MADISON, Wis., June 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is pleased to announce the winners of four notable awards at the 2022 SFI/Project Learning Tree (PLT) Annual Conference.
1. President’s Award
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.
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LP was an early adopter of SFI’s standards, receiving its first SFI certificate in 2000. Today, LP has 13 million acres of SFI-certified land in Canada and 22 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Canada certified to the SFI Fiber Sourcing and/or Chain of Custody standards. Its three 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 the SFI brand to help tell their sustainability story. View the full media release: Louisiana-Pacific Wins SFI President’s Award for its Commitment to Forest-Focused Collaborations.
2. Leadership in Conservation Award
Weyerhaeuser, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture (AMJV), the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources(WVDNR), and West Virginia University (WVU) are being recognized for fostering partnerships required to combat bird population declines at a landscape-scale. The partners are working together on a project funded by NFWF and managed by SFI to recover critical species habitat in managed forests in West Virginia. Additional support for the project came from the United States Geological Survey, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement.
The project focuses on three at-risk bird species: the golden-winged warbler, the cerulean warbler, and the wood thrush. View the full media release: Weyerhaeuser, NFWF, and Partners Receive SFI Leadership in Conservation Award for Spearheading Bird Conservation in the Central Appalachians.
3. SFI Implementation Committee Award
The Quebec SFI Implementation Committee was selected for its collaborative efforts in producing a series of four dynamic training videos that advance sustainable forestry and enhance understanding of SFI’s new standards requirements. The videos describe the role of SFI certification in Quebec, explain SFI’s new climate-smart forestry objective, and offer best practices for conserving biodiversity and protecting health and safety. In addition, the videos also cover road building and maintenance, harvest planning, and the protection of sensitive sites. Watch a short video highlight. (All four videos are available in French on the Quebec SFI Implementation Committee training webpage.)
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The Quebec SFI Implementation Committee is collaborating with the Federation of Forest Producers of Quebec to ensure the videos are accessible to all 134,000 woodlot owners in Quebec, who in turn will use them to enhance training for loggers they work with. These videos were supported by the SFI Community Grants Program. View the full media release: Quebec SFI Implementation Committee Wins Award for Training Videos That Advance Sustainable Forestry.
4. Dr. Sharon Haines Memorial Award for Innovation and Leadership in Sustainability
Paul Trianosky, SFI’s Chief Conservation Officer, is this year’s recipient of the Dr. Sharon Haines Memorial Award. During his time at SFI, Trianosky laid the groundwork for SFI’s focus on the role of forest certification in advancing critical forest values relative to climate change, biodiversity, and water.
Since 2013, Trianosky has led SFI’s collaborative approach to focusing on conservation across more than 350 million acres (140 million hectares) of certified forests. His signature achievement was leading the development of SFI’s Conservation Impact work, which measures the carbon sequestered, biodiversity maintained or recovered, and water purified on the SFI footprint. The results of this work have been compiled into a report entitled SFI’s Conservation Impact – A Decade of Success.
SFI and International Paper created this award to celebrate Dr. Sharon Haines. Dr. Haines was International Paper’s Director of the Office of Sustainability before her sudden passing in 2007. She had vast knowledge and incredible insight in natural resources stewardship, and she was uniquely successful in fostering strong partnerships with conservation organizations. View the full media release: Paul Trianosky Receives the Dr. Sharon Haines Memorial Award for Innovation and Leadership in Sustainability.
About SFI
SFI’s mission is to advance sustainability through forest-focused collaboration. We are a sustainability leader through our work in standards, conservation, community, and education and positively influence diversity, equity, and inclusion in the forest sector. We believe that sustainable forests and communities are critical to our collective future and as an independent, non-profit organization, collaborate with our diverse network to provide solutions to local and global sustainability challenges. SFI works with the forest sector, brand owners, conservation groups, resource professionals, landowners, educators, local communities, Indigenous Peoples, governments, and universities. We leverage the collective strengths and efforts of our network while proactively creating space for all communities to meaningfully participate in the journey towards a sustainable future.
Learn more at forests.org.
Media Contact
David Folkerson
Senior Director, Communications
Sustainable Forestry Initiative
613-565-0627
[email protected]
