Tackle Climate Change: Use Wood

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative is pleased to announce its annual request for proposals for the SFI Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program. Grants from SFI contribute to understanding the critical linkage between forests and communities across the range of American and Canadian forests, and represent SFI’s long-standing commitment to forest research. These projects provide the science-based data needed by resource professionals to improve forest management and to assess conservation values. SFI community grants build engagement at the intersection of sustainable forestry, responsible procurement and thriving communities. “With more than a quarter billion acres/100 million hectares certified to SFI, representing the breadth of our diverse forests across Canada and the United States, and millions more positively impacted by SFI Fiber Sourcing, SFI has the necessary scale to directly influence the future of our forests. This new grant cycle focuses on helping to quantify the impacts of well managed forests on water, biodiversity, and mitigation of climate change impacts.” said Kathy Abusow, President and CEO of SFI Inc. “Our community grants will build more partnerships with community organizations that work to link communities to our future forests, and help people understand the relevancy of forests in their lives.”

Thermal Energy International, a global provider of industrial and institutional energy efficiency solutions, has been engaged by Resolute Forest Products to design, develop and implement an energy efficiency improvement and greenhouse gas reduction project. The $11-million project — which includes the installation of two Thermal Energy FLU-ACE Heat Recovery Systems and the conversion of the mill’s steam traps to Thermal Energy EM Steam Trap system — aims to meet the energy savings and greenhouse gas reduction goals of Resolute’s Thunder Bay, Ont., mill. Earlier this month, the Ontario government announced the project secured $5 million in funding from the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science through the TargetGHG Industrial Demonstration Program administered by Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). Click Read More below for additional information.

Leading British recycler calls on government to prioritise immediate action as recycling gap threatens to impact UK homes. DS Smith, a leading international packaging provider, has today published new research, in conjunction with Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, showing that the UK will fall short of its 2035 recycling targets by more than a decade1. The Tipping Point report outlines new consumer behaviours which are compounding the recycling challenges the UK is facing, including the rapid adoption of e-commerce and therefore the exponential growth in the delivery of packages. The UK is now the third largest B2C e-commerce market in the world, with around 18% of all retail sales in the UK now made online2. The reality is that 1.9 billion parcels – and the corresponding required packaging – are currently delivered directly to doors across the UK annually3. Within 10 years the number of parcels will have grown by over 50%4. Click Read More below for additional detail.