PEFC invites all interested parties to give their comments on our revised Standard Setting standard - PEFC ST 1001:201X. Give your feedback now! Deadline for comments is 29 May 2017. This standard contains the rules that national standardizing bodies have to follow when they develop and revise their sustainable forest management standards. Core principles of the standard development are stakeholder engagement, balance representation of different interests, consensus building, continuous improvement and transparency. click Read More below for additional detail

Engaging young people on the benefits of circular living and the circular economy is a key part of our ‘Now & Next’ Sustainability Strategy. As is supporting the local communities around our offices and paper mills. That’s why we have sponsored the launch of a new children’s book by the charity ‘Litter Angels’. Our sites across Europe do so much work to engage with our local communities. In a typical year we open our doors to school educational trips, our employees volunteer to teach the circular economy in classrooms, we organise community litter picks, and much more. As the second-largest recovered fibre-based paper operation in Europe, and one of the area’s largest employers, our Kemsley Paper Mill also supports a number of local and charitable initiatives, including Sheerness-based charity Litter Angels. Founded in 2008, Litter Angels aims to make the local environment a cleaner, greener place to live. Its main objective is to encourage young people to understand about the anti-social nature of litter and the damage it does to our environment. So we were delighted to provide a grant of £5,795 from the DS Smith Charitable Foundation to fund the charity’s second book which encourages primary school-aged children not to drop litter.

The American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy today announced a new partnership with REI Co-op, the nation's largest membership-based co-op and outdoor retailer, to empower America’s rural family forest owners to manage their forests in ways that sequester and store more carbon. The partnership will support the Family Forest Carbon Program, a joint forest carbon project of the American Forest Foundation (AFF), a national conservation non-profit that specializes in family-owned forestland, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a global conservation organization. “REI focuses its work at the intersection of people and planet. AFF and TNC have done the same in their creation of the Family Forest Carbon Program,” said Matt Thurston, Director of Sustainability at REI. “The program is at the forefront of forest carbon strategies, using ground-breaking approaches that help small landowners join the fight against climate change.” The Family Forest Carbon Program is a new forest carbon program rooted in high-integrity climate impact and support for small rural forest owners. The program provides land-owning families with expert conservation guidance and resources along with the financial assistance to actively engage in practices that improve forest health and productivity. The practices not only increase the carbon sequestered and stored in the forests, they also can deliver important co-benefits such as improved water quality, wildlife habitat and increased long-term forest resiliency.