In late July, Domtar's (Montreal, Ont., Canada) Paige Goff, VP of Sustainability and Business Communications; and Richard Donovan, SVP and VP of Forestry at Rainforest Alliance, sat down for a Q&A discussion/interview on how sustainability plays a role in the manufacturing of pulp and paper products.

The company promotes a long history of sustainability initiatives in North America and details how they expect to harvest virgin fiber while also fighting the effects of deforestation. Goff explained that in the view of Domtar, deforestation cannot be addressed in isolation — but rather it should be integrated into a more comprehensive system for sustainable forest management.

 

He also explained how the company's Paper Trail system presents gate-to-gate impact estimates for Domtar product sourcing across five environmental categories, reporting both positive and negative outcomes: water, fiber, greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and renewable energy. The two also discuss the strategies for successfully communicating with individual communities and small land owners, such as in the southeastern U.S. to achieve FSC certification. Goff said that the company knows more consumers are interested in sustainably sourced products and that the demand will help drive the future of continued development of a sustainable, deforestation-free supply chain for the company to create paper products. 

More information can be found in the full article available online.