Sustainability Progress: International Council of Forest & Paper Association Releases 2020-2021 Report

The International Council of Forest & Paper Association (“ICFPA”) released its biennial sustainability report titled:

2020-2021 Sustainability Progress Report (“Report”)

The ICFPA describes itself as serving as a forum for global dialogue, coordination and cooperation among 18 pulp, paper, wood and forest fibre-based associations that encompass 28 countries.

The Report states that progress has been shown in nearly all of the sectors’ performance indicators using the most recent data available (2018-2019). A particular focus of the Report is the impact of the COVID pandemic on the industry.

Performance indicators addressed in the Report include:

• Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensity
• Bioenergy and Renewable Fuel Percentage
• Total On-Site Energy Intensity
• Sulfur Dioxide Emissions Intensity
• Water Use Intensity
• Sustainable Procurement
• Recordable Incident Rate
• Global Recycling Rate

Categories addressed include:

• Progress Since Baseline Year
• Progress Since 2019 Report

Described as progress on sustainability performance indicators include:

• In 2019, 52.6 percent of procured wood fibre came from third-party certified sustainably-managed forests, a 41 percentage point increase from the 2000 baseline year.
• Greenhouse gas emission intensity decreased 21 percent from the 2004/2005 baseline year.
• The energy share of biomass and other renewable fuels increased to 64.9 percent, a 12 percentage point increase since 2004/2005.
• Sulphur dioxide emission intensity from on-site combustion sources decreased 77 percent from the 2004/2005 baseline year and 38 percent from the previous report.
• Water use intensity decreased 12.5 percent from the baseline year.
• Investment in health and safety interventions yielded a 30 percent reduction in the global recordable incident rate from the 2006/2007 baseline with the number of recordable incidents falling to 2.88 per 100 employees annually.
• In 2019, 59.1 percent of paper and paperboard consumed globally was used by mills to make new products, marking a 12.6 percentage point increase in the global recycling rate since the year 2000.

A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.