GREENBLUE

Addressing Brand Owner Sustainability Goals Through the Responsible Sourcing of Forest Products

The Marketplace Sustainability Goals Program

Why This Project Matters

This project will increase awareness in the North American marketplace about responsible forest management and how the responsible sourcing of forest products serves to meet sustainability goals shared by brand owners and civil society. At its core, the project is all about conveying the idea that using products from well-managed forests is good for forests for two main reasons. Firstly, choosing forest products is a way to embrace the positive environmental, social and economic benefits that we all enjoy from well-managed forests. Secondly, valuing forests for the environmentally friendly products they can produce helps to keep them as forests, because forest owners see this value and are less likely to develop their land for other uses like urban development.

How the Project Helps Brand Owners and the Public Meet Sustainability Goals

The first phase of this three-part project will be to familiarize brands with the real story behind well‑managed forests and how sustainability and conservation outcomes are measured. The second phase will link the sourcing of material from responsibly managed forests to specific conservation values such as climate change mitigation, water quality and biodiversity. The final phase will help companies which use forest products to make the connection between these products and their corporate sustainability goals. An important goal of the project will be to educate companies regarding the direct association of their packaging and products with forests, and the environmental values that we all care about.

GreenBlue will develop a communications campaign supported by webinars, printed brochures, and presentations designed to educate brands about:

• how forestry works in North America
• the benefits of responsible forestry
• how brands can translate these benefits to tell their own sustainability stories

Brand owners can then incorporate these sustainability attributes into messaging and consumer outreach, to help their customers gain understanding of the values built into sustainable packaging and other forest products.

SFI’s contribution

An SFI Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant is supporting this effort, enabling GreenBlue to partner with Sappi North America. Sappi is an SFI Program Participant that is a global provider of wood fiber products from responsible sources. Sappi is keenly aware of brand owner objectives related to sustainability. GreenBlue will endeavor to directly engage one or more leading brand owners in communications around this project.

How the project helps forest managers

As this project reaches a growing number of brand owners and helps them understand the benefits of sourcing from well‑managed forests, it will potentially expand awareness of and support for responsible forest products. As brand owners make informed choices around responsible sourcing and the use of certification standards and labeling, forest managers will increasingly be understood as being part of the solution to challenges related to water quality, biodiversity and carbon storage.

Partners

This partnership will increase awareness in the North American marketplace about responsible forest management and how the responsible sourcing of forest products can meet sustainability goals.

• Project lead: GreenBlue Institute
• Sustainable Forestry Initiative
• Sappi North America (SFI Program Participant)

Related information

• Watch a presentation to the SFI community from Nina Goodrich, the Executive Director of GreenBlue, about Shaping the Business of Sustainability.
• Visit the GreenBlue website and learn about the work of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
• Visit the Sappi website and learn how Sappi is working with woodland owners to manage their forests.

About GreenBlue

GreenBlue is an environmental nonprofit dedicated to the sustainable use of materials in society. We bring together a diversity of stakeholders to encourage innovation and best practices to promote the creation of a more sustainable materials economy.