Five tips to avoid “greenwashing” when marketing paper products

Carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced, and more carbon must be captured. Fossil raw materials must be replaced with renewables, and biodiversity must be fostered as a prerequisite for all life. As the world’s most important ecosystem, forests play an important role in all this. PEFC forest certification ensures that forests are managed and used sustainably. PEFC stands for the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. Its purpose is to ensure ecologically, socially and economically sustainable forest management and use. Globally, more than 60% of all certified forest hectares are certified in accordance with the PEFC. The PEFC requires profitable and socially sustainable forestry to maintain forests’ biodiversity and cultural and recreational value. PEFC forest certification sets stricter sustainability criteria for forest management than legislation, which determines the national minimum requirements. In Finland, the first Forest Act came into effect as early as 1886. Today, for example, the Forest Act still requires that the growth of a new generation of trees is ensured by planting new seedlings.

Indonesia-based Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) does not always score the most favorable press. Many publications, including TriplePundit, have cast everything from a watchful eye to scathing criticism of the company’s alleged environmental practices — or malpractices. Many NGOs, including Greenpeace, have long accused APP of dodgy deforestation throughout its Southeast Asia operations and have described the company’s words of promise as “greenwashing.” But the evidence suggests that APP, which ranks among the world’s largest pulp and paper companies and one that is important to many companies’ supply chains, is beginning to listen after a decade of withering exposes and censure from the international media. The company’s most recent sustainability report that covered its operations in China claims it has launched a bevy of environmental and social responsibility programs. They include a $140 million investment in environmental protection in 2014, which the company says has boosted its overall spending on such programs to a total of $1.4 billion. Another $5.3 million of the company’s funds have been devoted to education and community development programs.

We are proudly supporting the largest conservation easement project in South Carolina history, dedicating over 62,000 acres of the Pee Dee Basin to permanent protection. The $50 million grant, administered by the U.S. Forest Legacy Program and supported by Atlantic Packaging, the Open Space Institute, the South Carolina Forestry Commission, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the South Carolina Office of Resilience, aims to balance sustainable forestry, recreation, and environmental resilience for generations to come. This historic project addresses the urgent need for conservation amid South Carolina’s rapid population growth. Protecting these vast lands, equivalent to three times the size of Hilton Head Island, ensures clean water, flood mitigation, wildlife habitat preservation, and a boost to South Carolina’s timber economy.