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:
An integrated sustainability work and an ambition to constantly meet customers' sustainability requirements are reasons why BillerudKorsnäs maintains its leading position for the third year in a row, according to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index – a globally recognized sustainability ranking for investors. The results from this year's ranking show that BillerudKorsnäs is one of the ten percent most sustainable companies and the company with the highest score in the Containers & Packaging category. S&P Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) is a comprehensive annual evaluation of companies’ sustainability practices and performance with a coverage of over 7,300 companies representing approximately 95 percent of market capitalization. The top ten percent are included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.
We’re thrilled to share the success of our recent tree-planting initiatives in Australia. In May, our Southern Operations colleagues joined forces with various organizations, including the Busselton-Dunsborough Environment Centre, to plant over 1,000 native seedlings near our Wonnerup Mine. Together, we built protective fencing to ensure the saplings’ growth. Continuing our commitment to environmental stewardship, a dedicated crew of 70 employees and their families, including visitors from the U.S., gathered at our Northern Operations. Over the course of the day, we planted a remarkable 8,500 seedlings along the Yalyal Brook, significantly contributing to the restoration efforts. We partnered with the Chittering Landcare Center for the 22nd consecutive year, resulting in an incredible 170,000 trees planted thus far.
Domtar’s Biomaterials team and research partners have been focusing time and resources on lignin development — specifically, developing lignin-based materials that could eventually serve as sustainable and biodegradable alternatives to petroleum and other fossil fuel–based products.
We recently took another step forward in lignin development and the process of commercializing lignin-based applications by investing in Prisma Renewable Composites, which is developing advanced materials from lignin and other natural resources. With this investment, we will help commercialize the process of using lignin to make engineered plastic compounds, such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and other high-value applications.
