Earth Day is April 22, 2019, and to celebrate, we are sharing some environmental highlights from our businesses. Air, land, and water are areas where the JDI team works every day to reduce our environmental footprint. Below are some of the efforts and results:
Since 1990, our Pulp and Paper operations have reduced their carbon footprint by 55%. This puts us amongst top performers in North America and exceeds the target set by the Government of Canada and the Paris Climate Change Accord.
Today renewable green energy sources account for 59% of the fuel used at our pulp, paper, and tissue mills as well as our sawmills.
A recent $30 million investment at Lake Utopia Paper near St. George, N.B. earned the team the 2019 Industry Excellence Award from Natural Resources magazine. Natural Resources magazine’s 2019 Industry Excellence Award in Environmental Stewardship. The new environmental treatment facility turns organic waste into clean-burning biogas. This green energy replaces the use of fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. Check out the video here:
This year we will plant over 16 million trees – Nature’s air filters. Over the next 50 years growing trees on the lands we manage will absorb over 92 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s equal to 350,000 cars off the road each year for the next 50 years.
NBM Railways have achieved a 31.4% improvement in fuel efficiency (2015-2018) – reducing fossil fuel consumption by over 13 million liters.
Hungary has taken an important step forwards in the development of its National Forest Certification System with the launch of the national public consultation for the Hungarian sustainable forest management standard.
There has been a growing demand among local stakeholders for a PEFC-endorsed forest certification system in the country since as far back as 2002. However, due to Hungary’s short history of private forest ownership, the country has lacked a strong association to take on the role of National Governing Body – a vital role for both the development and running of a national system.
To address misleading environmental claims claims, Two Sides North America and FPAC have worked together with several Canadian organizations to change their marketing messages related to print and paper. This partnership addresses misleading claims such as “go green – go paperless” and “save trees” which are regularly used by financial institutions, utility providers and governmental organizations to encourage customers to switch from paper to less costly electronic bills and statements. One of the successes includes convincing the Canadian Revenue Agency to change it’s messaging on tax assessments. To date, Two Sides has successfully worked with 125 leading North American organizations (over 440 worldwide) to remove or change inaccurate environmental claims.
Stakeholders are invited to give feedback on the enquiry draft for Emission Data Transfer – Requirements. This draft document is an attempt to outline requirements for a strictly voluntary mechanism for the transfer of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission related data along the PEFC certified supply chain. Stakeholders have until the 4 April 2016 to submit their feedback.
The use of the PEFC framework to transfer GHG emission related data along the supply chain has been the subject of increasing interest among the bioenergy sector and other industry sectors processing forest-based materials in recent years.
