Tackle Climate Change: Use Wood

Dressed in wellington boots and rain jackets, the dedicated Tree Planting Team from Sappi Europe, including Berry Wiersum CEO, once again braved the Brussels weather to plant a further 1,250 saplings in the Forêt des Soignes. They were rewarded with rays of sunshine, and the feeling of satisfaction after a hard day’s work. The initiative has resulted in 16,250 trees planted since it started 7 years ago. Sappi’s employee-led tree planting initiative started in Spring 2010 in association with ANB (Agentschap voor Natuur en Bos), the equivalent of the Department of Forestry. This organisation is responsible for the planting of approximately 30,000 trees in the Forêt de Soignes every year as part of the National Forest Management Plan (Belgium). click Read More below for more of the story

AptarGroup, Inc. released its 2023 Corporate Sustainability / Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Report entitled Progress Takes Shape. Aptar’s report highlights key milestones of its global sustainability strategy across the company’s global operations focused on three key pillars: *Care – operating with care for employees, communities and the environment by continuously improving our impact and reducing our footprint; *Collaboration – innovating alongside customers, suppliers, industry coalitions and nonprofits to enable progress toward their goals – as well as for better outcomes for people and our planet; and *Circularity – helping the industry advance system-scale change that will benefit people today and for generations to come by addressing climate change and the waste crisis. “Our keen focus on ESG, both in the way we run our business and in the solutions we provide, affords us a strong competitive advantage. Our solid ESG credentials and reputation serve as powerful assets. We are a company that stakeholders want to engage with, and our employees are proud to work for,” said Stephan B. Tanda, Aptar President and CEO.

In a fast-changing world the Forest Stewardship Council is fundamentally changing its risk evaluations for forests. The next generation of risk assessments will replace the current way of assessing risks in forestry as part of the current controlled wood concept. In an enhanced approach the new risk assessments will be of use for the production of FSC Mix products within the current controlled wood concept; but will also serve as a tool for risk evaluation in regards to new legal requirements such as the EUDR. These new risk assessments will therefore become an invaluable tool for companies to efficiently assess and mitigate risks. While doing so, FSC is going one step further by aiming for an alliance between partners facing similar challenges. This Risk Information Alliance will foster global sustainability leadership by collaborating with other sustainability leaders. The focus is on developing a single, standardized Risk Assessment framework that will benefit both certified and non-certified companies.