Domtar Completes Successful FSC® Certification of the Wabigoon Forest in Ontario, Canada

Domtar has successfully completed a surveillance audit on the Wabigoon Forest for the new Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) National Standard for Canada. The audit took place the week of July 13th ending with the auditor’s recommendation for certification to be maintained under the new Canadian standard. This new standard replaced the previous FSC® Boreal standard and has set the bar high for demonstrating sustainable forest management. The Wabigoon Forest was first certified to the FSC® standard in 2008.

“Our on-the-ground management practices, coupled with a rigorous provincially mandated forest management planning process, helps to hit the mark with FSC®,” said Marie Cyr, general manager of the Dryden pulp mill. “We are proud of our record of sustainable forest management. The fact that the Dryden mill has been operating in this forest area for over 100 years demonstrates that we are managing our forests sustainably.”

The new FSC® National Standard for Canada requires a comprehensive audit of legal compliance, protection of high conservation values, environmental impacts, management planning and community relations including free prior and informed consent. The audit process, which is designed to identify opportunities for improvement, found 4 minor non-conformance issues, all of which have been addressed with action plans and approved by the auditing body.

“The success of this audit demonstrates progress towards our sustainability goals,” said Paige Goff, vice president of sustainability. “Independent third party forest certification like FSC® is important to our customers and reflects our commitment to sustainability.”

Domtar is also licensed to manage the Trout Lake forest in Ontario which is on target to undergo an FSC® pre-assessment audit later this year.
https://domtar.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/domtar-completes-successful-fscr-certification-wabigoon-forest

Related Posts

Paper and the Circular Economy (piworld.com)

On a recent holiday to Prince Edward Island, I was served a drink with a paper straw … the first paper straw I have seen in a long time! I could hardly contain my excitement and began talking to the waitress about my “paper” life. She responded by saying “yes, there is a paper movement underway” … Wow! Interesting that someone outside the paper industry is saying this. Recent stories about the impact of materials in our waste streams - like plastic in our oceans, or the increasing amounts of electronic waste - have changed how companies think about the materials used in their manufacturing process. There is a movement to get away from the "one-and-done" model of the linear economy, toward a more “circular economy,” where the reuse, refurbishment, recycling and end-of-life disposal of a product factors into the manufacturing design. In a circular economy, manufacturing is done in a way that builds the overall health of the process - financially, environmentally and socially. Click Read More below for additional information.

China Adopts New Forest Certification Regulation

The China Forest Certification Council (CFCC) has announced that the Chinese Government has passed and is enacting immediately its new national forest certification regulations. These important rules set out the scope, framework, and requirements for all forest certifications operating in China. All forest certification activities must comply with the forest certification requirements which require adherence to Chinese national certification standards. “This is an important and historic step for Chinese forestry workers, Chinese forest dependent-communities and Chinese forests, as it recognizes the extensive work undertaken by a multitude of stakeholders to develop both the CFCC Chinese national forest certification and chain of custody certification standards and system,” said Mr. Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International. “In addition, both these national standards have been thoroughly assessed, resulting in international recognition through PEFC endorsement.”

UPM’s Zero Solid Waste to Landfill initiative wins the Midwest Regional Sustainability Award in the US

UPM's Zero Solid Waste to Landfill initiative received the Gold Award in the Midwest Region Sustainability competition challenged by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Chicago. According to the panel of judges, UPM's initiative stands out as an excellent example highlighting Supply Managers' responsibility to lead, drive and influence sustainability initiatives within an organization. UPM's Zero Solid Waste to Landfill initiative, launched in 2016, is one of the ways in which UPM contributes to the United Nations sustainable development goals for the year 2030. The initiative focuses on five of the most challenging production side streams to recycle, starting in UPM's home country, Finland. The waste fractions are ash, sludge, sandy bark, dregs and mixed waste. The project's main goal is creating a permanent and scalable operational model around the existing forms of recycling and reuse of these challenging side streams, but it also looks into finding completely new, innovative ways to recycle and reuse the solid waste that has previously ended up in landfills. At UPM approximately 90 per cent of production waste is already today recycled or reused. Before initiating this project, UPM already had zero solid waste to landfill operations at its mills in Austria and Germany. click Read More below for additional detail
Back To Top
×Close search
Search