Late last month, The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) announced a set of five ambitious sustainability goals for the forest products industry.
Published as Better Practices, Better Planet 2020, the AF&PA says these goals are the most extensive and quantifiable set of sustainability goals for any major manufacturing industry in the US. Specifically, by 2020, the AF&PA wants the industry to: (more…)
Last Wednesday, the UN General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests.
In his speech during the launch ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York, Sha Zukang, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, noted that political interest in forests has been rising, and he stressed that that interest should be translated into action.
“We have to make sure that the billions of dollars pledged towards forests and climate change financing is actually released and applied to sustainable forest management,” Mr. Zukang said.
Forests cover about 31 per cent of total land area, amounting to just under 4 billion hectares, according to data from the “State of the World’s Forests,” a report released last week by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Forests play a critical role in everything from mitigating climate change to providing wood, medicines and livelihoods for people worldwide. (more…)
Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) has launched its second Annual Review, identifying how international companies that have direct exposure to forest risk commodities (FRCs) are responding to increasing pressure from deforestation.
These FRCs include timber, soy, cattle products, palm oil and biofuels.
Unfortunately, it appears that many of these FRCs are choosing to ignore deforestation risks. This year, FFD approached 285 companies for its annual review, and only 78 companies (27 percent) responded. (See the full list here.) In the Reveiw, FFD calls on more businesses to recognize the importance of changes in regulation and policy relating to protecting forested lands and the need for managements to assess their risk exposure in more detail.
“It’s not just environmental good sense, it makes increasingly sound business sense to understand and reduce deforestation pressures driven by agricultural expansion right now – to prepare for both future legislation and market opportunities,” Tracey Campbell, Director of the FFD Project, said.
More specifically, the review highlighted these four specific business impacts that could result from not engaging on this important issue: (more…)
Avon, the global company known for its beauty and fashion products, also happens to be one of the largest catalogue producers and paper consumers in the world. Fortunately, the company recently strengthened its commitment to sustainability by joining more than 270 companies in the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) in North America.
GFTN is a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) initiative to eliminate illegal logging and save the world’s most valuable and threatened forests. Members of GFTN make commitments to: (more…)
The demand for certified sustainable palm oil is continuing to grow, and last week Cargill announced that it will supply Unilever’s European operations with 10,000 metric tonnes of segregated refined palm oil, certified by the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Unilever, one of the world’s largest buyers of palm oil, plans to be using only sustainable palm oil by 2015. Already this year, over 35 percent is RSPO-certified, indicating that the company is well on its way to achieving that goal. (more…)
