Metsä Group’s nature programme will fund 23 nature management and restoration projects in 2023

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), participating in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress today, shared the news of its new forest certification standard revisions, which advance solutions to some of the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges. The new standards build on SFI’s announcement at the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016 of the formation of the Conservation Impact Project, which is focused on addressing climate change, biodiversity, and water quality on the SFI footprint. This combination of SFI’s standards and conservation work helps provide nature-based solutions to global challenges such as climate change, while contributing to biodiversity. Coupled with SFI’s scale, as represented in hectares influenced by SFI standards and by the strength of the SFI network, including conservation collaborations, this combination of standards and conservation can provide transformational solutions.

Beginning in October 2019, the silhouette of the Green Bay Broadway (GBB) mill began to change. The first of two 400-foot stacks, a significant part of the Green Bay skyline for decades, started to be removed. The north stack was no longer being used for exhaust after GBB replaced a coal-fired boiler with a new natural gas boiler back in 2015. The mill is installing another natural gas boiler in late 2020 while the remaining south stack is scheduled for removal in 2021. The investment in natural gas boilers, a piece of the $80 million sustainability investments at GBB, helped the mill to decrease its emissions of nitrous oxide by 67 percent and sulfur dioxide by more than 80 percent. When the second natural gas boiler is activated later this year, the facility will be completely coal-free in its operations and will reduce emissions to near zero levels.

Crown Holdings, Inc. has announced the latest winners of its annual Chairman's Sustainability Awards, which honor individual manufacturing facilities within the Company's global network for exemplary contributions across three categories – Environmental, Safety and Social. This year's awards cycle marks the 10th anniversary of the program and celebrates the collective effort of its widespread team throughout the last decade. Winners of the 2023 awards are as follows: *Crown's LaCrosse, Wisconsin beverage can plant won the Environmental Sustainability Award, which recognizes excellence in environmental protection by minimizing the impact of the Company's operations, reducing material consumption or improving recycling or reuse of resources. *Two plants received this year's Sustainability Award for Safety for their efforts to prioritize employee health, improve accident prevention and ensure a safe working environment: Crown's Ponta Grossa, Brazil beverage can plant and the Bengaluru, India (Prime Bulk) facility in the Company's Transit Packaging Division. *Receiving special honor this year is Crown's Osmaniye, Turkey beverage can plant, which earned the Social Sustainability Award for activities that significantly impact the well-being of the workforce and the local community.