AptarGroup, Inc. released its 2018 Corporate Sustainability Report. The 2018 Sustainability Report highlights the robust sustainability initiatives that have been implemented across Aptar’s global operations. As in previous reports, Aptar summarizes various milestones measured and achieved in three key areas of people, planet and product. The 2018 Sustainability Report is based on the Global Sustainability Reporting (GRI) Standards: Core Options, as released in October 2016. In preparing the report, Aptar obtained limited external assurance for absolute energy metrics, carbon emissions and renewable energy purchases. Aptar also responds to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Investor Climate Change, Supply Chain and Water questionnaires each year. Click Read More below for additional information.

Two Sides’ efforts to combat misleading claims related to print and paper has resulted in over 400 companies worldwide, including 118 in North America, removing unsubstantiated ‘green’ claims in their marketing materials. Despite our repeated efforts to contact TIAA and BlackRock, they continue to ignore consumer preferences and fact-based research to make unsupported environmental claims in their literature and mailings. Common consumer misconceptions about print and paper are reinforced by service providers as they increasingly encourage their customers to switch to electronic bills, statements, and correspondence to reduce costs. The incentive to switch is often based on unfounded environmental claims such as ‘Go Green – Go Paperless’ and ‘Choose e-billing and help save a tree.’ Not only are these claims misleading, but the drive to digital is not without environmental impacts and not welcomed by many consumers. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Pearson, the world’s learning company, today publishes its 2018 Sustainability Report, demonstrating ongoing progress in integrating social and environmental issues across the business and advancing equity in education. A key element of Pearson’s business strategy is to help improve employability prospects through providing products and services that drive better learning outcomes. As sustainability is increasingly integrated into Pearson’s core business, employability for underserved groups and supporting sustainability skills are becoming areas of focus. An example of this in practice in 2018 is our work with 225 US institutions, including community colleges, who used Pearson’s GED College Ready score level to help their students progress to the next level of their education, sometimes without placement tests or developmental courses. This is significant because it reduces barriers for students without a high school diploma to gain access to the next level of education, saves time by demonstrating mastery of certain topics, and improves their future employability prospects. To read Pearson’s full 2018 Sustainability Report and learn about its 2020 Sustainability Plan, visit http://www.pearson.com/sustainability.

Kimberly-Clark today switched on one of Singapore's largest solar energy installations at its manufacturing facility in Tuas, which produces Huggies diapers and Huggies baby wipes. The 7,730 photovoltaic panels mounted on its roof will generate 3.5 Gigawatt hours of clean energy, enough to power up a thousand 3-bedroom HDB flats for a year. With this investment, renewable energy will now replace 15% of conventional energy use at the plant, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by approximately 1,600 metric tons per year. This is equivalent to removing nearly 350 passenger cars from roads annually. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Stakeholders globally are invited to give feedback on the revised Certification Body Requirements standard. Give your comments, feedback and suggestions to help us ensure it meets your needs and expectations. Give your feedback – deadline 21 July 2019. Want to know more? To provide you with more information about the proposed changes to this standard, we will be running two webinars during the public consultation: * 6 June, 15.00 CEST; * 4 July, 11.00 CEST. Sign up for one of the webinars now! Click "read more" below for additional information.

American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Donna Harman issued the following statement regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) memorandum outlining plans to implement robust benefit-cost analysis across the agency’s rulemaking process. The memorandum follows the agency’s June 2018 advanced notice of proposed rulemaking regarding the benefits and costs of rulemaking and indicates the process will begin with the Clean Air Act. “We applaud EPA for taking the historic step to advance common-sense regulatory policy that ensures its regulations will do more good than harm. For over 38 years, every president has directed regulatory agencies to embrace this sound principle when designing regulations. But Administrator Wheeler breaks new ground with plans for binding regulations to ensure that the benefits of EPA’s regulations will justify the costs. We welcome this new foundation for sustainable regulation and the news that similar regulations under other EPA statutes will follow the Clean Air Act rulemaking. All will serve to protect the environment while allowing the economy to grow and create new opportunities for all Americans long into the future.”

Innovation drives sustainability - In this spirit, leaders of the packaging industry such as SOMA, Flint Group, Miller Graphics and Futamura, joined forces to create print samples on film. At the SOMA Flexo Challenge Conference 2019 held in Czech Republic, the live printing of the print design showcased that sustainability is a top priority with high print quality result. Czech Republic based SOMA, producer of flexographic printing presses, slitter rewinders, laminators, plate mounters and die-cutters. SOMA flexographic printing press Optima 2 dramatically enhances print quality, make-ready times, and running costs and therefore reduces ecological impact. The main focus is to implement sustainable technologies, such as water based ink system and reduce make ready in terms of time & waste. With the ARUN system the registration and impression is adjusted automatically without any operator effort. The result is that jobs get up to speed faster and there is almost zero feet of setup waste. The SOMA Ink Cartridge system offers printers a means of reducing ink costs by minimizing ink volume and residual waste. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, environmental degradation, resource depletion, and packaging waste demand an urgent and coherent response from the packaging industry. Flint Group partnered up with SOMA and Marvaco to work on an environmental friendly full HD Expanded Gamut Printing (EGP) on paper. At the SOMA Flexo Challenge Conference 2019 held in Czech Republic, the live printing of the print design showcased that sustainability is a top priority with high print quality results. With the ambition to become the innovation leader in flexographic plates, sleeves and ink solutions, Flint Group addressed this challenge by delivering nyloflex® XPH thermal printing plates, suitable for water based and UV inks. The round top dot plate is processed with the nyloflex® Xpress Thermal Processor. A sustainable easy-to-use system of several components, to reliably deliver a complete solution for lightning-fast plate making and high-end flexo printing. The benefits of 30% less waste, up to 88% reduction in electricity, and a plate processing time of only 45 minutes, result especially in reduction of operating costs, improved productivity as well as excellent print quality. In addition the rotec® CFX Bridge with carbon-fiber structure has been used as a high quality adapter with a long lifetime. Click "read more" below for additional information.

An innovative Kenyan company which turns plastic waste into affordable roof tiles for homes has been given a financial boost by FTSE 100 packaging and paper company, Mondi Group. Eco Blocks and Tiles has been selected by Mondi as the Lead2030 SDG 12 challenge winner and will receive $50,000 in financial investment, plus 12 months of business coaching, to equip the company with the expertise to grow. Lead2030 was launched by One Young World, the global forum for young leaders, in November 2018 to support youth-led innovation to contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Powered by some of the world’s leading businesses, Lead2030 aims to find, fund and accelerate youth-led solutions for each of the global goals and enable young innovators to scale and accelerate their impact. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Biodiversity is not only a question of nature’s wellbeing, but also of economics – especially for the bioeconomy business. But how can it be measured, and what might bracket fungi and ospreys tell us about the condition of our forests? Last autumn, researchers with paper bags in their hands, bent over, intently examining samples of bracket fungi could be spotted by various creatures in the forests of Southern Finland and Kainuu. Some human berry-pickers may have spotted them, too. Occasionally the researchers were joined by Reijo Penttilä of the Natural Resources Institute Finland. Penttilä leads a bracket fungus transplantation project and has been researching bracket fungi for over 30 years. Researchers from the University of Helsinki and Luke completed a transplantation feasibility study using ten species over a period of nearly ten years. Click "read more" below for additional information.

UPS announced an agreement with Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to purchase 170 million gallon equivalents of renewable natural gas (RNG) through 2026. This is the largest commitment for use of RNG to date by any company in the United States, with a range of 22.5 - 25 million gallon equivalents per year. RNG is a key part of UPS’s strategy to increase alternative fuel consumption to be 40% of total ground fuel purchases by 2025, supporting the logistics leader’s efforts to reduce the absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of its ground fleet 12% by 2025. “The world has a trash problem. And the world has an emissions problem. Renewable natural gas, produced naturally from bio sources such as landfills and dairy farms, not only turns trash to gas, but it turns it into clean gas,” said Mike Casteel, UPS director of fleet procurement. “Since RNG is supported by existing national infrastructure used to transport natural gas, it’s a winning solution that will help UPS to reach our ambitious sustainability goals. At the same time, we hope our unprecedented seven-year commitment serves as a catalyst for wider adoption of RNG by other companies.” Click "read more" below for additional information.

The International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA) issued its Global CEO Leadership Statement 2.0, which includes seven sustainability commitments the global industry will take action on for a better world. The full statement is available at: www.icfpa.org/resources/ The new leadership statement reflects changes in the industry and was endorsed by the American Forest & Paper Association’s (AF&PA) Board of Directors at their February meeting, as well as company and association CEOs from ten countries at the ICFPA’s ninth international CEO Roundtable last week in Vancouver, Canada. Click "read more" below for additional information.

With Netflix joining the long list of digital brands using print, the phenomenon of ‘reverse publishing’ is one of the biggest developments in brand content. The latest digital brand turning to print to reach a new audience has been announced as Netflix. With a market value of $21.2bn and a global user base of 150m, the streaming service hasn’t had to do a great deal of marketing – print or digital – instead preferring to plough much of its profits into making its own content. So the launch of its own magazine has come as a bit of a surprise. With a working title of Wide, the 100-page publication will include features, interviews and articles about Netflix-produced content, focusing on the people that create it. But rather than targeting its millions of users, the magazine is aimed at the highly competitive Hollywood awards community, promoting its shows and stars in the middle of voting season for the upcoming Emmys. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Mopria, a global non-profit formed to provide standards and solutions for printing and scanning, has released the results of their Mopria Workflow Survey. The findings indicate that paper is still important in office workflows. The survey results refute a common assumption that workers prefer digital only workflows and demonstrate balanced preferences between paper and digital media. Mopria surveyed 1,377 individuals between the ages of 25 to 65 who work in an office setting. Among the key findings, the results showed that: •84% take notes on paper •80.5% of workers enjoy the feel of pen and paper •71% believe they are more likely to remember their notes later if they take it on paper Click "read more" below for additional information.

PEFC invites stakeholders globally to give their feedback on the revised PEFC Chain of Custody and PEFC Trademarks standards. These two vital international standards are entering the last stage of their revision, and now we need to hear from you. Give your comments, feedback and suggestions, to help us ensure these standards meet your needs and expectations. Give your feedback – deadline 9 July 2019. Want to know more? To provide you with more information about the proposed changes to both standards, we will be running a series of webinars throughout the duration of the public consultations. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Logistics and transportation are essential to most companies. Virtually everything we use or own has been moved somewhere, whether as a raw commodity, finished goods—like paper and other FSC products—or in interim stages along the way. According to the 2017 Commodity Flow Survey, paper manufacturers shipped over 164 million tons of product. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests…and SmartWay helps companies learn how to move their products in the most efficient, responsible way. EPA’s global sustainability program, SmartWay, has developed strategies and tools to help organizations make their freight operations more efficient, while reducing harmful pollution. FSC has joined SmartWay as a SmartWay Affiliate, to raise awareness of the impact of its members’ transportation footprint and to encourage its members to include freight operations in their sustainability efforts. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Project Learning Tree Canada (PLT Canada) is excited to launch its Green Ride for Green Jobs awareness campaign with a cross-country engagement tour to encourage even more youth to work in Green Jobs and help fill critical roles in forests and parks. PLT Canada’s Zac Wagman, Green Jobs Manager, will begin theGreen Ride in Victoria, B.C., and will travel more than 8,750 km over four months to St. John’s, Nfld on a Montreal-made Picolo Vélo wooden bicycle. Wagman will visit up to 50 PLT Canada Green Jobs employers in 30 different communities across nine provinces, profiling over 25 youth, and sharing stories of their Green Jobs experiences over social media. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Five of the most exciting new advances in paper and pulp, from wallpaper that blocks Wi-Fi to a test that can detect cancer. Paper has a great number of advantages when it comes to communication – it’s portable, light, accessible and easy on the eye. But great strides are being made in medicine, technology and construction using this most humble of materials. People may have been reading and writing with it for over two thousand years, but it seems that paper has a lot more to offer. Click "read more" below for additional information.

Walmart is powering more stores with solar energy as its eyes get closer to its goal of having 50% of its operations powered by renewable energy by 2025. New York City-based C2 Energy Capital announced it has executed 46 power purchase agreements and leases with Walmart to provide solar power at the retailer’s operations in five states The solar installations are expected to supply approximately 10% of 60% of each stores’ overall electricity use and will produce more than 65,000,000 kWh of renewable energy annually, enough energy to power nearly 5,500 homes. Walmart on Wednesday issued its inaugural Environmental, Social and Governance report, which noted that 28% of the chain’s electricity needs are supplied by renewable sources. Click Read More below for additional information.

In 2018, the U.S. paper recovery for recycling rate reached a record 68.1 percent as compared to 65.9 percent in 2017 and 67.2 percent in 2016. This is great news for the environment and for our industry! We have a goal to exceed 70 percent paper recovery for recycling by 2020 and are constantly doing our part to improve the quantity and quality of paper recovered for recycling. The U.S. paper recovery rate has more than doubled since our industry committed to setting and achieving paper recovery goals in 1990. In addition, the rate has been at or above 63 percent each year for the past decade. The paper recovery for recycling rate is a metric used to convey how much of the paper used in the U.S. is recycled into new products in a given period—one year (2018), in this case. Click Read More below for additional information.

After dipping from 92.8 percent in 2016 to 88.8 percent in 2017, the U.S. recovery for recycling rate for old corrugated containers (OCC) rebounded to 96.4 percent in 2018. AF&PA has published annual U.S. recovery rate data for OCC since the introduction of the Corrugated Recycles symbol in 1993. The rate has followed a steady trend upward from 54 percent in 1993 to the current record-high rate. Given the recent volatility in the recycling markets, it is instructive to note the three-year average (2016-2018) is a steady 92.7 percent. The U.S. OCC recovery for recycling rate is calculated by dividing the U.S. recovery of OCC for recycling by the U.S. apparent consumption of new containerboard (i.e., material used to make corrugated boxes that has not yet converted into boxes) over a given period, usually one year. AF&PA’s calculation of the U.S. OCC recovery for recycling rate is consistent with the calculation methodology used by major U.S. trading partners around the world (e.g., the European Union, Japan). Click Read More below for additional information

Domtar's new Outside Voice series highlights the perspectives of stakeholders and leaders on important sustainability topics. On the particulars, we may not always agree. But we believe in hearing and learning from others who offer valuable insights and a different point of view on issues that are important to us all. Our first Outside Voice is Tensie Whelan, former president of Rainforest Alliance and current professor at New York University Stern School of Business. She leads NYU’s Center for Sustainable Business. Whelan believes climate change is among the greatest environmental challenges we face, with immediate and future consequences that we cannot ignore. She recently spoke with our Outside Voice team about the work of corporations, governments, activists and individuals that can help or harm efforts to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures. Q. What aspects of climate change concern you most? A. I think climate change creates the biggest threat to humanity to date. It creates the twin problems of reduced access to water and too much water. It brings more frequent extreme weather — flooding and drought — which affects our food sources, our industries and our homes. Click Read More below for additional information.

“I am delighted to announce that the PEFC International Board is recommending the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee for PEFC membership,” said Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International, during his visit in Myanmar last week. Following the recommendation, the PEFC General Assembly is now voting on Myanmar’s application for membership. We will announce the result of the vote in early June. While in Myanmar, Ben attended a seminar in Yangon, hosted by PEFC and the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee (MFCC), our prospective national member for the country. Our collaboration on current and future projects was a key focus of the seminar, as we seek to develop our partnership with MFCC in order to bring sustainable management to Myanmar’s forests. “We look forward to welcoming MFCC into the PEFC family and to advancing sustainable forest management with you in Myanmar,” said Ben, speaking at the seminar. Click Read More below for additional information.

Walmart Inc. issued its inaugural Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, which details the company’s goals, progress and achievements for fiscal year 2019 toward its commitment to increase economic opportunity for associates and local communities, build sustainability in supply chains and activate climate change initiatives. Walmart is disclosing progress to date in several areas including: Activating Climate Change Initiatives, Enhancing Sustainability in Supply Chains, Increasing Economic Opportunity for Associates. Click Read More below for additional information.

UPM Raflatac’s Biofore Site™ concept engages factory employees and fosters a culture of sustainability by setting factory-specific development goals aimed at contributing toward UPM’s 2030 responsibility targets. For many years, UPM Raflatac factories have operated third-party certified environmental management systems in accordance with the ISO 14001 standard to ensure continual environmental performance improvement. The Biofore Site concept builds on this foundation and expands it to include also economic and social aspects. Since the piloting in 2017, each factory has created a unique path to improve their scorecard performance. From installing LED lighting on the factory buildings to installing electric car-charging stations, UPM Raflatac factory teams continue to find new and exciting ways to further concept. A multi-parameter Biofore Site scorecard, based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, is used to monitor each factory’s progress. Click Read More below for additional information.

The Vietnamese government has formulated a Forestry Development Strategy to help achieve this goal. This includes the target to establish, manage, protect and sustainably use 16.2 million hectares of forestland by 2020, and to certify at least 3 million hectares by 2030. “Sustainable forest management is a key focus of the Vietnamese government. We are prioritizing sustainable forest management in accordance with international practices, in order to increase the certified forest area by 2030,” Vice Minister Ha Cong Tuan confirmed. The newly established office will coordinate forest certification activities in Vietnam and manage the national forest certification system, including its application to PEFC for endorsement. Click Read More below for additional information.

SCA is actively involved in efforts to save the endangered ortolan bunting, which thrives in clearcut areas. It hopes to make it easier for the bird to find food by digging large hollows in areas where the ortolan has been sighted. Last autumn, SCA’s nature conservation experts joined county administrative boards and a few ornithologists to visit forests in Sundsvall where the ortolan bunting had been sighted. The aim was to find possible measures to create favorable conditions by providing more food for the bunting and its young. One idea was to dig large patches of mineral soil of about one quarter of a square meter to reveal the topsoil. The ortolan seems to thrive in all types of clearcuts where the topsoil has been disturbed by scarification, for example, because bare ground in a protected location makes it easy for them to find insects when feeding their young. Click Read More below for additional information.

SCA cooperates with approximately 25 contractors as part of the planting work. This in turn means almost 500 planters will be active in the forests, from Svappavaara in the north to Hassela in the south. The planters are from many different countries, including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Ukraine and Nepal. They begin planting in mid-May and continue into October. The planters work both in SCA’s own forest and on the land of private forest owners, who have contracted SCA to help with planting. Before the planters leave for the forest, they must have successfully completed the Skötselskolan (Forest Management School) training course, which is a industry-wide online training course. Those working as planting supervisors, meaning people leading planting work in the forest, must also have completed a practical course covering consideration for nature conservation and cultural heritage. Click Read More below for additional information.

Last month, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette shared a sticker with their subscribers that stated: “In honor of Earth Day, the Post-Gazette will not print on Monday, April 22.” This claim prompted Leeann Foster, Assistant to the International President of the United Steelworkers, to write a letter to the newspaper, addressing the greenwashing claim that digital-only news is more environmentally friendly. She shared, “It simply is not black and white to say that digital communication is green and paper is not. In 2016, for example, 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste was generated globally…Paper, however, is a highly and easily recyclable product that is used again and again to make more paper and boxes.” Supporting her letter with facts, Ms. Foster provided a link to our popular Two Sides Myths and Facts page. Her full letter was posted on the USW Paperworkers Facebook Page and was shared, commented on, and liked by the community. Click Read More below for additional information.

Extreme weather conditions will increase globally due to the magnitude of climate change. The change in variables like heavy rain falls, wind and snow damages or drought are posing a threat to the balance of nature. Droughts have already increased the risk for forest fires in many areas. Together with the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) UPM is actively doing research on how climate change will affect forestry and wood sourcing and thus UPM’s business operations in the long run. “We will utilise these results in developing our business operations. At the same time all of this is valuable information we can share with our investors and our other important stakeholders,” explains Tuomas Niemi, Manager for Reporting and Standards at UPM. Click Read More below for additional information.

Has a constant stream of negative press questioning recycling’s effectiveness led some consumers to worry about whether recycling is “worth it?” Fortunately, there is good news to share. Survey data released by the Paper and Packaging Board (P+PB) in its 2018 Campaign Impact Report reveals that 83 percent of consumers surveyed agree recycling paper of all kinds is still worthwhile. The P+PB Impact Report also shows that the paper and packaging industry is viewed more favorably than other materials industries including plastics and that just over 6 in 10 (62 percent) of those surveyed agree that paper’s benefits outweigh the risks when considering paperboard/packaging, paper and the environment. “What these numbers and the data in the full report suggests,” says Mary Anne Hansan, president of the Paper and Packaging Board, “is that when consumers are aware of the benefits of choosing paper and paper packaging, these materials remain valued choices.” Click Read More bellow for additional information.

John Mullinder started his journalistic career in New Zealand before emigrating to Canada in the mid-1980s. Over the past 27 years, Mr. Mullinder has led a national environmental council for the country’s paper packaging industry. Frustrated by encounters with people who knew so little about forestry and paper production but had plenty of opinions about killing and saving trees, John was compelled to write a book called, Deforestation in Canada and Other Fake News. “Many people believe that cutting down trees is deforestation and the emotional image they associate with this is an ugly clear cut,” states Mr. Mullinder. “I debunk these myths with hard facts, well-documented evidence, references and real images of deforestation.” Deforestation is often incorrectly defined and associated with the forestry products industry. In reality, deforestation is defined as the permanent destruction of forests to make the land available for other uses. One reason Mr. Mullinder chose to show an agricultural scene on the cover of his book is to point out that the primary causes of deforestation are due to agriculture, oil and gas projects, and urbanization. Click Read More bellow for additional information.