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:
Stakeholders from around the world are invited to give feedback on the revised American Tree Farm System (ATFS). Deadline for comments is 13 August. Give your feedback now! The ATFS was revised following the entry into force of the revised 2018 PEFC Sustainable Forest Management standard. The ATFS was submitted to PEFC after being revised in line with PEFC requirements. The national system is now undergoing the PEFC assessment process, carried out by an independent PEFC Registered Assessor. It must pass this assessment to maintain its PEFC endorsement. An important aspect of the assessment process is the public consultation. Over the sixty-day consultation, stakeholders from around the world can give their comments and provide feedback on any aspect of the system. The Registered Assessor will use the information received from this consultation in their assessment of the system.
A variety of complex packaging regulations are coming up fast and furious in both the United States and Europe, creating some confusion for businesses that will be affected by new rules. Leaders from packaging policy organizations U.S.-based Ameripen and Europe-based Europen broke down important points to help manufacturers and others prepare during a virtual event they hosted Wednesday.
For European entities, attention is largely toward the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation slated to go into effect in August 2026. Provisions include EU member states reducing packaging waste by 5% by 2030, 10% by 2035 and 15% by 2040, compared with a 2018 baseline.
In the United States, the key focal area is certain states’ extended producer responsibility for packaging laws, said Lynn Dyer, executive director at Ameripen. While seven states have passed such EPR laws and three more have launched needs assessments, only Oregon has formally launched a program so far.
Because EPR is still so early stage in the U.S., manufacturers and related groups are still trying to figure out how best to work under the new parameters. However, “we will see soon some best practices [to make] sure that we’re adopting those best practices in other states,” Dyer said. And U.S. entities can learn from those in Europe, where various packaging EPR programs have a longer history.
The Austrian, Canadian, UK and Uruguayan national forest certification systems have successfully achieved PEFC re-endorsement, confirming they continue to meet our globally recognized Sustainability Benchmarks. Combined, these four systems account for over 40 million hectares of sustainably managed forest. For both Austria and the UK, this is the fourth time these systems have achieved PEFC endorsement; it is the third time for Canada and the second for Uruguay. Click Read More below for additional information.
