Sustainable Development Goals

Domtar Sustainability Goals: Journey to 2020

Aug 13, 2018 2:30 PM ET
Campaign: Domtar Newsroom Sustainability Highlights

Domtar Newsroom

Domtar has been a longtime leader in sustainability in the forest products industry because we are committed to incorporating sustainability throughout our supply chain — from forest management and raw material procurement to manufacturing processes and how we work. We’ve made great progress on the Domtar sustainability goals we set for the year 2020.

In our award-winning 2017 Sustainability Report, we highlighted our progress on our 2020 sustainability goals. Now, we are pleased to report in our 2018 Sustainability Update that we have met or exceeded half of those goals.

Our exciting progress on this sustainability journey reinforces our commitment to finding solutions in a world facing a variety of environmental and social challenges.

Here are some key accomplishments toward our sustainability goals for 2020:

  • We’ve reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 18% since 2010, surpassing our goal of 15% by 2020. This represents a reduction in total direct and indirect GHG emissions from purchased energy at pulp and paper mills. Fuel switching of six power boilers from coal to natural gas over the past few years provided the majority of reductions.
  • We completed a water-cost model for our pulp and paper mills well ahead of our 2020 schedule. A water-cost model helps our pulp and paper mills measure and more strategically manage the full cost of using water. We built the model after conducting pilot studies at five mills over the past two years, which allowed us to account for site-specific water conditions. We plan to begin operationalizing the full cost of water into our business decisions and conducting additional water-cost assessments at other mills in 2018.
  • We increased the level of Forest Stewardship Council®-certified fiber procured for Domtar pulp and paper mills to 22% of total fiber use, exceeding our 2020 goal of 20%. We remain committed to lowering the technical and financial hurdles to increasing forest certification in our wood procurement regions.
  • We reduced our recordable safety incident rate to 0.78, our best year on record and a 55% reduction since 2008. We are working toward achieving our 2020 goal of reducing our recordable safety incident rate to 0.50 by increasing focus and efforts on injury prevention and the elimination of noncore, high-hazard tasks where possible.
  • We have expanded our EarthChoice Ambassador (ECA) program to 76% of company facilities. As of 2018, we have established ECA teams in 26 locations across four countries, bringing us closer to our goal of having 100% of our facilities participating in our ECA program by 2020.
  • We reduced total waste sent to landfills from pulp and paper mills by 36% since 2013, approaching the 2020 goal of 40% reduction. Our source reduction initiatives and new or expanded beneficial use programs have contributed to our progress on this goal.

Domtar Sustainability Goals: A Look at How We Work

At Domtar, sustainability is an endeavor that extends beyond environmental stewardship alone. We aspire to reduce risks, enhance brand reputation, drive business success and grow shareholder value. We are excited about the progress we’ve made toward many Domtar sustainability goals, but we know there is always more that we can and should be doing.