The Circularity of Paper: Recycling Closes the Circle (twosidesna.org)

The Home Depot®, the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced companywide sustainability progress in its 2020 Responsibility Report, which outlines the company's 2019 progress on its corporate responsibility strategic pillars: focus on people, operate sustainably and strengthen communities. The report also introduces several new goals and provides an update on the company's recent response to COVID-19 and social equality issues. New goals include a commitment to produce and procure energy from 335 megawatts of renewable and alternative energy projects by 2025 – equivalent to the amount of energy it takes to power more than 90,000 homes. Additionally, the company pledged to eliminate expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film from its private brand packaging by 2023. As part of its existing pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent by 2035, The Home Depot reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent in 2019.

Well-managed forests store carbon, clean the air we breathe and the water we drink, provide habitat for a multitude of species and give us products and jobs that are vital to our economic success. They also give us almost unlimited possibilities for recreation. “The more we appreciate how forests touch each of our lives every day, the more we will make responsible choices on their behalf. Our progress report helps get the message out that people in the SFI community care about forests and are doing great things for future forests,” Abusow said. The diverse SFI community includes landowners, land managers, brand owners, academics, community builders, Indigenous leaders, conservationists, youth, government officials, architects and many others. Their stories – and the story of the SFI Program – unfold in the pages of the report, presented this year in an 18-month calendar format. SFI Program Participants are required to complete detailed surveys that allow SFI to present a comprehensive picture of the ways our community addresses environmental, social and economic priorities.

2020 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for FSC – in the United States, and around the world. The pace of climate change aggravated events is increasing, with the huge and unprecedented fires in Australia only the latest catastrophe to capture the public eye. While such disasters are always tragic, they also educate people about the critical role of forests and the importance of responsible forest management. The climate crisis is generating ever-greater interest in FSC as a climate solution, which has prompted our newly ramped-up efforts to measure and communicate the impacts of FSC - including the commission of studies to quantify carbon storage additionality in FSC-certified forests. As we think about FSC’s impact, perhaps nothing matters more than our standard, which translates directly to environmental and social improvements on the ground wherever it is applied.