Remarks by Executive Vice President, Richard
C. Gozon
To: Third Global Conference on Paper and the
Environment
London, England
March 28, 1995
As the pulp and paper industry speeds toward
the future, it's useful to examine our progress
and consider where our next steps will take us.
Let me start with my company's position today.
Weyerhaeuser is the world's largest producer of
market pulp and softwood lumber. We own or manage
over 9 million hectares of forestland in the
United States and Canada. We're also one of the
United States' largest recycling companies.
That perspective gives Weyerhaeuser a clear
view of the challenge ahead: reducing our
environmental impact and maintaining healthy,
diverse forests.
We accept that challenge. Last year at this
conference, Weyerhaeuser President Jack Creighton
described how our company is meeting it by defining
a clear vision for the future and identifying
measurable steps to reach our objectives. That
approach has not changed, but we can see the path
ahead more clearly than before. So I want to talk
about two things today:
- Making our vision as realistic as
possible by taking a holistic approach to
manufacturing, and then
- Staying on course toward our goals by
listening to and involving the public.
At Weyerhaeuser, we see a future in which we
manage sustainable forests while protecting
forest values such as wildlife habitat and water
quality. We expect to operate efficient,
increasingly closed-cycle manufacturing
facilities that produce valued forest products
without negatively impacting the environment. And
our plans include a financially successful
company that satisfies worldwide customers while
providing incomes for our employees, shareholders
and the communities in which we operate.
Those expectations for our future may sound
complex, and justly so. When viewed from afar,
anything looks simple. As we approach our goals,
however, they take three-dimensional shape.
That's why we're working to perceive- and then
create-a future that's multi-faceted, that not
only exists in words but functions in reality.
The more clearly and realistically we can see
that future, the more practical steps we can take
to get there.
Furthermore, we're finding that progress
toward our future requires not isolated leaps but
a series of interconnected steps. Our industry
has lots of experience thinking about
manufacturing not as isolated processes, but as
interdependent systems. We're applying a similar
approach to our forests-managing the spectrum of
forest resources, not just the trees. Part of
today's challenge is to carry that
multi-dimensional "systems approach" a
step farther- to our industry's place in human
society. That requires a holistic perspective
that considers not only environmental performance
and ecological balance, but also social and
economic balances.
That's a broad perspective. But as we work
toward our future, it becomes increasingly clear
that only a holistic view will allow us to take
sensible steps today while making sure we
continue to move toward our ultimate goals.
Let me give you an example. Weyerhaeuser's
vision includes manufacturing facilities in
harmony with their environments. The kraft
pulping process has potential to be one of the
most efficient industrial processes in existence.
By closing process cycles, we can substantially
reduce water use and nearly eliminate waste (and
environmental impacts). Process chemicals can be
generated from air and water. Surplus energy can
help fill the needs of our communities.
We're getting closer to that goal, but we
aren't there yet. Our priority is to maintain
uncompromised product performance and purity
while we reduce environmental impacts. Recycling
bleach-plant effluents in a closed-loop process
represents a significant step. It's not the only
step, though, and for many mills it may not be
the most important one to take first.
How do we decide which improvements represent
the most profound progress for a given situation?
We believe that sound decision-making requires
two elements.
First is a holistic approach that
incorporates:
- Meeting customer needs for product
performance and purity.
- Sustainable forestry.
- Clean manufacturing through waste
reduction.
- Sustainable economics.
- Public involvement and open
communication.
To integrate these perspectives into wise
decisions, we need a second element: a
discipline for decision-making. Life-cycle
inventories are one emerging tool for identifying
and measuring the cumulative environmental
impacts of a product or process. Such a
structured approach is then integrated with
strategic economic planning. Jointly, they ensure
that our environmental improvement proceeds
effectively and in a fiscally responsible manner.
That's important because our industry's
long-term economic success impacts our ability to
make further environmental improvements. True
sustainability includes not only sustainable
forests or sustainable manufacturing, but also
sustainable economics. At the same time, we at
Weyerhaeuser believe that financial rewards flow
inevitably from satisfied customers. Achieving
that satisfaction requires quality products
manufactured with minimum waste. That includes
waste that impacts our environment. Our overall
task, then, is to minimize negative environmental
impacts while maximizing our positive economic
and social impacts.
To achieve that, Weyerhaeuser is developing
and implementing a set of Environmental
Management Systems . They're based on a
proactive, diagnostic approach to environmental
decision-making. We expect these systems to help
us recognize and act on improvement
opportunities. They will also help us integrate
multiple efforts to better manage our
environmental performance from a comprehensive
viewpoint.
We're also monitoring the emergence of other
tools being developed worldwide. Weyerhaeuser
hopes inter-national cooperation will yield
credible, workable environmental management
principles and standards. We expect
Weyerhaeuser's Environmental Management Systems
to dovetail with such efforts, and we intend to
continue participating in their debate,
development and application.
Meanwhile, Weyerhaeuser increasingly depends
on another resource that's helping guide our
progress. That resource is the public.
At Weyerhaeuser, we accept responsibility for
the environmental stewardship of the forests and
communities in which we operate. To meet that
responsibility, however, we need to understand a
variety of perspectives-not just our own.
Everyone has a stake in a healthy environment and
sustainable forests. The broader viewpoints of
our customers, shareholders, employees and
neighbors can help keep us on track as we
progress toward the future. Conversely, if we
don't align ourselves with public values, our
neighbors can erect market or regulatory barriers
that make it difficult for us to do business.
That realization has prompted Weyerhaeuser to actively
listen to the public . For instance, since
1994 our company president and an executive vice
president have held five public meetings in
Washington and Oregon. Over 1,200 citizens
participated, many offering impassioned opinions
on environmental issues, jobs and product
development. Even participants who were
dissatisfied with our past performance said they
appreciated our willingness to listen. So we're
evaluating more ways to get feedback from our
neighbors. For example, our operations in Grande
Prairie, Alberta, and Longview, Washington,
include community advisory panels. Our goal is to
form two more ongoing panels in the United States
by year-end.
We've also made listening mistakes. In the
past, when people complained about the appearance
of harvested areas, we tried to explain the
benefits of our practices without hearing the
message that we might need to change them. Today
Weyerhaeuser foresters are responding to public
concern about harvest aesthetics by better
understanding public values, learning about
landscape architecture, and trying new
harvest-planning techniques. The results include
smaller, more irregular harvested areas that
blend better with the landscape. We'll continue
such changes to address evolving public views.
In addition, we're working to incorporate more
customer input into our daily business. Our
technical and marketing experts, particularly
here in Europe, increasingly serve as a channel
for customers and the public to communicate with
the company. They've also forged effective
communication links with governmental agencies
and environmental organizations.
These listening efforts are proving essential
for anticipating public issues and understanding
market expectations. To take advantage of those
valuable inputs, however, we must also
respond.
At Weyerhaeuser, one way we're responding is
by incorporating public opinion into our
management plans. For example, our six regional
Forest Councils in the United States gathered
public input on forest protection issues most
important to the citizens of each region. We
discovered consistency in people's biggest
concerns: water and soil quality, wildlife
habitat and aesthetics, as well as affordable
wood products. So in October we announced a new
set of Weyerhaeuser Forestry Resource Goals that
outline the broad steps our company will take to
protect these important resources on all our U.S.
forestlands. Now each Forest Council will use
what we've heard locally to develop progress
measurements and implement specific
forest-management practices that respond to local
needs in achieving those overall resource goals.
As we proceed, we will share our performance
results with the public.
One of the tools we use to communicate that
kind of performance information is our
environmental annual report. It describes our
objectives, communicates progress, and solicits
feedback toward continuous improvement in our
14-mill system. For instance, our 1994 report
shows a decade of substantial reductions in:
- Chlorine use.
- Chlorinated organics.
- Total suspended solids.
- Biological oxygen demand.
- Total reduced sulfur.
- Total treated effluent.
When current projects are complete, we expect
to achieve even greater reductions. But we're
still not satisfied, and we'll continue working
toward our minimum-impact goals.
Finally, we respond to customer input about
changing market needs. Customers have asked for
products made with more recycled fiber and less
chlorine-without sacrificing product quality or
cost-efficiency. In response, we've doubled our
use of recycled fiber in the past five years.
We're currently converting one of our mills to
use 100 percent recycled fiber. We're also
participating in a joint venture that's building
another. This year, Weyerhaeuser will recover
nearly 3 million tons of wastepaper, and we plan
to reach 6 million tons by 1998.
We're also responding to customer concerns
about product quality and the environment by
completing over $1 billion in mill modernizations
in 1995. Modernizations currently planned and
under way will not only increase product
performance but also improve air and water
quality, reduce energy and chemical requirements,
and enable us to dramatically reduce or eliminate
all chlorinated organics from our pulp mill
effluents as we progress toward minimum-impact
manufacturing.
So we're listening to market needs and
public expectations, and we're responding .
To further speed progress toward our vision,
Weyerhaeuser is taking one more step: directly involving
our neighbors.
For example, Weyerhaeuser has found public
collaboration very effective with our pioneering
efforts in watershed analysis. In this innovative
forest-management approach, we work with other
landowners and interest groups to assess the
water quality, soil stability and fish habitat of
a particular forested river basin. Then we
jointly develop management prescriptions to
protect and enhance those resources for the
future. Government officials, Native American
tribes, university scientists and environmental
groups participate throughout the process. We
first tested this proactive, nonregulatory
approach when we voluntarily initiated Washington
state's first full-scale watershed analysis in
1993. That effort addressed 26,000 hectares of
forestland around the Tolt River, which supplies
a third of the drinking water for the city of
Seattle. Since then, Weyerhaeuser has completed
11 other watershed analyses and plans 5 to 10
more in 1995. Each is a valuable opportunity to
involve others in protecting forest resources on
a large scale.
The International Model Forest program offers
another way to involve the public in
environmental improvement. Weyerhaeuser
participates in the Prince Albert Model Forest in
Saskatchewan, Canada. We're working with other
forestland users there to balance diverse demands
on forest resources while protecting the
ecosystem.
It's a delicate balance. To achieve it-in
Saskatchewan and on all of the forestland
Weyerhaeuser manages-we'll continue listening to
public input and responding to customer needs.
We're learning as we go. In addition, we believe
that open communication and public involvement
are crucial to maintaining consumer confidence in
us and in our products.
Constructive dialogue with the public also
helps warn us of tempting shortcuts that might
lead us astray from our ultimate goals. For
example, the feedback Weyerhaeuser has received
reveals that people's concern about clear-cutting
reflects a more fundamental worry about overall
forest conservation and sustainability, including
water quality, wildlife and biodiversity. Such
information helps focus finite resources as we
proceed with the improvements that contribute the
most toward mutual environmental goals.
Similarly, our steps toward eliminating
bleach-plant effluent must be taken with regard
for impacts on product purity, air quality, solid
waste and economic feasibility. Such a
disciplined approach will lead to very different
conclusions for different mill sites, because we
have not just today's stage of the journey to
consider, but tomorrow's as well.
It will take a long, coordinated effort to
reach our vision of the future. Weyerhaeuser has
made mistakes, but we're learning. In addition,
we feel we've taken a significant step away from
adversarial relationships and toward cooperation,
which yields better results for everyone. That's
important because everyone must participate in
environmental improvement. Our unique
responsibilities as pulp and paper manufacturers
include:
- Creating a holistic vision of our future.
- Setting our course and establishing
checkpoints.
- Communicating openly and involving the
public.
We've made progress toward our vision in 1994.
We expect to proceed even farther in 1995, and
beyond. Through unprecedented technological
innovation and increasing alignment with public
values, the pulp and paper business holds the
potential to become the environmental benchmark
for industry. Already our industry features many
advantages:
- Renewable raw materials.
- Safe, affordable and indispensable
products that contain recycled fiber and
can be recycled again.
- Energy efficiency, with much of our needs
generated from natural waste materials.
- Recovery and reuse of process chemicals.
To those industry advantages, we can add
healthy, sustainable forests; holistic,
minimum-impact manufacturing; and community
involvement and communication. But only if we
stay on course, make wise and disciplined
choices, and listen. We at Weyerhaeuser are
prepared and eager for that challenge.
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