, conservation and community partners, tribal and Indigenous leaders as well as some of the most engaged forest product customers in North America. This year’s conference will discuss topics of relevance to the American, Canadian and International forest sectors, so mark your calendars and come to the 2019 SFI Annual Conference and please bring a customer or a friend. Check back soon for conference updates.

The 22nd of April marks Earth Day – the world’s largest environmental movement. Earth Day is an annual event that takes place globally to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Commenced in 1970, the event’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. Here at Two Sides, we are celebrating the event by sharing some positive environmental facts from the world of print and paper and encourage you to join us too. We have plenty of informative resources and shareable content for you to download and share. Use the #EarthDay hashtag in your social media posts to help raise awareness to this global event. We have even got some Twitter friendly videos ready for you to share! Click Read More bellow for additional information.

For the first time, FSC certification is now an option for National Forests, after the final approval in March 2019 of the supplementary requirements to the FSC US Forest Management Standard. These requirements have been incorporated into an updated version of the Standard which is available on the FSC US web site. Should a National Forest choose to pursue FSC certification, the process would apply both the regular FSC Forest Management Standard and the newly approved supplementary requirements. These additional requirements recognize the unique role of National Forests in the United States, holding forest management on these lands to a higher level of expectations. Click Read More bellow for additional information.

“Biomass” isn't a word most people know. But this renewable, cost effective fuel is becoming increasingly important to our planet. It helps reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and curtail the demand for purchased electricity while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. What is biomass? It's fuel from organic materials. The woody biomass GP uses comes mainly from tree waste, such as bark, wood residues and by-products from pulping wood fiber. And it makes up more than 50 percent of the energy we use to run our plants and mills. As whole trees come into sites such as our Alabama River Cellulose (ARC) facility near Monroeville, Alabama, bark is removed from logs before they go into the chipper. The dissolved lignin (black liquor) is later removed leaving behind the cellulose fibers. The bark and the black liquor are then used as biomass fuel. Click Read More bellow for additional information.

Two Sides North America has released an engaging new infographic that illustrates why 118 North American companies and over 360 companies globally have removed ‘go green – go paperless’ and similar environmental claims. Greenwashing is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as, “to make people believe that your company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is.” The new infographic counters greenwashing claims and provides fact-based information to bust myths about misleading sustainability claims around paper use and production. More companies, including many of the Fortune 500, are thinking twice about their environmental marketing claims to promote electronic communications over paper. Click Read More bellow for additional information.

Walmart announced today that its suppliers have reported avoiding 3.46 million metric tons (CO2e) of greenhouse gas emissions in the Chinese value chain as part of Project Gigaton China. This is equivalent to the emissions associated with the average annual electricity consumption of over 3 million Chinese households and marks a strong year one result for Project Gigaton China, which Walmart launched one year ago with the aim of preventing 50 million metric tons of emissions in the Chinese value chain alone. It is part of Walmart's global Project Gigaton commitment to work with its suppliers to cut 1 billion metric tons (CO2e) – a gigaton – of greenhouse gas emissions from the global value chain of upstream suppliers and downstream consumers by 2030. Click Read More bellow for additional information.

Smurfit Kappa has joined forces with the Plastic Soup Foundation to stress the growing need for sustainable packaging. The Plastic Soup Foundation is a Dutch organisation which campaigns for an end to the pollution of the world’s oceans. The term ‘plastic soup’, which first became popular in the late 1990s, refers to the pollution of the oceans by plastic including large pieces and tiny micro-plastic and nano-plastic particles, both floating and sunken. A strong synergy exists between the Plastic Soup Foundation’s mission to stop the plastic soup at the source and Smurfit Kappa’s Better Planet Packaging initiative which aims to address the challenge of packaging waste and litter that ends up in oceans and landfill. Click Read More below for additional detail.

U.S. Representative Bruce Westerman (R-AR) holds a Master’s Degree in Forestry from Yale University and understands better than most that a healthy and sustainably managed forest is not a partisan issue. The use of forest products by society drives a healthy market as well as the incentive for forest owners to manage their forests sustainably. In other words, wood product use, paired with a commitment to recycling and sustainable forest management, including replanting many more trees than we use (standard practice in North America), will result in healthy, vibrant forests. Read the details of Representative Westerman’s story about sustainable forestry, economics, family forests, and forestry jobs in Arkansas and how by working together it makes for healthy forests. https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/434083-the-best-way-to-preserve-forests-use-trees?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Cascades Inc. announced that it is extending its transportation electrification program to all its employees in Ontario . In addition to its 4,400 Quebec -based employees, the Company will now offer its 2,200 employees in Ontario access to the program that encourages individuals to transition from gas to electric or hybrid vehicles. To support its employees to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, the company will also install 30 new 240-volt charging stations at its Ontario facilities, extending the network of the 80 that have already been installed in Québec. It will also provide a financial contribution of up to $2,000 for each employee who purchases an electric vehicle. This is in addition to any government grants that may be in effect. The announcement was made at the Company's Ottawa sorting centre, in anticipation of Earth Day, and in the presence of the environmental leader Dr. David Suzuki and students representing Ontario EcoSchools. Click Read More below for additional detail.

UPM’s new biodiversity target is one of the company’s responsibility targets for 2030. The aim is to preserve biodiversity alongside modern forestry. “We want to preserve and improve the biodiversity in UPM’s own forests in Finland. With this target and through our actions, we seek to open up new opportunities for different land use practises that promote the preservation of natural resources or habitats”, says Timo Lehesvirta, Sustainable Forestry Lead, Forest Global, UPM. UPM has carried out its biodiversity protection programme in the company’s forests for over 20 years. Thanks to the programme, the ratios of tree species have diversified and the amount of deadwood, which is valuable to many forest species, is increasing. Natural variation in forests has been improved through thickets for game, by protecting valuable habitats and buffer zones next to water, and by leaving retention trees and tree groups on harvesting sites. Some species are specialised to grow in conditions that differ from the surrounding forest environment. There are 45,000 protected habitats in UPM forests, and the programme protects all of them. Click Read More below for additional detail.

At its 2019 sustainability milestone summit, Walmart announced that for the first time, checkout carousels at its U.S. stores will include reusable bags that will be available to customers for purchase. The aim of this new campaign is to help reduce plastic waste and increase customer convenience by placing reusable bags in easy to find and highly frequented sections of its stores. As part of the launch, Walmart is rolling out a new assortment of reusable bags that are made with post-consumer recycled content. The new reusable bag initiative will begin rolling out to stores next month and follows a recent announcement by Walmart on a series of plastic waste reduction goals that seek to advance the sustainability of the retailer’s private brand packaging by making it 100 percent recyclable, reusable or industrially compostable by 2025. This year’s milestone summit also featured announcements and updates on several other sustainability initiatives. For example, the event marks the two-year anniversary of Project Gigaton, a platform in which Walmart is working with suppliers to avoid 1 billion metric tons, a gigaton, of emissions from global value chains by 2030. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Kohl’s announced that it has received the 2019 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award for continued leadership and superior contributions to ENERGY STAR. Kohl’s accomplishments will be recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on April 11, 2019. “Kohl’s is proud to receive the 2019 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award,” said Steve Thomas, Kohl’s chief risk and compliance officer. “Our work with ENERGY STAR is just one of the ways we are championing sustainability efforts that reinforce the healthy lifestyle we hope to inspire in our customers. In partnership with ENERGY STAR, Kohl’s continues to evaluate our energy footprint across the country to increase operational efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint." Click Read More below for additional detail.

With Earth Day just around the corner, Cascades invites media representatives to its material recovery facility in Ottawa for a discussion about recovery, recycling, circular economy and environment in the presence of Mario Plourde , President and Chief Executive Officer at Cascades, Dr. David Suzuki , reknown environmentalist, and a group of students involved in the Ontario EcoSchools network. This discussion will be moderated by columnist and animator Frédéric Choinière, well versed in environmental issues. Mario Plourde will also take this opportunity to make a special announcement about a new sustainability initiative that the company will deploy in Ontario. The event will conclude with a tour of the sorting facility to demonstrate the circular path followed by paper and paperboard products after collection in the recovery bin.

Today, Amazon.com announced three new renewable energy projects as part of its long-term goal to power all Amazon Web Services (AWS) global infrastructure with renewable energy. These projects – one in Ireland, one in Sweden, and one in the United States – will deliver wind-generated energy that will total over 229 megawatts (MW) of power, with expected generation of over 670,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy annually. The new projects are part of AWS’s long-term commitment to achieve 100 percent renewable energy for its global infrastructure. In 2018, AWS exceeded 50 percent renewable energy for its global infrastructure. For more information, go to https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/sustainability/. Once complete, these projects, combined with AWS’s previous nine renewable energy projects, are expected to generate more than 2,700,000 MWh of renewable energy annually – equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of over 262,000 US homes, which is approximately the size of the city of Nashville, Tennessee. Click Read More below for additional detail.

BillerudKorsnäs’ annual and sustainability report for 2018 is now available in pdf at www.billerudkorsnas.com/investors and is attached to this press release. A digital short version of the report, which is also designed for smartphone and tablet, can be found at https://billerudkorsnas.com/investors/highlights-2018. The printed version of the annual and sustainability report will soon be distributed to shareholders and other stakeholders who have requested to receive it. The printed version of the report can also be ordered via ir@billerudkorsnas.com.

We couldn’t have paper and building products without forests. We rely on forests as a company and even more as a community. GP recognizes that forests are beneficial for more than just products that provide financial gain. They also give us clean air, clean water and a place to get away from the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. Responsible and sustainable forest management must be a top priority for companies like us. At GP, we believe there are some forests that should be protected because of their unique or rare qualities. We have a forest mapping program to identify and protect these endangered forest (EF) areas. It starts with a GIS (geographic information system) process designed for GP by the University of Georgia in its Natural Resources Spacial Analysis Lab. Data sets for the forests in our wood procurement basins are gathered and matched against a set of 12 predetermined criteria that are characteristic of endangered forest areas. These data sets are scored, and the scores determine which forests are considered endangered. Click Read More below for additional detail.

American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Donna Harman issued the following statement regarding the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision to approve the Human Health Water Quality Criteria for the state of Idaho. EPA Regional Administrator Chris Hladick approved the criteria on April 4. “We applaud EPA’s decision to approve Idaho’s water quality criteria – action that underscores recognition of and respect for Idaho’s consistent application of stringent and conservative criteria to protect all its waters. States with scientifically-based records of environmental stewardship should serve as an example for others and not be subject to federal decisions that ignore the facts on the ground and the primary role for states in implementing the Clean Water Act.”

In celebration of National Wildlife Week, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is announcing it has received a significant and generous donation. J.D. Irving, Limited has donated $1 million to NCC’s national Landmark Campaign. The gift will allow NCC to conserve more habitat for wildlife, complete conservation science and research projects, as well as fund student internships and volunteer programs. “On behalf of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, I would like to express our gratitude to J.D. Irving, Limited for this outstanding contribution,” said John Lounds, President and CEO of the Nature Conservancy of Canada. “I would also like to thank Jim Irving for his leadership for 17 years on NCC’s national fundraising campaigns, past and present. This donation will help NCC protect more habitat and at-risk species, connect more Canadians to nature, and inspire the next generation of conservation leaders.” Click Read More below for additional detail.

The European Parliament has approved a ban on disposable plastic products, bringing the ban one step closer to reality. The ban would affect a wide range of products that have alternatives, such as straws and cutlery. The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly in support of a wide-ranging ban on single-use plastics to counter pollution from the discarded items in waterways and fields. The Parliament backed the ban 560-35. EU member states have given their support but need to vote on the measure for it to go into effect. The ban would be implemented from 2021 and would affect a range of plastic products that have reasonable alternatives, such as plastic cutlery, foam takeout food containers, straws and drink stirrers. Click Read More below for additional detail.

By giving economic value to forests, we can enhance our sustainability efforts as well as our business. That was Domtar CEO John D. Williams’ message at a New York University Stern School of Business event in March. NYU’s Center for Sustainable Business hosted leading academics, investors, corporate sustainability executives and nonprofit leaders to discuss how companies assess sustainability ROI (return on investment). “If we don’t have sustainable forests, we have no business,” Williams says. Domtar recognized this years ago, and we were early adopters of sustainability standards and third-party certification. At the event, Emily Chasan, sustainable finance editor at Bloomberg News, asked Williams several questions about how companies can identify, track and monetize sustainability returns driven by innovation, operational efficiency, employee engagement, brand enhancement and risk mitigation, and how those efforts can lead to better decision-making by the C-suite and investors. Click Read More below for additional detail.

For years, through the voice of actor Sam Elliott, Smokey Bear only said five words: “Only you can prevent wildfires,” but the iconic spokes-bear is receiving help from celebrities to expand his fire safety and wildfire prevention message. An new PSA campaign, developed with the U.S. Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, the Ad Council, and Interpublic’s FCB, is introducing ads that incorporate the voices of celebrities Stephen Colbert, Al Roker and Jeff Foxworthy with the CGI-animated Smokey to further address fire dangers like burning yard debris. Foxworthy, to that end, riffs on his famous "you might be a redneck" joke, Roker mentions his well-known catchphrase "your neck of the woods," while Colbert plays off his last name—“Col-Bear.” Click Read More below for additional detail.

Did you know that a set of stickers attached to a magazine can cause trouble in the recycling process of the paper? UPM businesses joined forces in developing a new adhesive that allows paper labels to become high-quality paper again after being recycled. Sticker attachments have recently seen a rise in popularity. However, the glues used in stickers have caused problems in the paper recycling process. The problem is not a new one but has become more notable as the quantity of sticker material attached to printed products has increased. Enhancing recyclability was a key target when UPM Raflatac, UPM Communication Papers and UPM’s Central European Research Centre joined forces. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Environment Minister Margaret Miller released her decision today, March 29, on the environmental assessment of Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent treatment plant. The minister’s decision is to require the company to submit a focus report that provides more information. “We make our decisions based on science and evidence” said Ms. Miller. “In this case, I require more information to determine the impacts on the environment.” Through the environmental assessment process, the department received comments from government reviewers and more than 900 submissions from the public. The decision and the comments are available at https://novascotia.ca/nse/ea/Replacement_Effluent_Treatment_Facility_Project/. By April 24, the department will give Northern Pulp terms of reference for the focus report and post them on the department website. The company has up to one year from that date to submit the report. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Holmen has taken a new step in its sustainable strategy work. Holmen’s largest forest holdings are located in northern Sweden, while much of its industrial production takes place in the south. To secure its wood supply and add value to its own forest, Holmen is now going to be transporting its wood south on trains from Green Cargo. “With the planned capacity increase at Braviken Sawmill, we’re keen to establish a reliable and constant supply of wood for our own mills while at the same time increase the value of our forest. We’re pleased to be able to use trains to transport wood from our forests in the north to our mills in the south in an environmentally and economically sustainable way,” says Sören Petersson, Senior Vice President Forest. Click Read More below for additional detail.

India has become the latest country to achieve the PEFC endorsement of its national forest certification system. “PEFC endorsement is a landmark achievement for India, as we have long felt the need for such a country specific and internationally benchmarked forest certification system,” said Vijai Sharma, Chairman of The Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF), our national member for India. “Our newly endorsed national system will allow Indian forest managers to further strengthen their sustainable forest management practices, in line with global standards and multilateral requirements.” NCCF joined the PEFC alliance in 2015 and submitted the national system to PEFC for endorsement in 2017. The system was developed through a multi-stakeholder group including forestry professionals, representatives from government, forest corporations, conservation organisations and industry bodies. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Resolute’s Hialeah tissue mill recently received its EcoLogo certification after completing a comprehensive audit process last December. Products bearing the EcoLogo designation are certified for their reduced impact on the environment. The certification also provides assurance to our customers that our products are produced responsibly. EcoLogo is the world’s second oldest environmental standard and certification organization, and the only North American standard approved by the Global Ecolabeling Network as meeting the international ISO 14024 standard for environmental labels. EcoLogo certification is voluntary, and demonstrates that a product has undergone rigorous scientific testing and exhaustive auditing. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Two Sides North America recently released a fact sheet outlining key facts and figures about the environmental sustainability of the North American pulp and paper industry. The information was compiled from over twenty different reports, studies, and sources. Below are some of the highlights of the fact sheet: Forest area is stable to growing in North America. The key causes of deforestation are not forestry, but rather agriculture, urbanization, hydro and other industrial development (ex: oil and gas). Sustainable forestry practices, either voluntarily or through regulation, ensure that the majority of harvested areas are replanted to regenerate forests. Nearly half of the globally certified forests are located in North America. Forest certification based on standards such as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council, promotes strong forest management practices which result in economically viable, ecologically sound, and socially just outcomes. Many companies in North America comply with these standards and the forest area certified increases annually. Click Read More below for additional detail.

From the beginning of 2019 approximately one third of the nutrients used by UPM Kaukas mill integrate’s biological wastewater treatment plant has been replaced by Kekkilä Recycling Joutseno composting plant’s side stream: reject water rich in nitrogen. The co-operation is another exciting step towards the 2030 target of using only recycled nutrients for wastewater treatment at all UPM sites around the world. Using recycled nutrients is the third commitment UPM has made to the Baltic Sea Action Group, an organisation devoted to protecting the Baltic Sea. UPM Kaukas uses all the nutrients available at the Joutseno composting plant replacing around 4,5 tonnes of nitrogen each month. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Earlier this month, more than 4,700 government officials and business leaders from around the globe gathered for the fourth UN Environment Assembly, to align on decisions regarding its 2030 agenda. While the focus was on solutions for achieving sustainable consumption and production (UN SDG of Responsible consumption and production), a 2018 ScienceDirect study interestingly points to the importance of forests in contributing to the achievement of other SDGs, concluding that “forests and the services they provide are critical to [all other] SDGs and can advance multiple goals simultaneously”. The United Nations proclaimed March 21st the International Day of Forests, with 2019’s theme as Forests and Education. With deforestation being a notable contributor to global warming (responsible for roughly 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions) protecting forests is crucial to lessening the impacts of climate change and to maintaining “healthy, resilient communities and prosperous economies”. Mining the “urban forest” is key to Rolland’s success in limiting our impact on world forests, and central to our three-pillar 2019 Sustainability Strategy of protecting the planet, while supporting people and optimizing our products: Click Read More below for additional detail.

In Finland, there is more forest than ever and forests are growing faster than ever. Despite this, due to climate change, one of the hottest topics in recent months has been preserving forests as carbon sinks through harvesting restrictions. The discussion has become stuck on the smaller details of different scenarios. People tend to forget the big picture. The big picture is that since the emergence of climate awareness, the entirety of Finland’s forests have already been harvested once. In 1990, when climate reporting began, Finnish forests contained 1.9 billion cubic metres of wood, and the same amount was harvested between 1990 and 2017. However, the forests now contain a record 2.5 billion cubic metres of wood. The forests’ increasing growth can mainly be attributed to good forest management. This, in short, means sensible harvesting, without neglecting the importance of ditching and fertilisation. Click Read More below for additional detail.

UPM continues its long-standing co-operation with the Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG) to prevent eutrophication in the Baltic Sea and in Finnish waters. "Preventing eutrophication requires collaboration between various parties. We are able to utilise nutritious sidestreams from other operators at our biological treatment plants. This way, we can replace nutrients essential to industrial treatment plants and reduce the amount of nutrients ending up into waters at a local level", explains Eerik Ojala, Director, Responsibility, Production support. In 2016, UPM set a responsibility target to use only recycled nutrients at its wastewater treatment plants by 2030. "So far, our work has progressed well: in 2018, already 22 per cent of all nutrients used by us were recycled. In other words, we are utilising nutritious sidestreams from other local operators in our operations", Eerik Ojala clarifies. Click Read More below for additional detail.

As a producer of metal packaging, Crown Bevcan Europe & Middle East is acutely aware of its responsibility to ensure as much of its product remains within the circular economy as possible. In the U.K., for example, some nine billion canned drinks are consumed each year – 30% of which are enjoyed on-the-go. However, only 42% of local authorities provide recycling bins in public spaces – a figure that Crown is committed to help increase.

As a major producer of beverage cans for the U.K. market, Crown is dedicated to ensuring it facilitates and encourages the recycling of as much of that packaging as possible. In addition to supporting a wide range of initiatives – such as the Every Can Counts programme and the Metal Recycles Forever mark – Crown purchases Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs) to comply with U.K. packaging waste regulations, the proceeds going towards the recycling infrastructure. Crown recently partnered with Ecosurety to support the “Leeds by Example” initiative in Leeds, U.K., run by the environmental behaviour change charity, Hubbub. The organization’s research showed that the city did not provide on-the-go recycling options for food and beverage packaging. As a consequence, the amount of food and drink packaging placed into general waste bins on the streets of Leeds city centre could fill a 20-foot shipping container every three days. Click Read More below for additional detail.

This World Water Day we wanted to share the efforts of J.D. Irving, Limited to conserve and protect the water that is home to many different species. Throughout our woodlands we have over 27,000 KM (almost 17,000 miles) of protective buffers around lakes and rivers. This is in addition to many conservation efforts with universities and environmental groups. Working with Nature Conservancy of Canada the Tusket River Headwaters have been protected as one of the largest private conservation projects ever in Atlantic Canada. Since then, JDI has worked with local stakeholders and partners to manage and steward this site. Click Read More below for additional detail.

In line with United Nations'World Water Day 2019 theme, "leaving no one behind," Kimberly-Clark is pursuing a global initiative to help communities develop sustainable water management plans for watersheds at risk, using an innovative, web-based analytical tool. The maker of trusted brands including Huggies, Cottonelle and Kotex has partnered with Deltares, an independent institute for applied research in the field of water, to develop WaterLOUPE, a dashboard which visualizes water scarcity risks for an entire watershed as well as specific sectors and sub-groups, such as industrial users, farmers and households. Kimberly-Clark is using the dashboard to raise stakeholder awareness of local water risks and to encourage collaboration between government, business, communities and NGOs to preserve freshwater resources. Click Read More below for additional detail.

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) announced 15 community grants today featuring collaboration between 78 partner organizations. The grants will help communities across the United States and Canada grow their relationship with forests and improve their quality of life. Through these grants, SFI is bringing together a diverse range of organizations to engage and educate youth; train and educate current and future practitioners; support and promote Indigenous, Tribal and Heritage values; and support underserved communities through forestry. Grant project leaders include conservation organizations, environmental education providers, forest-sector non-profit organizations and community and Indigenous groups. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Leading British recycler calls on government to prioritise immediate action as recycling gap threatens to impact UK homes. DS Smith, a leading international packaging provider, has today published new research, in conjunction with Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, showing that the UK will fall short of its 2035 recycling targets by more than a decade1. The Tipping Point report outlines new consumer behaviours which are compounding the recycling challenges the UK is facing, including the rapid adoption of e-commerce and therefore the exponential growth in the delivery of packages. The UK is now the third largest B2C e-commerce market in the world, with around 18% of all retail sales in the UK now made online2. The reality is that 1.9 billion parcels – and the corresponding required packaging – are currently delivered directly to doors across the UK annually3. Within 10 years the number of parcels will have grown by over 50%4. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Each year on March 21, we celebrate the International Day of Forests to raise awareness of the importance of sustainably managed forests. You’ve probably heard many common myths about the pulp and paper industry’s effect on forests, but the truth is that sustainable forestry practices are instrumental (not detrimental) to the health and vitality of our precious forest resources. At Domtar, we understand that the more valuable trees become, the more our environment and the forestry industry will flourish. That’s why our commitment to sustainably managed forests has never been stronger. We help ensure continued viability of the forestry industry for decades to come. Thanks to innovations we’re developing every day, we believe there’s more potential than ever for trees to change the world by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and the amount of harmful plastics getting into landfills and oceans. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Humanity is more aware than ever of its own impacts on the environment, given increased exposure to information in a modern media landscape. The most recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) numbers revealed that Americans produce over four pounds of trash per day, per person. Increasingly, consumers are concerned with living more mindfully and sustainably where possible. As evidenced in a 2018 report by Nielsen, 81 per cent of global consumers surveyed feel strongly that companies should help improve the environment. With media reports attesting to the impact of synthetic materials on our planet (for example with the growing Great Pacific Garbage Patch), consumers have expressed concern with the overuse of synthetics in our day to day lives. Many businesses globally have pledged to lessen their environmental impact by reducing the use of non-renewable materials in their products, including companies like Samsung, Wal Mart, and Ikea. Click Read More below for additional detail.

SCA’s positive trend with increasingly less damage to ancient and cultural remains has continued. The target is zero damage to remains during site preparation and final harvesting operations. “We are moving steadily towards our zero-damage target,” says Anna Cabrajic, forest ecologist at SCA. In 2016, SCA launched an action plan with the goal that no known or registered archaeological or cultural remains would be damaged by forestry operations. The most serious damage is caused by driving over remains during soil scarification and final harvesting operations. In 2018, the total rate of damage was 10.7%, of which 4.8% was caused by site preparation operations. In 2017, the corresponding figures were 23% and 10%, respectively. Click Read More below for additional detail.

DS Smith, the leading provider of sustainable packaging solutions, and energy provider E.ON have today announced the signing of a major agreement to construct a state-of-the-art combined heat and power (CHP) facility at Kemsley Paper Mill in Kent. The facility will replace the existing CHP and extend E.ON’s partnership at the site with DS Smith for the next 20 years. The facility has been specifically designed to set the standards in efficiency, sustainability and reliability. The new plant will enable a carbon reduction of 36,000 tonnes per year. This is the equivalent of 30,000 medium-sized cars driving over 6000 miles1 a year. Once complete, it will have an electrical capacity of c75MW, generating steam and power for DS Smith’s production processes at its flagship Kemsley Mill site. Click Read More below for additional detail.

On 14th of March, Mondi confirmed its four ambitious commitments as part of its efforts to eliminate plastics waste and thereby contribute to a better world. Mondi first started collaborating with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2017, and joined the New Plastics Economy initiative in 2018 to work towards eliminating plastic pollution and creating 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic packaging by 2025. Peter Oswald, said: “We believe all packaging must be ‘fit for purpose’: paper where possible, plastic when useful. Paper is the packaging material of choice as it is naturally compostable and a renewable resource, not just recyclable. Mondi, as the world’s leading producer of kraft paper and paper bags, has many innovative solutions to reduce plastic waste." Click Read More below for additional detail.

Stora Enso has joined the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment to eliminate plastic waste and pollution at the source. The Global Commitment and its vision for a circular economy for plastic is led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in collaboration with UN Environment. For Stora Enso, signing the commitment is another step to combat the global problem of plastic pollution by providing renewable alternatives. Stora Enso will contribute by cooperating with customers and suppliers to develop circular and low carbon solutions to replace plastic packaging. The materials are based on wood fibres from sustainably managed forests and plantations. This commitment is an example of the increasing demand for alternatives to plastic, also demonstrated by the EU’s recent policy on single-use plastics. Click Read More below for additional detail.

UPM Raflatac is proud to announce the ambitious commitments it is making to reduce unnecessary plastic packaging as a signatory to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. UPM Raflatac is the only label supplier among the more than 350 organisations announcing commitments, which include many of the world's largest packaging producers, brands, retailers, recyclers, governments and NGOs. "As the world's most sustainable labeling company and a packaging solutions provider, we know collaboration for sustainability is critical. That is why we joined with other leaders in signing the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastics Economy Global Commitment," says Robert Taylor, Sustainability Director, UPM Raflatac. "This is one of the most important steps we have taken as a company to develop more circular solutions for plastic packaging." Click Read More below for additional detail.

TC Transcontinental takes a bold step in becoming the first Canadian-based manufacturer to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. TC Transcontinental is pledging, by 2025, for 100% of its plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable and to achieve a 10% use of post-consumer recycled content on average by weight across all plastics in its product basket. Additionally, the Corporation commits to collaborating towards increasing reuse, recycling and composting rates for plastic in the communities where it operates. Ever since TC Transcontinental adopted its first environmental policy in 1993, the Corporation has demonstrated proven leadership in conducting its business responsibly. Throughout its transformation and steadfast growth in packaging, TC Transcontinental remains driven by its unwavering commitment towards sustainability. Click Read More below for additional detail.

SCS Global Services (SCS) is pleased to announce that it is now offering chain of custody certification to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Chain of Custody Standard. SFI is a leading, credible certification in North America for responsible forest products. This new service offering leverages SCS as a one-stop shop for the wood and paper industries, providing clients with increased efficiency for dual and triple chain of custody certification to the major three forest sustainability standards. SCS is also currently undergoing accreditation for, and will soon be offering certification services for SFI Forest Management and SFI Fiber Sourcing Standards. “SFI is pleased that SCS Global Services is now an accredited certification body that can deliver certification to the SFI Chain of Custody Standard. We appreciate SCS’ commitment to our efforts to promote the value of sustainably managed forests across the U.S. and Canada,” said Kathy Abusow, President and CEO of SFI. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Auditors from around Southeast Asia are invited to join our Chain of Custody auditor training session, with a special focus on the Due Diligence System (DDS) for sourcing from smallholders. The training takes place in Yangon, Myanmar, 2-3 May, with an optional field trip and demonstration audit on 4 May. Sign up now! The training costs USD350/person for all three days (including field trip). This includes lunch and training material. The training will be in English. You will receive a certificate of attendance after successful completion of the course. Register for the training! Registration deadline is 25 April 2019. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Those figures get worse for millennials – the demographic driving the boom in food delivery ­– with 66% of 18-24 year olds not realising that food packaging tainted with food or an excess of grease can’t be put into the recycling bin (against 34% who knew). Considering that Domino’s sold over half a million pizzas in just one night last December, that’s potentially a lot of cardboard that cannot be recycled. According to the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI), empty pizza boxes are fully recyclable, as long as there are no food residues. They add that if more than 50% of the packaging is heavily stained, it may be better suited for other options. Similarly, The Recycling Association say that official guidelines allows stained pizza boxes to be collected and recycled via the municipal waste stream, but food particles are not permissible. To help the problem, Deliveroo have produced 100,000 biodegradable greaseproof paper inserts for the pizza restaurants that use its service. These inserts will catch any food left from the pizza and prevent excess amounts of grease soaking into the base of the box. Click Read More below for additional detail.

The latest results from the off-road vehicle test carried out at Vuosaari Harbour, Helsinki, confirm that renewable UPM BioVerno diesel reduces tailpipe emissions. The test in the Vuosaari Harbour focused on measuring the tailpipe emissions of a Volvo wheel loader. Both the nitrogen oxide and particle emissions were around 10% less when compared to a fossil reference fuel. "The average load of the wheel loader during the test was low. Heavier load would have produced more particles, and there would probably have been greater reduction in particle emissions while using the renewable diesel," estimates Nils-Olof Nylund, Senior Advisor at VTT, the VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland. Click read more below for additional detail.

Last week, both Premier Stephen McNeil and Progressive Conservative leader Tim Houston had an opportunity to debate the future of the forestry sector. Lacking in the conversation was discussion regarding providing Northern Pulp with a short extension to complete its new wastewater treatment facility. “It needs to be said: without Northern Pulp there can be no plan B that does not include massive job losses,” states Jean Francois Guillot, Vice President Operations East with Paper Excellence Canada, owner of Northern Pulp. “The forestry sector’s future was discussed in the legislature last week, but no one discussed a short extension for our wastewater treatment facility.” “Without a short extension, we will be forced by the government to cease operating and that will cost jobs throughout rural Nova Scotia.” Northern Pulp’s new wastewater treatment facility will ensure no untreated wastewater ever leaves the site and will then continue our practice of releasing treated wastewater into the Northumberland Strait. Click read more below for additional detail.

With 26 power-generating dams over its length, the Wisconsin River lives up to its billing as one of America’s hardest working rivers. However, there is growing concern about algal growth — specifically green and blue-green algae — in Wisconsin’s waterways. Much of the algal growth is attributed to high nutrient levels in the water. The vast majority of these nutrients come from nonpoint sources, such as fertilizer runoff from agriculture and contamination from developed urban areas, that eventually reach the river. This is the opposite of a point source, such as our Nekoosa Mill, which returns effluent (or treated wastewater) into the river via a large pipe. While the regulatory path to control nonpoint sources is unclear, Wisconsin has strict regulations that apply to point sources. As concern over algal growth increases, the state has proposed a requirement for point sources to reduce phosphorous levels in effluent by 80 percent or more. That is where our ‘bugs’ come in. Click read more below for additional detail.

This spring, UPM will begin a transplantation project of rare and threatened wood-inhabiting fungi in co-operation with Natural Resources Institute Finland and the University of Helsinki. The aim of the project is to accelerate the reintroduction of species inhabiting deadwood to forests by planting these fungi to deadwood concentrations in the company forests. The project advances UPM's target to improve the biodiversity of the company forests in Finland. Increasing deadwood is a key method for achieving this target. "This is a completely new and a globally unique way to protect biodiversity", says Timo Lehesvirta, Sustainable Forestry Lead at UPM. Volume of decaying wood is the biggest difference affecting to forest species between sites reserved for wood production and natural forests. A quarter, i.e. approximately 5000, of forest species in Finland live on deadwood. Most of them are fungi and insect species. "The mycelia of fungi are grown in petri dishes. The mycelia are transplanted onto wooden pegs planted during the growing season to naturally developed deadwood and to deadwood made for the project", says Timo Lehesvirta. Click read more below for additional detail.

The boiler at the heart of Georgia‐Pacific's Broadway mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin, arrived by barge on the banks of the Fox River more than four years ago. Designed to replace the company's largest coal‐fired unit, the new natural‐gas boiler has dramatically reduced emissions from the manufacturing process, and the surrounding community and environment are seeing the benefits. Sulfur dioxide, or SO2, is a natural byproduct of burning coal, which was needed to produce energy in making everyday household products such as Angel Soft® tissue, Quilted Northern® tissue, and Sparkle® paper towels. Cross‐discipline teams from operations, engineering, environmental, safety, and procurement working together at GP facilities across the country have driven a collective 59 percent reduction in SO2 emissions (nearly 30,000 tons) over the last 5 years, with goals for more reductions. Click read more below for additional detail.

Was timber a key material in one of your construction projects? Did you choose wood for its many aesthetic, natural and architectural properties, or simply because it is the only renewable building material? If yes, you can enter your project for a World Architecture Festival prize! For the second time, PEFC is sponsoring the WAF Best Use of Certified Timber Prize, rewarding architects and project teams for their use of certified timber as a main construction material for buildings outstanding in sustainability, innovation, quality or aesthetics. “We sponsored the prize for the first time last year and were very pleased with the quality and diversity of the entries,” said Fabienne Sinclair, Head of Marketing at PEFC International. “We are excited to see what projects will be submitted this year.” Click read more below for additional detail.

Keep Me Posted (KMP) is a global advocacy campaign working for the right of every consumer to choose, free of charge, how they receive important information from their service providers – on paper or electronically. Overseen by Two Sides North America, the KMP North America campaign will focus on educating and challenging corporations that are removing consumer choice and charging fees for paper. KMP has continued to grow its partnerships with consumer groups in both the United States and Canada. Partners include a diverse set of advocacy groups including the Coalition for Paper Options, Consumer Action, Haven Neighborhood Services, Montana Organizing Project, National Consumers League, Public Interest Advocacy Centre, and The National Grange. The coalition will work to protect the consumer’s right to choose between paper and digital communications. Click read more below for additional detail.

An investigation by Two Sides has found over 40% of local councils to be using unsubstantiated and misleading environmental claims about printed communication. Following an increasing number of individual “Greenwash” cases involving local councils being reported to Two Sides, an investigation was undertaken to identify the scale of misleading claims made by local government. An analysis of a random sample of 100 local councils found 42 to be making unsubstantiated claims about printed communication being bad for the environment. Misleading statements are being used by many of the UK’s largest councils: •“The paperless billing system… is better for the environment and saves money on postage and paper.” Birmingham City Council (1,137,100 residents) •“E-Billing is the fast, efficient, environmentally friendly way to receive your bills.” Liverpool City Council (491,500 residents) •“E-bills are more environmentally friendly as there is no paper or printing. Cardiff Council (362,756 residents). Click read more below for additional detail.

Aragotruf is dedicated to the cultivation of truffles in all its stages – from the plant nursery where we prepare trees for producing the precious mushrooms, until the production, transformation and commercialisation of the black truffle and other truffle products. The family company is based in Graus in the Huesca province, one of the main truffle areas of Spain. From the beginning, we have been committed to the sustainability of the environment in which we grew up and live. Our work allows economic, social and environmental development that values the characteristics of our surroundings. Click read more below for additional detail.

SCA is for the first time reporting the company’s impact on the climate as part of its Annual Report, to be published on February 27. At a seminar in Stockholm, SCA reported the positive effect on the climate from forest growth and substitution, as well as the climate impact of its operations. The net effect is positive and is equivalent to the total of emissions from road freight and domestic air travel in Sweden. During a seminar at the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry on Monday, February 25, SCA reported the climate effect of its operations for some 100 seminar participants, including people in the fields of research, policymaking, government agencies and media. Click read more below for additional detail.

Paper manufacturers encourage forest sustainability through their purchase and use of certified wood fiber and by promoting sustainable forest management policies and practices at home and around the globe. By providing a dependable market for responsibly grown fiber, the paper industry encourages landowners to manage their forestland instead of selling it for development or other non-forest uses.², ³ • Net forest area in the U.S. has been stable since the early 1900’s and has increased from 754 to 766 million acres between 2005 and 2015. Net volume of growing stock increased by over 10% between 2005 and 2015.4 Canada’s forest area of 857 million acres has been quite stable over the past 25 years.5 • Each year forests in the U.S. and Canada grow significantly more wood than is harvested. In the U.S., average net annual increase in growing-stock trees nationwide is about 26 billion ft³.6 In 2015, Canada harvested just over 5.6 billion ft3 of timber, well below the estimated sustainable wood supply level of 7.98 billion ft³.7 Click read more below for additional detail.

Consumers and public and CoC Video 2private organizations are increasingly requesting forest products from sustainably managed forests. But how can they be sure about the origin of the products they buy? The answer is PEFC Chain of Custody certification. PEFC forest certification demonstrates that forests are sustainably managed. But there are many steps of processing before a product reaches consumers. Click read more below for additional detail.

The forest industry is currently mobilizing for a unique project to promote a more low-impact approach to forestry. Komatsu Forest, SCA and the entire forest industry will collaborate to investigate the possibility of developing a low-impact machine, the benefits of which would include less driving damage in the forest. The project involves developing a new generation of forestry machines for more sustainable and low-impact forestry. The idea is to develop a machine that, with low ground pressure, causes less driving damage in the forest and improved driver comfort, at the same time as productivity can increase and there is a more even flow of timber for industry over the year. The participants in the project are: SCA, Holmen, Sveaskog, Norra Skogsägarna, Södra, Mellanskog, Norrskog, Bergvik, Stora Enso, Billerud Korsnäs and Komatsu Forest. Click read more below for additional detail.

UPM supports the academy program of Plant-for-the-Planet, a charitable foundation that wants to contribute to climate protection. The foundation plants trees and organises children academies to promote sustainable thinking and environmental awareness. "In the academies children educate each other as amabssadors for climate justice. They learn concretely how the climate crisis threatens their future and the lives of people worldwide and develop their own actions for their future in groups. Furthermore, they also practice their presentation skills as a core competence for school and everyday life," explains Lisa Kohn, Public Relations, Plant-for-the-Planet. Click read more below for additional detail.

American Forest & Paper Association President and CEO Donna Harman thanked Congress for reaffirming that federal regulatory policy should reflect the carbon neutrality of forest-based renewable biomass. Fiscal Year 2019 appropriations legislation, which passed the House and Senate, contains legislative language to that effect. “We thank our bipartisan Congressional champions for advancing a measure that recognizes long-standing scientific principles and appropriately reflects the paper and wood products industry’s use of carbon neutral biomass for energy production. We are one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the nation and deserve clear public policy that supports our ability to grow the economy, create American manufacturing jobs and stay in step with global competition. We look forward to working with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the United States Department of Agriculture to fully implement this Congressional directive.”

Pratt is America’s 5th largest corrugated packaging company and the world’s largest, privately-held 100% recycled paper and packaging company, with more than 8000 highly-skilled, green-collar employees dedicated to the environment and sustainability. We have a commitment to creating quality green jobs and engaging in the communities where we live and work. Our #1 focus is customer satisfaction. We specialize in building long and profitable partnerships, and we recognize that in order to make our customers happy, our employees and the communities we serve must be happy too. We are pleased to make available our summary of labor practices and accomplishments which we carry into 2019 and beyond! Paramount to our operations is the safety of our workforce. Pratt’s ongoing commitment in this arena includes investment in the most advanced and innovative technology available, coupled with on-going training and preparedness of our employees. Click read more below for additional detail.

Metsä Group is establishing a new demonstration site, called Nemus Futurum, to showcase sustainable forest and nature management in Finland in a way that provides visitors with a unique experience. The guided experience, taking place in the forests surrounding Kirkniemi Manor, combines nature, science and cutting-edge technology. At Nemus Futurum, visitors are given extensive information on best practices in managing different kinds of forests. Relying partly on augmented reality technology, the different forest environments are linked to globally topical sustainability themes, from climate change to biodiversity. Click read more below for additional detail.

The Home Depot® has been highlighted as a global leader on corporate climate action and continues to pursue its sustainability goals with new renewable energy initiatives in 2019. CDP, an environmental impact non-profit, has named The Home Depot to its Climate Change "A" List for its actions to cut carbon emissions and mitigate climate risks. Every year, thousands of companies disclose data about their environmental impacts to CDP for independent assessment and receive scores of A to D- for how effectively they are tackling climate change. Click read more below for additional detail.

Sealed Air Corporation announced they have joined the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a new global organization comprised of nearly 30 companies to date making a five-year commitment to invest $1.5 billion in solutions to help eliminate plastic waste in the environment. “The Alliance brings together key members across the value chain, from materials suppliers to waste management companies, to jointly develop solutions that minimize and manage plastic waste, as well as promote means to use waste plastics in a circular economy,” said Ted Doheny, Sealed Air President and CEO. “Our increased investments in innovation, including collaborations with partners such as the Alliance, will help us accelerate progress toward our 2025 sustainability goals.” Click read more below for additional detail.

The Finnish Parliament has yesterday 6 February 2019 approved a law that sets a gradually increasing 30% biofuels target for 2030. Furthermore, the law sets a world-leading advanced biofuels target of 10% in 2030. UPM welcomes the Finnish government's ambition to take transport decarbonisation seriously: "UPM is a leading producer of advanced biofuels as defined by the EU Renewable Energy Directive, and we consider this move by Finland as a bold step forward in setting concrete measures for transport decarbonisation," says Sari Mannonen, Vice President, UPM Biofuels. UPM produces wood-based UPM BioVerno renewable diesel at the Lappeenranta Biorefinery in Finland. Click read more below for additional detail.

The state of the province’s forestry sector is grim unless the McNeil government provides a short extension for the completion of Northern Pulp’s Wastewater Treatment Project. “We are ready and willing to see this project through,” said Kathy Cloutier, Director of Corporate Communications for Paper Excellence Canada. “Without a short extension, thousands of jobs throughout the province are at risk.” “We just need a little bit more time.” The proposed plan would mean untreated wastewater will no longer leave the Northern Pulp site prior to being treated and released into the Northumberland Strait. Click read more below for additional detail.

Forestry is to become more digital so the forest can be utilized in a more efficient and sustainable manner. This is SCA’s position and other players in the forest industry who are now launching the joint research program Mistra Digital Forest. Accessibility to major digital information flows is rapidly increasing and is creating new opportunities. By linking together the information flows, the forest industry can improve the efficiency and the added value of the forest at the same time as contributing to greater sustainability through more considerate forest operations. The Mistra Digital Forest research program will therefore focus on the digitalization of the entire forest value chain. “We consider this a very exciting and interesting project that is looking to the future. We can now become even more efficient in the way we use the forest and contribute to a more sustainable society,” says Magnus Bergman, head of technology and operational development at SCA, and continues: “We already work with many digital solutions, but this project offers the potential to form a closer link between the requirements of our sawmills and our method of calculating the optimal way of using the timber. The digital information gives us more opportunity to simplify work processes and provides better support to our machine operators. Click read more below for additional detail.

The chemical industry is faced with enormous challenges in meeting the climate goals set by the European Commission and growing sustainability expectations. Firstly, fossil energy must be further reduced. Secondly, product sustainability must be improved, both during the product’s use and at the end of its lifespan. Last but not least, resource efficiency must be improved, raw material consumption decreased, and ecologically harmful loss pathways must be minimised through the advancement of a stringent circular economy. However, something inextricably linked with the above challenges is oftentimes ignored: The chemical industry can only become a sustainable sector once it bids farewell for good to fossil raw materials such as crude oil, natural gas and coal, and uses nothing but renewable carbon as a raw material in organic chemistry. Click read more below for additional detail.

Metsä Board Corporation has been recognised by CDP for its leadership in developing supplier engagement to tackle climate change and manage carbon emissions. CDP, a non-profit global environmental disclosure platform, has awarded Metsä Board a coveted position on its third annual Supplier Engagement Rating leader board. The leader board comprises of companies from around the world that have been specifically identified as leaders in their efforts and actions to manage carbon emissions and address climate-related issues across their supply chains in the past CDP-reporting year. This recognition further builds upon Metsä Board’s recent achievement of being placed on the 2018 CDP A list for both climate change and water security. Metsä Board also scored A- in the CDP’s Forest programme. Click read more below for additional detail.

Several brands including Procter and Gamble Company, Unilever, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo recently announced their plan to participate in TerraCycle’s Loop Program that develops circular solutions for hard-to-recycle products and packaging. These companies have all agreed to distribute more products in reusable packaging in place of their current one-time-use, disposable packaging. The goal of Loop is to “provide materials to a company that can be used as a sustainable alternative to virgin materials; using less crude oil and instead utilizing a material that would normally be sent to landfill.” Read more about this innovative program at TerraCycle.com and find out more about how you can participate as a consumer at LoopStore.com. Click read more below for additional detail.

We are pleased to announce that the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the American Forest Foundation (AFF) have formed a new partnership to grow the amount of certified family and other small holdings in North America. Through this partnership, SFI and AFF are working together on a Small Lands Group Certification Module (Module), an innovative way to grow certified family lands and small holdings by building on the foundation of SFI's Fiber Sourcing Standard, and drawing on the strengths of the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) forest management standard. Under this Small Lands Module, companies certified to the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard will be able to form a new type of certification group to certify small lands within their wood and fiber supply area. Click read more below for additional detail.

The investments of recent years have had a positive effect on both the levels of energy use and CO2 emissions at the Laakirchen paper mill. This improvement is demonstrated clearly by the Paper and Carbon Profiles, which represent the established method within the industry of showing environmental impact and provide an overview of the relevant parameters. Moreover, Laakirchen Papier AG voluntarily commissioned Quality Austria to undertake an examination of these calculations. During 2017, Laakirchen Papier completed a variety of reconstruction and extension measures, in the course of which the raw material used was switched from primary to secondary fibres. This change has contributed greatly to a reduction in the electricity requirement and CO2 emissions during the production of SC paper (product name “Grapho”) to levels that are considerably lower than those prior to the reconstruction and expansion work. Click read more below for additional detail.

Between 2005 and 2015, U.S. forests grew by the equivalent of 2,740 NFL football fields each day. That’s a total of almost 1.3 million acres a year! In the U.S., we grow many more trees than we harvest. In fact, there are 20% more trees today than there were on the first Earth Day Celebration in 1970. Yet, our nation consumes more paper products than many parts of the world. How can this be? It turns out that consumption of paper and other wood products, along with sustainable forest management, is essential to maintaining this growth. Click read more below for additional detail.

Government regulation can be a blessing or a burden. In every case, it’s the result of a public process. In contrast, says Domtar CEO John D. Williams, too many of today’s extra-governmental, voluntary programs — shadow regulations — fall short of this process. Shadow regulations are built on opaque algorithms and are of nebulous value, and they threaten the very transparency that legitimate sustainability regulations are supposed to advance. Recently, Williams spoke to the Charlotte Economics Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, to highlight our commitment to sustainable manufacturing as well as his concern about organizations that solicit and aggregate corporate data and rate companies without transparency or a remedy for inaccuracies. Click read more below for additional detail.

Greif, Inc. announced that it was awarded an A- score for environmental leadership by the non-profit organization CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). CDP operates a global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage the impact they make on the environment. The A- Leadership distinction outpaces the overall average of a B- score, along with the North America regional average of C on a scale from A to F. "We are thrilled that our efforts in environmental sustainability have been recognized by the CDP," said Pete Watson, Greif's president and chief executive officer. "Environmental impact and management both factor strongly into the decisions we make as a company in the present and with our future strategy. We will continue to enhance our standing as a leader in environmental stewardship." Click read more below for additional detail.

Illegal logging and the international trade in illicitly harvested timber is a serious crime estimated to account for 15-30% of all timber traded1. It is most prevalent and persistent in tropical forest areas worldwide. Illegal logging undermines the legal trade in forest products by depressing prices, contributes to national and global insecurity by spreading corruption and funding militias, affects the health, safety, and livelihoods of communities, and is responsible for deforestation, habitat loss, species extinction, contributions to global warming. It is arguably the greatest and most vexing challenge faced by those seeking to preserve working forests, particularly in tropical regions. Click read more below for additional detail.

The Navigator Company has been rated as a global leader on corporate climate action by environmental impact non-profit CDP, achieving a place on the CDP Climate Change A List. Diogo da Silveira, CEO of The Navigator Company said that "We are proud of this international recognition from CDP and our aim is to go even further: be a Carbon Neutral Company by 2035". The Navigator Company has been recognized for its actions in the last reporting year to cut emissions, mitigate climate risks and develop the low-carbon economy, based on its 2018 disclosure to CDP. Click read more below for additional detail.

UPS announced the company has been highlighted as a global leader for its corporate climate action efforts by CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project). “It’s rewarding to see UPS’s efforts to cut emissions, mitigate climate risks and develop the low-carbon economy being recognized,” said Tamara Barker, chief sustainability officer at UPS and vice president of environmental affairs. “UPS will continue to look for ways to lessen its environmental impacts as it’s important for companies to step up to do their part.” Click read more below for additional detail.

Metsä Board has once again been highlighted as a global leader in corporate sustainability by CDP, a non-profit global environmental disclosure platform, by achieving a place on the CDP A List for both climate change and water security. This is the fourth consecutive year that the company has been included on the CDP Water A List and the third consecutive year on the CDP Climate A List. Metsä Board also scored A- in the CDP’s Forest programme. Metsä Board is among the top 27 companies placed on the global Water A List. This achievement is in recognition of Metsä Board’s actions in the last reporting year to manage water more sustainably. Additionally, Metsä Board is among the top 126 of companies featured on the global Climate A List. This positioning is a recognition for the company’s activities in cutting emissions, mitigating climate risks and developing the low-carbon economy. In 2018, over 7,000 companies disclosed through CDP. Click read more below for additional detail.

UPM has been ranked on the 23rd place in the list of 100 most sustainable corporations by the Corporate Knights, the Canadian-based media and research company. UPM is the only company listed in the Paper and Forest Products category. On the same date the company is also highlighted as a global leader on the CDP Forest A List. Corporate Knights analysed some 7,500 companies with revenues more than USD 1 billion. The Global 100 Index use determined quantitative sustainability indicators, including carbon productivity (revenue-to-tonne-CO2 ratio), the percentage of taxes paid and board gender diversity, for example. 50 per cent of each company's score measures the percentage of revenues earned from products and services that have environmental or well-defined social benefits. Click read more below for additional detail.

Stora Enso has been top-rated in combatting global warming by the international non-profit organisation CDP, which works to build a sustainable global economy. CDP has included Stora Enso on its new 2018 Climate A List, which identifies the global companies that are taking leadership in climate action. “We are proud of this recognition of our long-term work to reduce our emissions,” says Noel Morrin, EVP Sustainability at Stora Enso. “For over a decade we have been actively reducing the energy intensity of our operations and our dependence on fossil fuels. In December 2017, Stora Enso became the first forest products company to set ambitious science-based targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions throughout our value chain.” Click read more below for additional detail.

2019 is a very special year for the PEFC family as together we celebrate our 20th anniversary. Before the birth of PEFC, forest certification was designed primarily for large-scale forest owners, managing huge areas of land and able to shoulder the burden of certification. But this meant the millions of small-, family and community forest owners were shut out, unable to afford a certification that was not created for them. It was back in 1999 when European small-forest owners came together to create an international forest certification system that had their needs at heart. On 30 June 1999, PEFC was created! “Having no certification system suitable for smallholders was a serious issue back in the 90s,” said Ben Gunneberg, the CEO of PEFC International since the very beginning. “Not only for the many small-forest owners that could not benefit from certification, but also for the world.” Click read more below for additional detail.

Bloomberg, Cox Enterprises, Gap Inc., Salesforce, and Workday, with guidance from LevelTen Energy and its renewable energy procurement platform, closed 42.5 megawatts of a 100 megawatt North Carolina solar project by global renewable energy developer, service provider and wholesaler, BayWa r.e. This group of companies, coming together as the Corporate Renewable Energy Aggregation Group, is the first example of companies aggregating similar, relatively small amounts of renewable energy demand to collaboratively enter into a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA), collectively acting as the anchor tenant for a large offsite renewable energy project. The unprecedented coordination between five international businesses lays the groundwork for other corporates to procure renewable energy cooperatively, maximizing value and reducing risk. The five members of the group, with support from the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3) and the Business Renewables Center (BRC), began collaborating in late 2017. Many potential renewable energy purchasers have historically been faced with a key problem: businesses looking to procure smaller energy loads have been unable to contract directly with large offsite renewable energy projects due to limited energy demand. This has so far restricted business’s ability to catalyze the development of new renewable energy projects. To solve this problem, the group evaluated several mechanisms for aggregating smaller amounts of renewable energy demand to afford them the collective buying power that is typically necessary to contract directly with a large offsite renewable energy project. Click read more below for additional detail.

PEFC invites stakeholders globally to nominate candidates for the Certification Body Requirements for Chain of Custody Revision Working Group and for our newly established permanent Sustainable Forest Management Working Group. The nomination deadline is 6 February 2019. Please ensure that your nomination represents one or more of the five stakeholder categories below: -Certified PEFC scheme users: forest owners and managers; forest based industry (processing and trade) (max. 5). -Uncertified PEFC scheme users: PEFC scheme assessors; certification bodies; accreditation bodies; consultants (max. 5). -Customers and consumers: retailer organizations; consumer organizations; institutional consumers of forest based products, including governments (max. 5). -Civil society: science, environmental, social and other interest groups (max. 5). -PEFC National Governing Body members (max. 5). Click read more below for additional detail.

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) is pleased to name Melina Gerosa Bellows as SFI’s Chief Education Officer. She oversees the overall strategy and implementation of initiatives under SFI's Education pillar. Prior to joining SFI, Bellows worked at National Geographic for 17 years, where she created and launched the award-winning National Geographic Kids brand and served as Chief Education Officer overseeing all of the children's businesses. Bellows is also a best-selling author and an award-winning freelance writer and blogger. “Melina is a visionary leader who believes in the power of words and education to transform lives and the world we all share. Her ability to reach and inspire youth, combined with SFI’s rapidly growing presence in the education space is going to have a huge impact on the next generation and how they care for forests,” said Kathy Abusow, President and CEO of SFI Inc. Click read more below for additional detail.

Berry Global Group, Inc. proudly announces they have joined the Alliance to End Plastic Waste as a founding member. This new organization is currently comprised of 27 companies and is making an initial five-year, $1.5 billion commitment to invest in solutions to eliminate plastic waste in the environment. “This Alliance is different from other organizations in that it spans the value chain. Brand owners, plastic resin producers, chemical companies, converters like ourselves, as well as waste management companies and recyclers, all aligned towards a common goal of how we ultimately end plastic waste,” said Tom Salmon, Chairman and CEO of Berry Global Group, Inc. In addition to the Company’s efforts with the Alliance, Berry also partners with key organizations to encourage recycling as well as internal efforts to improve product recyclability and increase offerings with recycled content. Click read more below for additional detail.

Hydropower is clean and renewable, but harnessing energy from running water can disrupt aquatic ecosystems. New solutions are being tested to help restore fish stocks. While the sun and wind can be unpredictable, hydropower is an emission-free, renewable method of generating electricity that comes with an added advantage: it is rapidly adjustable. There is no debating that hydropower plants have had a significant effect on migratory fish stocks, as they create obstructions that prevent fish from returning to their home stream for spawning. In certain locations, stocks have collapsed to an endangered level. Finland has adopted a National Fish Passage Strategy prioritising the restoration of the natural reproductive cycle of migratory fish in harnessed waterways. This government programme has seen an additional EUR 8 million in funding allocated for the restoration of fish stocks. Collaborative projects have already been completed in ten different river systems. Restoring fish stocks and preserving biodiversity is a long-term effort requiring committed work for many years into the future. Click read more below for additional detail.

We have updated our training schedule with two options for online update trainings in March, each held on two half days. Experienced auditors that need to attend a PEFC recognized training can sign up for one of those online trainings. One will be held on 6 and 7 March 2019, both days from 13:30 - 17:00 CET, the other one on 13 and 14 March 2019 from 9:00 - 12:30 CET. The fee for each of the trainings is CHF 500. The online training is a form of blended learning. You will do an online case study exercise in preparation for the online classroom training. The training will update you on PEFC activities, key elements of the PEFC Chain of Custody standard and discussion of the case study exercise. You will receive a certificate of attendance after successful completion of the course. With this certificate you can demonstrate compliance with the PEFC training requirements. Click read more below for additional detail.

EcoVadis is the leading system for evaluating and rating global corporations’ suppliers, and has conducted over 45 000 assessments in 150 countries. Companies using EcoVadis’ services include Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, L’Oréal and Heineken. “We’ve been working hard for some time on integrating sustainability issues into all aspects of our business instead of viewing them as separate issues. This is one of many testaments that Holmen and our paperboard mills have a very strong sustainability profile,” said Elin Swedlund, sustainability manager at the Holmen Group. Both Iggesund Mill and its sister facility in Workington were assigned Gold Standard, the highest rating. This means both paperboard mills are among the top one per cent of all companies assessed by EcoVadis, and among the top two per cent of paper industry companies assessed. Click read more below for additional detail.

Do you prefer to receive important documents digitally or on paper? Either way, we believe you should be able to choose. Unfortunately, corporations don’t often give consumers a choice between digital and paper communications. The default is frequently digital, and consumers can find it difficult to revert to paper communications. To make matters more challenging, the choice to receive paper often comes at a cost. Keep Me Posted advocates for your right to choose how you receive information — printed or digitally. The campaign also asks companies to eliminate the extra fees associated with paper communications and to ask consumers for consent before replacing paper with digital documents. “We are a pro-citizens’-rights campaign. We are standing up for people who may be disadvantaged by their lack of choice on how to receive important communications, and for people who don’t agree to the switch to digital that is being imposed on them,” says Phil Riebel, president of Two Sides North America, the organization that developed and operates the North American campaign. “Our goal is to generate grassroots support to protect the consumer’s right to choose between paper, digital and any other available delivery method,” says Riebel. “We present independent research to quantify negative impacts and penalties for consumers who are denied paper communications, and we monitor service providers’ digital communication policies, both to educate consumers and to urge companies to do the right thing by giving consumers free and viable choices.” Click read more below for additional detail.

APRIL Group was announced as the winner of the Best UN Sustainable Development Goals Program Award at the Sustainable Business Awards (SBAs) Indonesia. The award recognizes APRIL Group for its work to measure the impact of its operations and strategically align its sustainability investments moving forward, using the global framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the SBA ceremony at the Mandarin Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sihol Aritonang, President Director, PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper, the operating arm of APRIL Group, accepted the award from the Minister of National Development Planning, Indonesia, Bambang Brodjonegoro, and Shinta Kamdani, President, Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development (IBCSD). APRIL also received a Special Recognition award in the Business Responsibility and Ethics category. Click read more below for additional detail.

Glatfelter announced that it has entered into a consent decree with the United States Government, the State of Wisconsin, and Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products, under which Glatfelter expects to fully resolve its liability for the Lower Fox River and Green Bay environmental remediation and related Superfund litigation. The consent decree is subject to approval by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The Lower Fox River and Green Bay site involves the remediation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the bed of the river, and has been the source of complex, multi-party litigation since 2008. Under the terms of the settlement, Glatfelter agrees to pay to the United States $20.5 million to resolve all claims for past government cleanup, enforcement, and oversight costs and natural resources damages. Glatfelter will also be responsible for payment of future oversight costs. In addition, Glatfelter will be primarily responsible to perform the long-term monitoring and maintenance work in certain portions of the site, with Georgia-Pacific performing that work in other portions of the site. Click read more below for additional detail.

Hans who is responsible for sustainability issues in the SCA Forestry business area, will be new Director General of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) International. The Forest Stewardship Council is an international member organization that works for environmentally adapted, socially responsible and economically viable use of the world's forests. During the 25 years since the FSC was founded, they have created a certification system that gathers environmental organizations, industrial representatives, trade unions, indigenous population and other stakeholders for solution-oriented dialogue on forestry. Click read more below for additional detail.

Domtar is taking the lead in educating the next generation of paper industry professionals about our supply chain, paper production, sustainably forestry initiatives and more. Our mill in Kingsport, Tennessee, recently hosted a networking and educational event for sales and marketing professionals from several of our merchant partners. The participants, who are relatively new to the paper industry, came away from the event with a better understanding of how we source trees, make paper and follow sustainable practices. The event included industry and company overviews, a tour of the Kingsport Mill, a meeting with mill leaders, a visit to the Ridgefields converting facility and presentations from various Domtar professionals, including those in sustainability and marketing. Click read more below for additional detail.

Klabin’s Puma unit in Ortigueira, Paraná was awarded ISO 50001 certification, making it the first plant in the country’s pulp and paper industry to follow the best practices required by said certification. This recognition attests to the unit's efforts to improve its energy performance and efficiency just little more than two years after its start-up. “The certification, which was obtained after a series of audits, reinforces Klabin’s commitment to sustainable development and recognizes the engagement and dedication of all professionals involved in the topic, whether employees, contractors or suppliers," said Sadi Oliveira, Industrial Pulp Officer at Klabin. “We’re very pleased with the certification, which represents yet another achievement.” Click read more below for additional detail.

The holiday season is fun, festive and a time meant for giving. It’s joyous to decorate and make gifts look fancy, but the added touches for allure can cause confusion on what to recycle once the fun has ended. Our homes are filled with cards from family and friends, cardboard boxes from shopping online to find the right gift and wrapping materials to ensure the surprise is spectacular. But which of these are recyclable? Here are some tips to help you make the right decision on whether to put these common holiday items in the recycling or the trash bin. Remember: when it doubt, throw it out. “Wishcycling”—the act of putting something in your recycling bin in the hope that someone, somewhere will figure out what to do with it along the way—actually impedes the recycling process. Click read more below for additional detail.