The Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) announced five conservation grants today. SFI is bringing together a diverse range of people from 37 organizations to support research that directly influences future forests. This year’s grants focus on the connection between sustainable supply chains and natural resource issues we all care about — like carbon storage, wildlife habitat, species at risk and forests with exceptional conservation value. These organizations include leading conservation groups like NatureServe, GreenBlue, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Manomet, the American Bird Conservancy and the Florida Natural Areas Inventory. They are collaborating with government officials from Georgia, Saskatchewan and the Canadian Forest Service, SFI Program Participants, the Forest Products Association of Canada as well as the University of Alberta, UBC and Université Laval. click Read More below for additional detail

Accreditation bodies are the safeguard for credible certification. They ensure the impartiality and competence of the organizations responsible for certifying forest owners and companies – the certification bodies. Given their importance within the whole PEFC system, it is vital that they are kept up-to-date on all the latest developments at PEFC. In January, program managers and technical experts from 11 countries travelled to Geneva for an intensive training program, focused specifically on chain of custody. “While we have been training accreditation bodies for several years, in the past it has always been done through webinars,” said Michael Berger, Head of Technical Unit at PEFC International. click Read More below for additional detail

More than a decade ago, Walmart’s then CEO set us on a journey to dig deeper into our business to find ways to provide products that are better for both people and the planet. Fast-forward to last November, and our current Walmart CEO Doug McMillon issued a new challenge: ensuring that our business can continue delivering sustainable products for generations to come. He laid out our leadership position in the fight against climate change through a commitment to set science-based targets, and Walmart became the first retailer to have its goals approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. Why is setting science-based targets important to Walmart? We know global climate change can pose a threat to our country’s economy and global supply chains — threats such as lower crop yields, increased health costs and disaster-caused property losses. Walmart and other retailers would face a number of challenges if our complex supply chains were weakened by climate-related issues. Addressing climate change is a win-win: good for society and good for Walmart. click Read More below for more of the story

After setting and meeting two successive Scope 1 and Scope 2 absolute reduction goals for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)1, HP Inc. announces a new target to reduce the GHG emissions from its global operations by 25 percent by 2025, compared to 2015. The new target is a significant milestone for HP as it accelerates its commitment to reduce the company’s total carbon footprint in accordance with what climate science indicates is required to help keep global warming below 2° Celsius. In 2016, the company announced a goal to reduce the GHG emissions intensity of its product portfolio by 25 percent by 2020, compared to 20102, and committed to source 100 percent renewable electricity in its global operations with an interim goal of 40 percent renewable by 2020. click Read More below for additional detail

Smurfit Kappa today announces that it has achieved 90% chain of custody certification by FSC®, PEFC™ or SFI™ for the packaging it sells to customers, demonstrating its long-standing commitment to sustainability. The certification is a new milestone in promoting sustainable forests, providing end-to-end transparency across the supply chain and an assurance of the sustainable origin of raw materials used. Smurfit Kappa is dedicated to creating sustainable value for its customers and helping them to meet their own sustainability and environmental targets. click Read More below for additional detail

With two major projects at its Cabano plant supported by the Quebec government, Cascades will significantly decrease its heavy-fuel oil consumption. These investments will result in an annual reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) equivalent to taking 4,000 light duty vehicles off the road! Ministers Pierre Arcand and Jean D'Amour, and Cascades President and Chief Executive Officer Mario Plourde, have confirmed that the two energy efficiency projects represent a total investment of $11 .3 million in the Cascades Containerboard Packaging–Cabano plant. The government of Quebec will contribute financial aid in the amount of $5 .2 million for the two projects, while Cascades will invest $6 .1 million. The projects consist in modifying two residual forest biomass boilers. click Read More below for additional detail

Asia Pulp & Paper releases survey results about sustainable and safe paper usage in Hong Kong Promoting industry collaboration to offer eco-products. Gold East Trading (Hong Kong) Company Limited, a subsidiary of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), today announced the results of the “Sustainable and Safe Paper Usage in Hong Kong” survey which revealed that nearly 70 per cent of Hong Kong consumers are willing to pay an additional 5 per cent or more to purchase paper products from sustainable sources. Additionally, more than 70 per cent of respondents prefer to visit restaurants which use safe food packaging. click Read More below for additional detail

Mosaico Specialty Papers expands its range of PEFCTM (Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certif. Scheme) certified papers obtaining the certification for the paper mills of Chiampo (VI), Lugo (VI) and Carbonera (TV). The PEFCTM label guarantees that paper is produced using fibers from legal and sustainable sources, that is managed in accordance with internationally accepted environmental, social and economic standards. The Chain of Custody (CoC) actually requires traceability of all steps: from the forest to the finished product. With this new and important result the Group has strengthened its commitment to sustainable development: currently all Burgo and Mosaico paper mills are PEFCTM and FSC® certified.

Looking for a little roadster made from wood? Your wait is over, with the award-winning Setsuna concept car by Toyota. Built almost entirely from Japanese cedar, which came exclusively from an SGEC-certified forest owned and managed by Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd., the car will last for generations. SGEC – the Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council – is the PEFC endorsed national forest certification system for Japan. “It is wonderful to see such a beautifully designed car with serious environmental credentials, and we are delighted with their choice to use wood from an SGEC-certified forest,” said Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International. “The use of wood in construction is becoming increasingly relevant. Wood materials not only offer unique construction solutions, but if sourced sustainably from a certified forest, can also help prevent the overexploitation and degradation of the world’s forests.” click Read More below for more of the story

UPS announced plans to significantly escalate its investment in solar energy as an owner/operator of solar assets starting with at least eight of its facilities in the U.S. The installations will be completed by the end of 2017. The estimated $18 million investment will provide a nearly five-fold increase in the amount of power generated from solar at UPS facilities today. With more than 2,580 UPS facilities worldwide, UPS is ideally positioned to expand its investment in renewable energy. UPS expects additional solar deployments to occur over the next several years as it identifies suitable opportunities. The completion of these projects will expand UPS’s owned solar power generating capacity by almost 10 megawatts. The combined power produced from these projects is equivalent to providing electricity to approximately 1,200 homes annually. The expanded solar portfolio is expected to reduce carbon emissions by approximately 8,200 metric tonnes per year. click Read More below for additional detail

From COP22 to Davos, the past few months have drawn global attention to the role of forests in achieving carbon mitigation targets. Yet beyond emissions, forests and the natural capital within them — water, air and biodiversity, provide environmental services that support the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat — making investment in the landscape so important. For too long this value has been disregarded. According to the WRI, between 2000 and 2012 Indonesia lost more than 6 million hectares of primary forest — an area almost half the size of the state of New York. Before moving forward, we need to look back. Forest loss is the result of a complex mixture of socio-economic reasons including deforestation, land degradation and low living standards. Poor practices have lead the assumption that economic gains by people come at the expense of the forests — this is a combination that can’t continue. click Read More below for more of the story

A story started making the rounds last week about French energy regulators asking companies to cut back on email in order to save energy. It sort of sounds like a satirical piece — it did, in fact, end up in Reddit’s “Not the Onion” subsection — but the suggestion really does come from the French regulator RTE. Which got us thinking: How do our tech habits affect how much power we use and the environment? Finding an answer is harder than you may think. After all, the energy you use at your desk writing a typical email isn’t all the energy that an email uses. As the French warning indicates, there’s a whole infrastructure behind every message, which includes not only the electricity you use but also the energy it takes to store and transmit that information through data centers. Many researchers have looked into the carbon footprint of these types of technology — meaning the amount of greenhouse gas produced to support the activity — to measure the impact they have on the environment. This is commonly expressed in the volume of carbon dioxide. Using more energy tends to produce a larger greenhouse gas emission, but using alternative forms of energy that don't burn greenhouse gasses can also reduce a technology's carbon footprint. click Read More below for more of the story