Wood is one of the most sustainable raw materials because it is a renewable resource. The availability of plentiful and healthy forests is critical to our business and our ability to make forest products that consumers want and need.
Georgia-Pacific EMEA promotes and supports sustainable forest management through its woodpulp procurement operations that provide wood and fiber for our manufacturing facilities. We purchase 100% of our woodpulp from certified suppliers who harvest wood legally.
Sustainable forest management means managing forests today in a way that ensures we'll have abundant, healthy and diverse forests in the future. Certification of forests or wood procurement processes, often linked to sustainable forest management, was developed to provide guidelines to determine what 'good' sustainable forestry is, and then verify it.
Forest and procurement certification is a voluntary tool available to forestry organizations that wish to provide additional assurances of their commitment to sustainability by having their forest management planning and practices, as well as procurement activities, independently certified against a sustainable forest management standard. The standard should ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and take social, environmental and economic values into consideration.
Georgia-Pacific acknowledges the major certification schemes and works with its fiber suppliers to encourage their sustainable forestry practices. These major certification programs include:
We view competition between these programs as vital to continually improving the practice of sustainable forestry on all land, but not all programs are applicable or relevant to all landowners and regions of the world.
It is important to note that the Council of Europe promotes sustainable forest management by means of information and communication strategies. It has welcomed the commitment of the European forestry sector to give consumers assurances on sustainable practices, taking account of the multifunctional role of forests, notably by means of certified wood products. The Council considers the FSC and PEFC certification systems to be equally suitable for this purpose and calls for the promotion of these two certification initiatives.
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