AF&PA announces better practices for paper and wood products industry

The Washington-based American Forrest & Paper Association (AF&PA) has launched the Better Practices, Better Planet 2030: Sustainable Products for a Sustainable Future initiative. The program provides a new set of sustainability goals for the paper and wood products industry to improve its impact on the environment.  

The five Better Practices, Better Planet 2030 sustainability goals include reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, advancing a circular value chain through the production of renewable and recyclable products and striving for zero workplace injuries. The initiative also seeks to reduce injuries and fatalities (SIFs), drive water stewardship throughout manufacturing operations and build more resilient U.S. forests.   

According to a news release from the association, the initiative includes a transparent reporting process for achieving each goal.  

“Sustainable practices are at the foundation of this industry, which manufactures essential and innovative products used by millions of Americans each day, from renewable resources,” says Mike Doss, the graphic packaging president, CEO and AF&PA board chair. “We have a strong track record of delivering on sustainability commitments, and these goals will guide our progress further into the future.”   

Better Practices, Better Planet 2030 reinforces the industry’s values with a statement of principles on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), helping AF&PA advance DE&I in the paper and wood products industry and facilitating an exchange of members’ ideas and information.  

“Importantly, our strength as an industry stems from the diversity of our people,” says Heidie Brock, AF&PA president. “The paper and wood products industry fosters and promotes a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce by uniting people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to work in partnership.”  

According to the association, AF&PA members have met or exceeded many of the sustainability goals outlined in Better Practices, Better Planet 2020, launched in 2011. Those achievements include a 23.2 percent reduction in GHG emissions, 13.3 percent improvement in energy efficiency, 38.4 percent reduction in workplace injuries and 12 percentage point increase in wood fiber procurement from certified forestlands.  

The final Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 report will be released this fall, the AF&PA says.  

For more information on AF&PA’s sustainability leadership and the defined set of Better Practices, Better Planet 2030: Sustainable Products for a Sustainable Future goals, click here.  

“We have been and will continue to be a leader in sustainability,” Brock says. “The paper and wood products industry was one of the first U.S. manufacturing industries to adopt quantifiable sustainability goals back in 2011, and today these new ambitious goals will build upon that success in the decade ahead.”