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.
EarthChoice Ambassadors
As part of our caring values, we regularly give to educational initiatives, sustainability programs and efforts to improve the health and wellness of our neighbors. Our EarthChoice Ambassador program further reinforces this concept.
EarthChoice Ambassadors (ECAs) are Domtar employees who volunteer their time and energy to promote sustainable practices that focus on our customers, employees, company, and community. By identifying and sharing innovative manufacturing methods, educating and encouraging sustainable habits, and leading by example, ECAs embody our sustainability message throughout the organization.
Heather Stowe, Domtar’s corporate social responsibility manager and mother of the ECA program, describes the program simply: “All EarthChoice Ambassadors across the company are just that: ambassadors of making and teaching good earth choices. An EarthChoice is any act that benefits the planet or your community.”
Earth Week 2019
This year, during Earth Week 2019, more than two dozen ECA teams in North America and Europe are getting together to make hundreds of EarthChoices at work or at home. Events planned for Earth Week 2019 include:
Planting trees and gardening in community gardens and parks
Holding recycling drives
Hosting lunch-and-learn events focused on debunking agriculture and recycling myths
Providing families in need with resources to grow vegetables at home
Teaching students about papermaking and recycling
Creating a monarch butterfly habitat
Conducting reading events at schools in coordination with First Book
How will you celebrate Earth Week 2019? Will you be collecting rainwater, planting trees or participating in a community clean-up event? Share your EarthChoice by tweeting us at DomtarEveryday.
Learn more about our commitment to sustainability in the communities where we work, live and play:
You may know Georgia-Pacific for making paper towels, plates, cups and toilet paper. But we also preserve land for birds, bears and other wildlife. In this the video below meet wildlife biologist Bobby Maddrey, and hear how satellites keep six million acres of forests protected in this unique to GP program. Take a deeper look between the trees at Georgia-Pacific’s decade of dedication to forest mapping. With the combination of forest mapping and the advancement of satellite monitoring, GP is now able to receive automatic alerts if changes happen to tracts of land and to assess vegetation and connect with foresters directly, improving the protection of endangered forests in real-time.
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.
There is a need for additional protection of forests with significant nature values. By establishing a conservation foundation, Metsä Group wants to complement the conservation network and offer the forest owner compensation for forest sites of conservation value. The foundation will be established in the coming autumn, and its operations will start at the beginning of 2026. The conservation foundation supplements Metsä Group's services, with which the forest owner can strengthen the biodiversity of their forests. The conservation foundation focuses on the permanent protection of forests with high biodiversity value and thus supports the development of the forest conservation network. Metsä Group's impacts on biodiversity are greatest in commercial forests. The aim is to strengthen the state of nature of commercial forests through regenerative forestry measures, such as the Metsä Group Plus management model.
