Sustainability

Hong Wilcoxon is the quality manager at Domtar’s Engineered Absorbent Materials (EAM) facility in Jesup, Georgia. She helps make change for the better, including innovative products with sustainable, nonwoven materials.

You can’t make paper without water. That’s one reason water stewardship is so important to the paper and wood products industry. Lisa Bauer-Lotto shares news of Green Bay Packaging’s ground-breaking net-zero water achievement and how the industry is advancing sustainability. 

In 2020, AF&PA member pulp and paper mills decreased water use (per ton of product) by 8.3%, from the 2005 baseline year. This marks significant progress towards our Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 sustainability goal to reduce water use at member pulp and paper mills by 12% between 2005…

In 2020, AF&PA member companies’ recordable incidence rate was 30% lower than the 2006 baseline. This surpasses our goal to reduce the incidence rate by 25% from 2006 to 2020.

In 2020, the paper recycling rate was 65.7%. This rate marks significant progress towards our Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 sustainability goal to exceed 70 percent rate of paper recovery for recycling by 2020. 

In 2020, AF&PA members reduced GHG emissions – measured in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq) per ton of product – by 24.1% from the 2005 baseline. This surpasses the Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 goal to reduce GHG emissions by at least 20% from 2005 to 2020.

In 2020, AF&PA members procured 99.2% of the total wood fiber from forests, used for product, through a certified fiber sourcing program; and 27.1% of wood fiber was sourced from third-party certified forestlands. This represents a 12.2 and 4.1 percentage point increase, respectively, from the…

In 2020, AF&PA member purchased energy use per ton of product was 13.3% lower than the 2005 baseline year. This surpasses the Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 sustainability goal which was set to achieve at least a 10% improvement in members’ purchased energy efficiency from 2005 to 2020…

The Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 Sustainability Achievements Summary highlights the paper and wood products industry’s sustainability achievements under the Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 goals initiative. AF&PA members met or surpassed most of the sustainability goals, including…