Last week, Andrew presented at the GreenBlue Value Innovation Work Session on Forest Certification. The event focused on the changing needs in the certified forest products industry and identified the most valuable elements of forest certification while elevating strategies to deliver that value to forest products companies and large customers.
After 2 years of negotiations, Dutch NGO’s and Utility Companies agreed on a biomass policy for wood pellets currently burned for electricity. We in the Southern states know all too well that the drastic increase and scale of demand for wood pellets, driven by countries such as the Netherlands, have had devastating effects on forests and communities. Biomass policies from European countries must be more aggressive with timelines for adequate sustainability standards; our forests depend on it.
The GreenBiz media platform has really become an important gathering spot for the corporate responsibility community and helps to shape the trends and opportunities in the sustainable business space. My joint presentation with Deborah Baker the Vice President of Sustainable Forestry at Georgia-Pacific (GP) was part of a joint session on “Cultivating Impactful Corporate-NGO Partnerships” . We shared our work mapping Endangered Forests across GP’s wood procurement system pursuant to our ground-breaking Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) reached back in 2010.
Over the course of the trip: hustling from meeting to meeting, engaging with officials, delivering our presentation, Communications Director Scot Quaranda and I came to realize an important shift in the way conversation is taking place about the forests we call home. For too many years, the forests of the Southern United States have been sparsely recognized for their incredible contributions to biodiversity, mitigating climate change and improving the health and quality of our communities. Yet, as they begin to take center stage in the global debate over using our forests for fuel, Southern forests have finally begun to get the recognition they deserve.
The unnatural engineered traits of these GE trees would lead to unknown and potentially destructive impacts on soils, fungi, insects, wildlife, songbirds, and public health. Help us say no more to this unacceptable practice.
