We’re kicking off Earth Week 2019 on April 22, which is International Earth Day. While we incorporate sustainability into all parts of our business every day, we are excited to have a whole week dedicated to enhancing nature’s gifts and improving life in our communities.
Colleagues and, at many sites, their family members and friends will raise sustainability awareness through volunteering, learning and playing in the world around us.
EarthChoice Ambassadors
As part of our caring values, we regularly give to educational initiatives, sustainability programs and efforts to improve the health and wellness of our neighbors. Our EarthChoice Ambassador program further reinforces this concept.
EarthChoice Ambassadors (ECAs) are Domtar employees who volunteer their time and energy to promote sustainable practices that focus on our customers, employees, company, and community. By identifying and sharing innovative manufacturing methods, educating and encouraging sustainable habits, and leading by example, ECAs embody our sustainability message throughout the organization.
Heather Stowe, Domtar’s corporate social responsibility manager and mother of the ECA program, describes the program simply: “All EarthChoice Ambassadors across the company are just that: ambassadors of making and teaching good earth choices. An EarthChoice is any act that benefits the planet or your community.”
Earth Week 2019
This year, during Earth Week 2019, more than two dozen ECA teams in North America and Europe are getting together to make hundreds of EarthChoices at work or at home. Events planned for Earth Week 2019 include:
Planting trees and gardening in community gardens and parks
Holding recycling drives
Hosting lunch-and-learn events focused on debunking agriculture and recycling myths
Providing families in need with resources to grow vegetables at home
Teaching students about papermaking and recycling
Creating a monarch butterfly habitat
Conducting reading events at schools in coordination with First Book
How will you celebrate Earth Week 2019? Will you be collecting rainwater, planting trees or participating in a community clean-up event? Share your EarthChoice by tweeting us at DomtarEveryday.
Learn more about our commitment to sustainability in the communities where we work, live and play:
The global sustainability performance of the forest product industry is improving, with all aggregate indicators for reporting associations showing progress:
•Greenhouse gas emissions intensity was reduced by 17% between 2005 and 2013.
•The share of bio-energy in the industry’s fuel mix increased by 8 percentage points, to 61%, since 2005.
•The number of hectares certified to a third-party sustainable forest management certification system increased by 41 percentage points, to 52% of wood supply, since 2000.
•The global paper recycling rate increased by 11 percentage points, to 58%, between 2001 and 2013.
Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI), our National member from North America, recently announced grants for 19 projects to help further understanding of the conservation benefits of managed forests, and to strengthen the connection between communities and forests. The grants were made as part of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc.’s Conservation and Community Partnership Grants Program. These grants represent collaborations between SFI Inc., SFI Program Participants, and partner organizations throughout North America.
“Our conservation grants advance SFI’s long-standing commitment to forest research. These projects provide the science-based data that resource professionals need to improve forest management, and to assess the value of that work,” said Kathy Abusow, President and CEO of SFI Inc.
“Our community grants represent SFI’s unique role at the intersection of sustainable forestry, responsible procurement and thriving communities. SFI engages local communities through a variety of initiatives including youth outreach, forest education programs, and green building projects for low-income families.”
Repsol and Saica Natur have signed a new collaboration agreement in order to maximize the use of low density polyethylene film (LDPE) waste and take a new step in the transition towards a circular economy. With this project, Repsol and Saica Natur intend to combine their knowledge and skills to achieve new polyolefins that incorporate post-consumer recycled material. With a special goal to ensure quality consistency for more demanding applications, from the technical point of viewwhere recycling has hardly penetrated yet. This way, Saica Natur contributes not only with its expertise as a waste manager but also as a low density polyethylene (LDPE) recycled pellets producer. Repsol, the market leader in polyolefins in Spain and Portugal, provides the capabilities of its Technology Center, as well as its experience in the development of new products for its value chain. This agreement falls under Reciclex project, one of Repsol’s strategic pillars to promote the circular economy of its materials. Click read more below for additional detail.
