NEWS RELEASES

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative^® (SFI) announced today that LP Building Solutions (LP) is the recipient of the SFI President’s Award for 2022. The award is given annually to an organization or individual that leads the forest community on important issues related to sustainability, education, and collaboration.

SFI recognizes LP for its longstanding leadership in sustainability and its admirable focus on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors that are at the core of the company’s values. LP also has demonstrated a commitment to building a diverse workforce, educating youth, and supporting the communities where its employees live and work.

The award was presented on June 14 at the 2022 SFI/Project Learning Tree (PLT) annual conference in Madison, Wisconsin.

“LP exemplifies SFI’s mission as an organization committed to forest-focused collaborations,” said Kathy Abusow, President & CEO of SFI. “This award recognizes LP’s efforts to advance sustainability across all four of SFI’s pillars: Standards, Conservation, Community, and Education.”

In celebrating their 50^th anniversary, LP has grown to be a world leader in the production of strand-based exterior siding and structural panels for new construction, repair and remodeling, and other applications.

LP was an early adopter of SFI’s Standards, receiving its first SFI certificate in 2000. Today they have 13 million acres of SFI-certified land in Canada and 22 manufacturing facilities in the US and Canada certified to the SFI fiber sourcing and/or chain of custody standards; its 3 South American facilities are certified to the PEFC chain of custody standard. LP uses the SFI label on more than 20 different products to leverage and promote the SFI brand in order to help tell their sustainability story.

Additionally, SFI certification is central to advancing LP’s climate leadership. LP recently completed its Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions inventory, and also released their first Task Force for Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) assessment, which communicates how LP evaluates and manages climate change risks and opportunities across its business and develops solutions to support a low-carbon energy transition.

“It is an incredible honor to receive the 2022 SFI President’s Award,” said LP Chair and CEO Brad Southern. “At LP, we proudly advocate to conserve and care for our planet. One of the most critical ways we do this is through sustainable forest management, which involves collaborating and partnering with our Indigenous communities, scientific research, rigorous planning, third-party standards, and public outreach and education. As an early adopter of forest certification standards—first certified to SFI over 20 years ago—we have long seen the value in partnering with third-party experts to ensure we take care of one of Earth’s most critical renewable resources—our forests. For our work to be recognized by SFI, a leading authority on sustainable forestry, is truly humbling.”

LP has participated in SFI-funded conservation projects that collaborate with conservation groups to continually improve and innovate their forestry practices. For example, LP was an active participant and leader in the SFI-funded project by Ducks Unlimited Canada, the “Forest Roads and Wetland Project.” The project worked on SFI-certified forest areas managed by LP to develop new road and crossing construction practices to ensure the integrity of water flow and quality through forested wetland systems, to maintain and conserve wetlands and waterfowl habitat in West Central Manitoba. In addition, LP participated in an SFI-funded collaborative research project led by the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement to ensure that forest managers understand the nutritional needs of caribou and to help manage the landscape to provide those resources. Finally, as part of the Maine SFI Implementation Committee, LP participates in Maine Fisheries Improvement Network initiatives aimed at identifying and replacing defective culverts and other fish passages across the state. In all these ways and more, LP has demonstrated conservation leadership.

LP also supports youth education and, together with Project Learning Tree Canada, funds the Outland Youth Employment Program (OYEP), which supports Indigenous youth so they can gain career skills and basic forestry skills through camps that are designed to encourage a safe environment. In 2022, LP will host a camp program in the Duck Mountain Provincial Forest in Manitoba. Since 2018, PLT Canada and SFI-certified organizations have contributed over $4.2 million CAD to OYEP.

As part of LP’s community engagement, they are an active member in nine SFI Implementation Committees. One specific project involved LP collaborating on a community project that involved the construction and installation of 70 bat boxes in St. Louis County, Minnesota. This project provided bat habitat needed to help combat White Nose Syndrome, which is affecting many bat populations across the US and Canada.

LP joins a distinguished group of people and organizations to win the SFI President’s Award, including USDA Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen in 2021 and the Yakama Nation in 2019.

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