Sofidel America receives 2020 Forest Stewardship Council Leadership Award

Sofidel America, the U.S. subsidiary of Sofidel Group, has been awarded the 2020 FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council) Leadership Award, which recognizes organizations that contribute toward responsible sourcing and forest management.

The award recognized Sofidel for promoting FSC® to its retail partners, estimating that more than half of its finished products sold in 2020 will carry the FSC® logo. “Sofidel has adopted what is commonly known as the ‘gold standard’ for responsible forest management and has actively championed the strategy with existing and new partners,” said Derek Dafoe, vice president marketing and sales in the U.S. “Our strategy has helped our partners provide leadership in the realm of sustainability and continues to distance Sofidel from our competitors. We are committed to a sustainability focused growth strategy that includes utilizing responsibly managed natural resources in the North American market.”

Sofidel Group places strategic importance on sustainability as a lever for growth and development. The Group has set objectives to minimize its impact on natural capital – in line with the UN Agenda 2030 sustainability goals – and to maximize social benefits, with the goal of creating shared value for all stakeholders.

The Group carefully assesses its supply of raw material and monitors its suppliers on the performance of the factories producing pulp, as well as on the origin of the wood. In 2019, 100% of the cellulose purchased by Sofidel was certified by independent third parties with forest certification systems. Sofidel has also signed the Vancouver Declaration, a pledge promoted by FSC® to work towards more sustainable forest products.

“We are proud to be recognized by such an authoritative institution like FSC for our responsible forest management system,” said Anthony Burton, quality system director in the U.S. “This is one of the pillars of our sustainability strategy, together with energy efficiency ad optimized use of water and sustainable packaging, aimed at creating increasingly efficient products with a more and more reduced environmental impact.”

This award is an added recognition of Sofidel’s sustainability efforts. Recently, the Group had its emissions reduction targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as consistent with levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Specifically, Sofidel has committed to reduce its scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 40% per ton of paper, its scope 3 emissions from its pulping suppliers’ process by 40% per ton of paper by 2030, and its remaining scope 3 GHG emissions by 24% per ton of paper by 2030 from a 2018 base year.