KEY ISSUES: SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENT
A3P's commitment to sustainability
While the plantation products and paper industry has always taken its economic, environmental and social responsibilities seriously, A3P and its members want to proactively address the key concerns we face as we create and sell more than $4 billion of product each year in Australia.
A3P’s Sustainability Action Plan, launched in May 2006 and revised in both March and July 2008, is comprehensive, forward looking, and designed to keep the industry focused on actions relating to the 21 broad sustainability issues it addresses. The Plan contains many new initiatives and builds on existing initiatives, regulatory requirements, compliance levels, and certification schemes from within and beyond our industry.
Implementing its recommendations will reduce the industry’s use of water, chemicals and energy, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants, and also ameliorate salinity. It will also help re-invigorate rural economies.
Features of the Plan include:
- A product stewardship approach which recognises that growers, manufacturers, importers, governments, and consumers all share responsibility for the environmental impact of a product throughout its full life cycle (production, handling, purchasing, using, and discarding).
- A commitment to regularly review, update and reshape the Plan.
- Clear targets and measures performance.
- A commitment to publicly reporting results.
The Plan is the result of strong consultation with A3P’s member companies and representatives from the major NGO environmental groups in Australia. Their contribution is invaluable. The Plan’s substance is also based on the best available current research, including the Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation and CSIRO.
Download A3P's Sustainability Action Plan (revised July 2008) | Adobe PDF | 2.6MB |
A3P's international commitments
A3P and its member companies are committed to sustainable action, today and well into the future both at a national and international level.
In June 2006, A3P signed a CEO leadership statement addressing global sustainability issues including climate change, illegal logging and paper recycling. The statement was signed by A3P alongside 56 international forestry leaders representing 25 countries at the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA) meeting in Rome .
In June 2007, the ICFPA released a Sustainability Progress Update which reported progress against the commitments outlined in its 2006 CEO leadership statement. The update cited A3P’s performance against sustainability targets including sustainable forest management, illegal logging, energy use, environmental management and fibre use & recovery as examples of best pratice.
For a copy of the CEO leadership statement and Sustainability Progress Update, visit. www.icfpa.org.
Timber Information
Free technical information on the source, selection, properties and other atributes of plantation timber based products available for use in building and construction applications.