Earth Day 2020: How Our Operations are Taking Par

These are unprecedented times and as we stay #aparttogether we are afforded more of an opportunity to appreciate the nature around us.   As a company, we care deeply amount the communities we live and work in. Because of this, our operations are continuously working to reduce our footprint on air, land and water as well as invest in research and conservation with valued partners.  As we celebrate Earth Day 2020, we're sharing some of those stories from across our teams.

Woodlands

Our Irving Woodlands team have been looking after forests for over 135 years.  It is about more than just trees.  It also means ensuring that we are storing carbon. We have quality wildlife habitat, biodiversity and clean water. 

We know that over the next 100 years, the climate is going to continue to change. That is why we are investing in research to understand the effects of climate change on our forests and the wildlife and plants that depend on it. 

Recently, we conducted a moose study - to help us further understand the effects winter ticks have on our moose population. We are fortunate have 16 partners, 7 researchers and 7 graduate students alongside of us during this 5 year study. 

The project will focus on three main areas of research: 1) Moose physical health, population dynamics, and space use in response to variations in winter tick infestations; 2) The epidemiology of the winter tick in relation to other parasites, the abundance of moose, and environmental changes; and 3) The development of a concerted scientific approach to improve monitoring and our ability to adapt to ecological change.

How else is our Woodlands team helping to fight climate change?

• By growing more trees than we harvest - 1 billion and counting
  • This helps maintain a net carbon sink from growing forests
• By investing over $1.5 million annually in forest research 
  • More than 150 research projects related to forest and habitat health to date
• We focus on tree improvement with world-first patents which have led to naturally stronger and more resilient trees
• By finding a better way every day with our technology for precision forestry
• By growing the number of conservation areas to over 1600 ... and counting

Pulp & Paper

The Pulp & Paper team has invested more than $140 million to reduce green house gas emissions. Since Canada's signing of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016, the Pulp & Paper Division has already met and exceeded the target set by Canada for 2030 by more than 20%.  With a long-term strategy to reduce, reuse and recycle the Pulp & Paper team is working towards a greener tomorrow. The reduction in green house gas emissions has been fueled by moving towards renewable energy, energy reduction through the use of LED lighting throughout our sites, and leading-edge technology that reduces our carbon footprint.  Today we are exceeding Paris Climate Change Accord targets.

Sawmills

At the end of 2019 JDI's Sawmill in Ashland, Maine turned on a turbine that would greatly reduce the site's carbon footprint. The turbine was part of a $1.8 million dollar investment in the mill which also included an upgrade to the boilers and an additional control room. 

In addition to the turbine, our sawmills team takes residual sawdust that happens when lumber is cut and turns it into wood pellets for power plants all over the world. This replaces coal for power generation and fossil fuel for heating and has a massive impact on CO2 emissions.

Atlantic Towing

Atlantic Towing Limited (ATL) has always taken a leading approach to protect the areas they work in and their surrounding ecosystems, continue to improve their environmental footprint each day, and assist in mitigation and prevention of environmental disasters through partnerships with oil spill response organizations. It is paramount that through continuous improvement they have continued to reduce our emissions through vessel optimization and clean energy systems, limit underwater noise from the vessels through comprehensive and adaptive vessel operations in every area during varying weather, and expand and improve the relationships with Indigenous and surrounding communities to limit our impact and improve our stewardship in their lives.

Some of the ways ATL do this is through the following:

• Investment in Tier III engines and integrated battery systems in new vessels;
• An Energy Management System employed on their vessels to optimize fuel consumption through real time analytics, ultimately reducing our emissions;
• Steward in the voluntary Green Marine participation program where they were the first Atlantic Canadian shipowner to join back in 2007, and currently lead all tug and OSV operators by the scoring criteria;
• Developed Marine Mammal Management Plans to distribute to all the vessels to ensure they operate correctly and with awareness to the natural habits of whales and other marine ecosystems in Eastern, Western and Northern Canada;
• All vessels burn clean, low sulphur marine diesel oil;
• Use preventative and condition based maintenance practices to further optimize their engines’ health to improve on fuel economy.

Kent Homes

Our team and Kent Homes in Bouctouche, NB, draw their plans in MiTek® software for all wall panels and roof trusses used in their facility. Once the Engineering part of the design is done, the file is sent through another MiTek® software called Board Stretcher™. This software optimizes all the lumber cuts based on length of studs required and a list is sent to the saw detailing what size of lumber to load into the saw. In the past the scraps were sent to a dumpster to be discarded as waste. In the saw software small pieces are used, leaving virtually no waste in this process.

Atlas Structural Systems

Atlas Structural Systems has been producing pre-engineered roof systems since 1988. They expanded their business to include wall and floor systems in 2010. These prefabricated structural products have been efficiently built in a controlled environment with systems in place to minimize the amount of wasted material resulting in a 55% on-site reduction of lumber waste. Currently, all existing lumber waste is re-used.

Kent Building Supplies

In an effort to lower their carbon footprint, Kent Building Supplies is now using LED lighting in many stores and has also  installed in-rack motion sensors that turn lights off and on,  further reducing energy consumption.