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Environmental Responsibility

As advocates of preserving the environment, we at LP have policies in place to protect and rebuild natural resources.

At LP, we strive to manage the environmental footprint of all our operations, and we take all of our environmental responsibilities seriously. All relevant policies, management systems and compliance efforts are overseen by the LP Environmental, Quality and Compliance Committee of the Board. The Committee receives quarterly written reports directly from functional leaders responsible for LP’s environmental programs.

We have a company-wide Policy on Environmental Stewardship which is available publicly and outlines our commitment to meet the strictest standards in natural resource management and conservation, and to seek continual improvement in our environmental programs and employee awareness.

LP Policy on Environmental Stewardship

We have also developed a set of leading indicators to measure and report on our environmental performance throughout the organization. These indicators are specifically designed to engage our employees in helping us identify and mitigate areas of environmental risk before incidents can occur.

Sustainable Sourcing

We believe that one of the greatest environmental opportunities we have at LP is to ensure that the forest resources we rely on are managed sustainably, to meet the needs of today’s generation without compromising the needs of future generations. Furthermore, our customers demand that the products we provide meet the environmental and social requirements of their supply chain standards.

LP typically sources wood fiber from within a 50-100 mile radius of our mill locations. In Canada, where around 24% (6) of our mills are located, drawing on approximately 13 million acres of public forestlands, all forest management activities are closely regulated by provincial and federal agencies to ensure operations are consistent with the government’s forest management objectives. Canada has long been considered a global leader in sustainable forest management and already has the largest area of third-party-certified forests in the world. In the U.S., where 60% (15) of our mills are located, most forestlands are privately owned and do not have to comply with any government-mandated forest management practices. LP considers one of its core responsibilities to ensure the leading sustainable forest management practices are adopted by its U.S. producer partners. We also have a small footprint in Brazil and Chile, where we implement the equivalent environmental standards that we expect from our suppliers in the U.S. and Canada.

The LP Sustainable Fiber Sourcing brochure is designed to help educate the landowners and wood producers that we work with about the importance of responsible forestry practices: LP Sustainable Fiber Sourcing Brochure, LP Sustainable Fiber Sourcing Tri-Fold.

Sustainable Fiber Sourcing Policy

The LP sustainable fiber sourcing policy is implemented across all company operations, as well as with landowners, wood producers, and other stakeholders responsible for forest management and fiber sourcing activities. The policy supports the implementation of the following principles:

  1. Sustainable forestry
  2. Forest productivity and health
  3. Protecting water resources
  4. Protecting biological diversity
  5. Aesthetics and recreation
  6. Protecting special sites
  7. Responsible practices
  8. Legal compliance
  9. Research
  10. Training and education
  11. Community involvement and social responsibility
  12. Transparency
  13. Continual improvement
  14. Avoiding controversial sources

Environmental Management

To ensure best practice standards across our global sourcing operations and to ensure our fiber sourcing is truly sustainable, we have developed a comprehensive set of environmental management systems that are applied throughout the LP fiber sourcing chain.

In the U.S., the majority of our wood fiber is sourced indirectly from wood producers and third party landowners, such as family forests, timber investment lands and public lands. In Canada, the majority of our wood fiber is sourced directly from public lands where LP has management authority and is responsible for all phases of management.

In either case, we are committed to the implementation of environmental management systems that ensure we follow the strictest forest management standards to:

  • Promote prompt reforestation: LP considers best practice to be reforesting within two years of final harvest, or within five years when using planned natural regeneration
  • Promote soil conservation and water quality protection
  • Maintain water quality: requirements include leaving riparian (vegetation) buffers along streams and other water bodies, the strict control of waste disposal on forestlands, and proper road maintenance
  • Maintain wildlife habitats: considerations include the type and age of forest, the size and shape of boundaries, the presence of water bodies and streamside management zones, wildlife species, and unique habitats
  • Protect biodiversity: considerations include forests with exceptional conservation value and the existence of threatened or endangered species to help prevent any further population decline

Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) Certification

LP has selected the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) to be its primary partner in forest management certification. LP first became SFI certified in 2000. Today, 100% of fiber sourced from Canada and the U.S. is certified to SFI Standards. The fiber we source in Brazil and Chile is managed to equivalent standards, and products from LP-Chile and LP-Brazil are eligible to use LP’s SFI certified sourcing label upon entering North America.

Critically for LP, one of the certification programs the SFI provides is Fiber Sourcing Certification. Because the majority of the fiber we source comes from lands managed by third parties, who might not independently elect to adopt their own forestry management systems or certifications, the SFI Fiber Sourcing Certification gives us and our customers the assurance we need that the independent landowners and wood producers we work with are meeting the environmental management standards we demand.

In addition to SFI, we have also achieved ISO 14001 and 14011, and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certification at a number of sites managed directly by LP.

Chain of Custody

In addition to forest management and fiber sourcing certification, LP has added SFI and PEFC chain of custody programs to all of our Engineered Wood Product mills, as an additional layer of due diligence. The chain of custody standard is an accounting system that tracks forest fiber content through production and manufacturing to the end product.

Why Partner with SFI?

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable forest management. SFI’s strategy is to provide solutions-oriented forest-based conservation and community initiatives through deep collaboration and continual learning.

More than 300 million acres of forestland across the U.S. and Canada, and over 100 companies responsible for fiber production, are certified to SFI standards. The SFI label is widely recognized in the marketplace – for example, SFI certified products are accepted by the U.S. Green Building Council for wood products in its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, which enables LP certified products to be eligible for LEED credits.

A critical component of the work of SFI is ongoing forest conservation research and continual improvement in forest management practices. Since 1995, SFI program participants have directly invested nearly $1.6 billion in forest research.

Audit

As an SFI program participant, LP must be audited every year by credible third-party independent auditors to ensure our environmental and forest management programs conform to the SFI standards. Bureau Veritas, a global leader in environmental audits, is our long-standing audit partner. As part of a continuous improvement process, SFI conducts an external review of the standards to address emerging sustainability trends and to support the strength and credibility of the program.

We are committed to making our audit results transparent. A summary of recent SFI audit results are provided here, and full assessments are made public on the SFI website: SFI – LP Audit Results Summary

LP Sustainable Forestry Certification Audit Summary

year Certification Type Non-Conformances Opportunities for Improvement Notable Practices
  TOTAL 1 6 7
2018 Forest Management 0 0 1
Fiber Sourcing 0 0 1
Chain of Custody 0 0 0
2017 Forest Management 0 0 1
Fiber Sourcing 0 0 1
Chain of Custody 0 0 1
2016 Forest Management 0 0 0
Fiber Sourcing 0 0 0
Chain of Custody 0 2 0
2015 Forest Management 0 0 0
Fiber Sourcing 0 0 1
Chain of Custody 1 0 0
2014 Forest Management 0 0 1
Fiber Sourcing 0 0 1
Chain of Custody 0 1 0

Collaboration & Leadership

As part of our commitment to sustainability, LP recognizes its role in helping to support and educate the stakeholders we work with, and to demonstrate leadership in forest conservation.

We work closely with logging and forestry associations to promote professionalism within the industry and to establish credible training and continuing education programs where we operate. LP promotes the use of Qualified Resource Professionals (QRP) and Qualified Logging Professionals (QLP) to help ensure the principles of sustainable forestry are implemented during forest management activities. When developing forest management plans, LP encourages the use of QRPs who consider multiple attributes such as tree species, plants, soils, terrain, ecosystems, size and shape and age of harvest areas, and site productivity. Wood producers must have an on-site crew member responsible for best environmental management practices, and who is trained as a QLP.

Beyond the immediate LP supply chain, we work with a large number of expert organizations every day to promote conservation and sustainability. LP employees are often leaders of these organizations, participating at board and committee level to provide our expert leadership and to ensure a process of continual learning and improvement at LP. These organizations include:

Energy Efficiency

Our commitment to long-term environmental sustainability extends to the ways we use all resources – we strive to be efficient in every aspect of our operations, including the way we use energy.

Examples of ways we work to conserve energy every day include:

  • When Capital Projects are developed, every effort is made to specify best available technologies for our power consuming equipment. High efficiency motors and variable speed drive controls contribute to both improved efficiency and reduced power consumption. Energy efficient lighting such as LED light fixtures are installed when facility modifications entail new lighting requirements. Every Capital Project undergoes a review by EHS personnel, which includes an evaluation of the potential for energy usage changes and the effects on carbon emissions.
  • Many of our sites are participants in load curtailment programs that enable the electric utilities to request specific dates and times to reduce power consumption benefitting the grid during peak load periods.
  • Golden, one of our Engineered Wood Products facilities in Canada, operates a power generating turbine enabling efficient use of their excess steam to create power and offset their use of BC Hydro provided energy. Golden averages more than half of their total power consumption from self-generated electricity.

Literature & Certificates

Proposed Development for Public Review — Golden TSA

KMZ files may be viewed by downloading Google Earth.