Statement on Forest Stewardship
Georgia-Pacific sees our role in forest stewardship as vital to our customers’ success, our longevity and societies’ well-being. Our newly updated Statement on Forest Stewardship illustrates how we continue to follow and promote good science‐based protection, restoration, enhancement, sequestration and recovery practices. GP Cellulose contributes to these forest stewardship commitments in numerous ways that produce mutually beneficial outcomes for our customers, communities and other key constituencies.
Protect:
Georgia-Pacific’s Endangered Forest and Special Areas program identifies and protects high conservation value forests in the United States. We do not purchase wood fiber from these areas except in unique situations when active forest management is needed to improve habitat for endangered, rare or vulnerable species.
Restore:
GP Cellulose partners with interested customers and organizations to fund ecosystem restoration projects. In early 2021, we worked with the Longleaf Alliance and a current customer to plant trees in Florida’s Torreya State Park which had been devastated by Hurricane Michael in 2018. Also, our Alabama River and Leaf River mills are Wildlife Habitat Council certified for their onsite habitat programs.
Enhance:
Georgia-Pacific actively participates in the development, implementation and ongoing improvement of certification standards that promote sustainable forest management. Forestry certifications such as FSC®, PEFC, and SFI® give our customers assurance that we are sourcing legally and responsibly. One hundred percent of the wood fiber GP Cellulose uses comes from the Southeastern United States, a region with increasing forest area and responsible family forest landowners.
Sequester:
Trees sequester carbon, and our promotion of healthy and diverse forests across the landscape helps to create a natural carbon sink. In addition, GP Cellulose mills use renewable biomass for almost 80% of their energy.
Recover:
A large portion of the fresh fiber used in GP Cellulose products is byproducts from our GP sawmills. GP Cellulose also has a cotton linter pulp mill that utilizes waste products from the cotton supply chain and has been certified by SCS Global as certified recycled content.
To learn more about GP Cellulose’s commitment to sustainability, click here.