Maija Pohjakallio appointed Metsä Group’s VP, Climate and Circular Economy

‘The Canadian forest products industry is part of the solution to the problem of climate change,” says David Lindsay, President and CEO of FPAC. “Our vast renewable forest resource and the actions of our forest companies are truly making a difference to this crucial issue.” Trees absorb the carbon dioxide (CO2) that causes climate change. The forest sector also reduces dependence on fossil fuels by using residuals and byproducts to produce renewable energy. In addition, forest products such as biomaterials and bio-chemicals store CO2 and can replace products made from materials with a heavier carbon footprint. This storage can also be prolonged through recycling.

Join us next Wednesday for our latest ‘In conversation with…’ webinar! We’ll be joined by Coen van der Veer from Building and Wood Worker's International (BWI) to discuss how forest certification improves the lives of the people living and working in the forest. The webinar is free to attend and takes place 15 July at 11:00-12:00 CEST. Do you know how many people worldwide are directly affected by forests? The formal forestry sector employs around 13 million people globally, while forests contribute to the livelihoods of some 1.6 billion people worldwide. The figures are impressive.

Ensuring our standards are the best they can be is always a priority for PEFC. As our Standards Revision process gets underway, we are calling on all stakeholders to submit their input and comments on our current PEFC Chain of Custody Standard (PEFC ST 2002:2013) by 3 July 2016. The objective of this revision is to identify the areas where PEFC Chain of Custody could be improved in terms of usability and outcome, and where we need to adapt the standard to better meet today’s stakeholder expectations and market realities. To kick off the process, we have launched a 30 day public consultation to gather your input. We invite all PEFC stakeholders, especially users of the PEFC standards such as certified companies, accreditation and certification bodies and consultants, to submit comments through the PEFC Consultation Tool by 3 July 2016.