By John Mulcahy, VP - Stewardship at Georgia-Pacific LLC
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / August 26, 2025 / During the 2025 Georgia Forestry Association Conference on Jekyll Island, I participated in a panel discussion titled "Insights from Corporate Brands on Sustainability and Transparency". What transpired during and after that session was an incredible dialog between some of our country's largest and most sustainable brands and the landowners and loggers who have responsibly managed Georgia's working forests for generations. Hundreds of landowners in the room had the opportunity to hear directly from Georgia-Pacific, Mary Tucker (Walmart), Chris Weber (Kimberly-Clark), and Maureen Kline (Pirelli Tire North America) about their sustainable forestry strategies. Those of us representing these brands, in turn, had the opportunity to hear landowners talk about their efforts to be good stewards of their land for future generations, as well as the economic challenges and realities they face as small business owners. These discussions went a long way towards improving knowledge and understanding across our value chain and we should have them more often.
Forests are essential to our society. They help protect air and water quality, support plant and wildlife biodiversity, sequester carbon, offer recreational opportunities, and provide economic value. Companies like Georgia-Pacific rely on forests to produce products and services that help people improve their lives, providing solutions that create shelter, improve hygiene, facilitate the convenient delivery of food, and protect goods as they move through the supply chain. As a company that doesn't own forests but relies on them for the wood and wood fiber used to make the building and paper products society values, we are committed to using these resources efficiently and reducing waste and helping maintain healthy forests not only in the areas in which we operate, but also in other areas where forests are at risk.
Regardless of where one stands in the value chain, we are united in our recognition of the value that forests provide and the need to manage them responsibly. In the United States, we have been managing forests sustainably. Since 1920, the U.S. population has more than tripled, while per capita GDP rose tenfold. As our society built homes, diapered babies, printed schoolbooks, and shipped goods, forested acres in the United States have remained stable. Changes in land use have been common, as certain timberlands are converted for development, infrastructure, and agricultural use when they provide higher value to their owners. Other lands are reforested or afforested when forest ecosystems are more valuable. The primary cause of forest cover loss in the U.S. is the relative value of alternative use for the land, not timber production.
Strong markets for timber and related ecosystem services create economic incentives for landowners to keep forests as forests. The reason that a log truck is pulling up to the scales right now at Georgia-Pacific's sawmill in Warrenton, Georgia, is that someone needs a house. And when the mill cuts those logs, the reason they're going to ship the residual chips to our pulp mill in Brunswick, Georgia, is that there's a baby that needs a diaper. After a harvest, if a landowner has confidence that they'll be able to sell timber from thinnings to a pulp mill 15 years from now and saw timber to a lumber mill 25 years from now, they're more likely to replant.
Our customers, consumers, and other constituents want to do business with ethical and responsible companies and ensure that their practices aren't contributing to deforestation. The timber industry in the United States, where GP purchases more than 90% of our wood fiber, has materially different dynamics than Brazil, where a few large companies manage millions of hectares of land. Canada is materially different from both countries, as much of their timberland is owned by the Crown, who establishes forest management expectations. As we create policies to support these objectives, we need to ensure that these policies recognize the local markets and don't create unnecessary costs or disadvantage small family landowners in a way that leads to more land use change instead of less - the exact opposite of the policy's intended outcome.
Forestry certification is an important part of our stewardship strategy. Georgia-Pacific holds several sustainable forestry certifications, including FSC®, SFI®, and PEFC, and maintains them through regular third-party audits across all our operating areas. When I speak of certification, I'm referring to both chain of custody, which allows brands to track certified material through the supply chain and programs like SFI Certified Sourcing and FSC Controlled Wood, which ensure responsible forest procurement practices and screen out high-risk sources.
All of Georgia-Pacific's fiber purchases comply with procurement certification standards, ensuring legal and sustainable sourcing practices. These certificates provide evidence that our practices are sustainable but cannot be the extent of our actions to be good stewards of the resources entrusted to our care. They also must make sense for the landowners. Here in Georgia, there are more than 24 million acres of forestland, of which roughly 115,000 have FSC Forest Management certification (Source: FSC Acreage by State - 2022). That's less than one half of one percent. Clearly, landowners haven't seen value in taking on the administrative burden of certification, particularly if they only plan on harvesting once or twice a generation.
Some recent traceability requirements, which seek to ensure that all parcels of land that are harvested to produce a specific product are replanted, are also problematic in the context of U.S. ownership patterns. As we looked at one of Georgia-Pacific's large pulp mills, we determined that, in any given year, more than 10,000 different landowners are providing fiber to that mill. A bit over half of these landowners send fiber directly to the mill, primarily during thinning operations, and the balance comes from sawmills who send us residual chips from logs they've processed. The logs and chips are mixed at scores of different sites, both GP-owned and 3rd-party. The following year, it will also be more than 10,000, with little overlap. It is therefore impossible to know which specific plot of land grew the trees for an individual roll of pulp. As a result, the policies of a single customer or country create a de facto requirement for that mill's entire purchasing practices, potentially excluding landowners who can't commit to replanting due to their own personal incentives.
Forest landowners in the United States have been demonstrating that they're good stewards of their property for over a century. Private property rights, a free market, and the rule of law create incentives for them to continue to be. We should be wary of imposing broad requirements that restrict market access and unintentionally make other uses of land more attractive. Increasing knowledge of their specific supply chain puts companies in a better position to conduct sourcing in a way that supports their stewardship priorities and those of their customers. As a large U.S. forest products company, Georgia-Pacific has over 100 foresters and wood buyers who live and work in our wood basins. We have developed strong relationships with the loggers and landowners who help us to ensure that our expectations are met. This knowledge informs our Statement on Forest Stewardship and helps us to build the tools that will help us meet our customers' expectations and continue to support a thriving forest products industry for generations to come.
License numbers: FSC-C108208, SFI-00007, PEFC/29-31-221
View original content here.
Harvest operation, Madison GA
View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Georgia-Pacific Corporation on 3blmedia.com.
Contact Info:
Spokesperson: Georgia-Pacific Corporation
Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/georgia-pacific
Email: info@3blmedia.com
SOURCE: Georgia-Pacific Corporation
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/industrial-and-manufacturing/successful-forest-stewardship-relies-on-a-deeper-understanding-of-loca-1065441
