BOSTON, MA (News release) -- Sappi North America Inc., a leading producer and supplier of diversified paper, packaging products and pulp, announced today its win of the 2024 SEAL Business Sustainability Awards' Environmental Initiative Award. This prestigious award recognizes Sappi's proactive leadership with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) to enhance SFI's Forest Management and Fiber Sourcing Standards requirements related to climate smart forestry, fire resilience, logger training, due diligence systems and forests of exceptional conservation value. Sappi's commitment to sustainable forestry practices is exemplified by innovative measures to conserve biodiversity, such as landscape-scale assessments and landowner/logger educational and outreach materials, community engagement and cooperative efforts of the SFI Implementation Committees (SICs).

SFI is one of the world's leading independent nonprofit organizations responsible for developing sustainable forestry certification programs. Its standards provide practical, scalable solutions for markets and communities, working with the forest sector and companies such as Sappi.

"We're grateful to receive this honorable recognition from the SEAL Awards," said Rebecca Barnard, Forestry Certification Manager for Sappi North America. "Sappi's certification to the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard includes proactive measures to promote and conserve biodiversity at regional and local levels, an important aspect of our business operations and mission. We are proud to be a leader with SFI and the Maine SIC in our collective achievement to create regional approaches that address the challenging topics of climate change, wildfire risk and biodiversity conservation."

This initiative supports and informs Sappi North America's foresters' efforts to help landowners conserve, preserve and restore biodiversity, which is no simple task for foresters, wildlife biologists and ecologists. Local and regional SICs, like the one in Maine, play a vital role in promoting logger training, landowner outreach, youth and adult education, community engagement, investments in scientific research and ensuring the integrity of SFI's work and responsible forestry at local levels.

SEAL (Sustainability, Environmental Achievement & Leadership) Awards is an environmental advocacy organization that honors leadership through its bustiness sustainability awards and environmental journalism awards. Its Environmental Initiatives award recognizes and honors individual programs that move the needle on environmental progress and demonstrate leadership and commitment to a sustainable future.

To learn more about Sappi's award-winning initiatives, please visit: https://www.sappi.com/.