Verso Paper Corp. has announced that the company has completed a $45 million renewable energy project at its pulp and paper mill in Quinnesec, Michigan. The project includes design upgrades to the mill's existing combination boiler (which burns biomass from waste wood sources), a new biomass handling system, and a new turbine generator. The project is delivering 28 megawatts of additional green energy for consumption within the mill, which is equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed by 18,000 homes in a year.

"The completion of the Quinnesec renewable energy project is a milestone in the implementation of Verso's long-term energy strategy," said Verso President and CEO Mike Jackson. "Besides delivering annual energy savings, the project helps Verso deliver on our commitment to increase our use of renewable biofuel and thereby reduce our carbon footprint."

The boiler upgrades enable the mill to use renewable, carbon-neutral, wood-based biofuel for more than 95 percent of its on-site electricity generation. The new biomass handling system expands the mill's capabilities for processing residual wood such as tree tops, limbs and bark. Verso ensures that the expanded harvesting of this logging residue meets forest sustainability standards. The mill's boilers also will continue to burn black liquor, a byproduct of the wood pulping process.

"In addition to reducing our carbon footprint, these improvements will improve boiler combustion and efficiency and will markedly reduce the mill's reliance on electricity produced from fossil fuels," said Verso Vice President of Energy and Technology Mark Daniel.

Verso began ordering major components for the project in May 2010, construction was begun in October 2010, and the project was completed with the commissioning of the new turbine earlier this month.

Source: Verso Paper Corp.

After careful consideration the organizers of Tissue World, the largest global event for the soft hygienic tissue paper industry, are very pleased to announce that Tissue World 2013 will be held in Barcelona, Spain on 18-21 March 2013. Thus Tissue World – the BIG ONE – will be taking place at the ultra-modern Fira Gran Via Congress center which is conveniently located between the city center and Barcelona's El Prat international airport.

Barcelona offers many positive aspects including the modern Gran Via Congress Center which is 8 km from the airport and 4 km from the city center; excellent direct airline connections to Europe and the rest of the world which are critical for an international show like Tissue World that draws thousands of visitors from 88 countries on every continent; a top-level selection of hotels to fit any budget range; excellent restaurants and nightlife; the Mediterranean flavor and compact size of the city which give it a welcoming, lively yet cozy atmosphere; the mild climate, seafront, beaches and mountains; and Barcelona’s rich history and world-famous architecture.

Survey supports Barcelona and two-year cycle
A confirming factor in the decision to bring the event to Barcelona for the first time was the survey taken last year of all Tissue World visitors and exhibitors, which showed a very clear preference for Barcelona. As an added note, the survey revealed an overwhelming preference for the Tissue World event to remain on a two-year cycle.

After having been held in beautiful Nice for nearly 20 years, the general idea is to begin rotating the big Tissue World event among a selection of cities. Nice continues to be highly appreciated by the attendees and the rotation of the Tissue World events may certainly include Nice in the future.

About Tissue World
The Tissue World show, which started in Nice in 1993, is the BIG ONE in the Tissue World series and is supported by two somewhat smaller regional events. These are Tissue World Asia in Shanghai targeting the Asian market and Tissue World Americas in Miami focusing mainly on the North and South America markets. Tissue World is clearly the leading global event series covering soft hygienic tissue products such as facial tissue, household paper towels, toilet tissue, handkerchiefs and table napkins.

The unique combination of the high-level Senior Management conference, the very targeted, hands-on Technical Sessions and Workshops, and the giant Trade Show featuring essentially all of the world’s suppliers to the tissue business, make Tissue World a ‘must-attend’ event for all tissue professionals. Tissue products are a very important category in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) business, with an estimated global value amounting to USD 70 billion per annum.

For further information, please contact the following offices:

International Sales

Paolo Rampetta

Tel:     +32 2 6461606

Fax:    +32 2 6538034

Mobile: +32 497 050755

Email:   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Asia-Pacific Sales

Gwen Ng/Jessica Pang 

Tel:     +65 6592 0890/893

Fax:    +65 6438 6090

Email:   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Conference/Operations

Agnes Gehot

Tel:     +32 2 6531535

Fax:    +32 2 6538034

Email:   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

AkzoNobel plans to strengthen its position in packaging coatings by exercising the right to buy the remaining shares of Metlac, an Italian based packaging coatings producer. Financial details were not disclosed.

AkzoNobel currently is a shareholder in the Packaging Coatings Metlac Group. This position was inherited from the acquisition of ICI in 2008. The deal underlines the company’s strong commitment to supporting the coatings and inks market for metal packaging by securing the future of a well recognized supplier.

The combination of the two companies will bring value to its customers by leveraging the AkzoNobel global footprint and the product range of Metlac.

"This acquisition will reinforce our customer offering and links perfectly with the strategy to strengthen our positions in core markets", said Leif Darner, Executive Committee member responsible for Performance Coatings.

The completion of the transaction is subject to antitrust approval. The company expects to finalize the acquisition in Q2 2012.

Wausau Paper has announced the appointment of Matthew L. Urmanski to the position of Senior Vice President - Tissue and Michael R. Wildenberg to the position of Senior Vice President - Tissue Strategy effective March 1, 2012.

Mr. Urmanski, 39, joined Wausau Paper in 2000 and has most recently served as Vice President - Administration for the Tissue segment responsible for Tissue strategy, finance and supply chain operations. Matt has played an instrumental role in the development of our Tissue growth strategy and the building of our Tissue operating team.

Mr. Wildenberg joined Wausau Paper in 1981 and has served as Senior Vice President for our Tissue segment since 2009. Mike plans to retire in July and will work with the Tissue leadership team to insure a smooth transition.

Source: Wausau Paper

The market thrives on competition, a concept that also applies to certification schemes. As a  second example of forest certification to be presented in this issue, PEFC International illustrates the importance of certification and the benefits it can bring. As only a small proportion of the world's forests are certified, having a number of reliable players working towards the same goals of sustainability and viability can only be of benefit to companies and other stakeholders.

Much like a forest, new ideas sometimes take a long time to grow and mature. Over time, both forests and ideas become more complex and diverse. Likewise, as a healthy tree that has roots spread in all directions, so the concept of sustainable forest management needs has been drawing from many different sources to produce a specific result.

Today it is accepted that sustainable forestry relies on three integrated and equally important concepts: those of economic viability; ecological soundness; and social justice. To miss any one of these elements dooms any attempt to achieve sustainability in forest management, just as in development.

But this knowledge - given the life span of many trees or human cultures – is a relatively new concept. It wasn't that long ago that we did not understand how necessary it was to have a convergence of the three pillars of sustainability. Today many activities that aim to promote sustainability still focus primarily on one pillar, sometimes with adverse effects on the others.

The concept of sustainable development and the interrelationship of the three pillars was originally popularized in the 1987 Brundtland Report, yet it was at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 where the idea finally took hold. The Rio Earth Summit also led to the initial efforts to define sustainable forest management in the precisely titled "Non-Legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of all Types of Forests." The message coming out of the Rio Earth Summit — that nothing less than a transformation of our attitudes and behaviour would bring about the necessary changes — was heard by millions around the world.

The message reflected the complexity of the problems facing us, and governments recognized the need to redirect international and national plans and policies to ensure that all economic decisions fully took into account environmental and social impacts.

The Summit resulted in five documents that have fundamentally influenced the way our global society views sustainable development:

• The overarching document, the Rio Declaration, defines the rights of people to development, and their responsibilities to safeguard the common environment
• The Agenda 21 document has become a blueprint for action by all types of organizations and initiatives globally, nationally, and locally
• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have both become legally binding documents
• The fifth document, the Forest Principles, is the least well known, yet with its preamble stating that "Forests are essential to economic development and the maintenance of all forms of life", its relevance to the overall concept of sustainable development appears self-evident. Governments, however, could not agree on a globally enforceable framework for sustainable forestry.

The challenges facing the world's forests, and the inability of governments to act, resulted in the birth of the idea of forest certification. This voluntary mechanism provided forest owners with a framework to implement the spirit of the Forest Principles, with guidance on how to manage forests sustainably, and with the opportunity to demonstrate and validate their responsibly practices through independent certification.

Over time, forest certification has become one of the most important tools for the global society to promote sustainable forest management. However, despite major strides in certification, only nine per cent of the world's forests have been certified and 90% of these are in Europe and North America. Similarly, despite some progress in alleviating poverty around the world, population growth means that, in real terms, the number of people living below the poverty line remains high. Poverty is a major cause of deforestation and illegal logging. This situation is further complicated in rapidly emerging economies where land tenure rights have been, to date, ill-defined, weak and still evolving.

Certification, such as PEFC– the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, is one of the mechanisms that offer the potential to contribute to improving livelihoods, particularly in developing countries, and to assist in lifting people out of poverty. Certification is a mechanism that will also assist us in moving towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, notably that by 2020 forests are to be managed sustainably and forest loss is to be halved. This, however, requires us to mainstream forest certification throughout the world and especially in the Global South. To achieve this, all forest certification systems and stakeholders must seek to ensure that our collective efforts to expand forest certification are additive and not duplicative, contributing to an expansion of the overall total certified forest area.

In a world where deforestation continues unabated in many nations, stakeholders must collaborate whenever possible. While PEFC is the larger of the two global forest certification systems, we must utilize the different approaches offered for the betterment of society as a whole. We must agree on a common framework to guide forest certification and its stakeholders in their actions. The Rio Forest Certification Declaration, launched in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, is based on the idea that a common set of principles is needed, a set of principles that provides guidance to all of us about what is needed to better promote and expand forest certification.

It recognizes in its preamble that "The challenge of safeguarding the environmental, social and economic benefits that the world's forests provide is critical for life on Earth. It requires a world in which people manage forests sustainably, a world that recognizes the integral and interdependent nature of our planet, a world that acknowledges and values the significance of rural communities, indigenous peoples, and families that depend on forests for their livelihoods" and states ten principles as a common framework to maximize the benefits that forest certification can offer to society:

• Human beings are at the centre of sustainable forest management
• Recognize and respect national sovereignty in the design and implementation of sustainable forest management policies and standards
• Protect the complexity of forest ecosystems, forest-dependent economies, and rural culture by adopting integrated forest management plans and policies
• Contribute to poverty reduction through empowerment of the poor
• Open and accessible stakeholder processes are essential
• Transparency, inclusiveness, and collaboration are fundamental prerequisites for global sustainability
• Utilize the benefits of renewable and climate-smart forestbased products
• Rely on science, local experience, and traditional forest-related knowledge to advance sustainable forest management
• Use a precautionary approach to prevent irreversible damage
• Promoting global acceptance of sustainable forest management through voluntary programmes and education is the fastest path to healthy forests and vibrant rural communities.

The Rio Forest Certification Declaration picks up on ideas that have previously emerged in other documents, including the 1992 Rio Declaration, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Agenda 21, the UN Charter, and the Forest Principles, to establish a framework that all stakeholders should be able to support.

The Aichi Biodiversity Targets require us to manage forests sustainably, and to balance the environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainability. Without all three, forests will not be protected, family foresters cannot thrive, forest dependent communities cannot exist, illegal logging will not be abated, and carbon pollution will not be mitigated.

Forest certification has proven to be one of the most effective and successful mechanisms to promote sustainable forest management. This movement needs further support and guidance, and principles such as those outlined in the Rio Forest Certification Declaration may provide the necessary framework to allow forest certification to thrive and further develop.

As the Aichi Biodiversity Targets require the commitment of all of us, so does forest certification. With only nine per cent of the world's forests certified as sustainably managed after 17 years of forest certification, and over 90% of these forests located in the Global North, it behoves all of us to identify and remove the barriers for expanding sustainable forest management and its certification, especially in the Global South.

"Forest certification has proven to be one of the most effective and successful mechanisms to promote sustainable forest management. This movement needs further support and guidance, and principles such as those outlined in the Rio Forest Certification Declaration may provide the necessary framework to allow forest certification to thrive"

Forest certification, guided by globally applicable principles such as those laid out in the Rio Forest Certification Declaration, should be integrated in the work of all stakeholders in order to best contribute to the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

APP Timber (initially incorporated as Asia Panel Products hence "APP Timber"), PEFC International is pleased to welcome the first Asian-based company in its membership. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, APP Timber specializes in the supply of imported timber-related products for the Asian timber industry.

"We appreciate the commitment to sustainable forest management and forest certification that APP Timber is demonstrating through its membership in PEFC," said Ben Gunneberg, PEFC Secretary General. "There is a growing interest in forest certification in Asia, with Malaysia featuring the only internationally recognized national forest certification system in Asia and China joining PEFC earlier this year. We are looking forward to collaborating with APP Timber."

APP Timber sells logs, sawn timber, components and veneers, and provides expertise to Asian manufacturers. Customers are mainly producing furniture, flooring, doors and other products which are predominantly exported to the USA, Europe and Japan. In addition, APP Timber provides a range of wood products to the domestic building industry. APP Timber also provides export service of Asian-made products to overseas buyers.

"We are committed to long-term forest management to ensure productive, healthy forests for future generations, and we believe that this requires all parties involved in the production of wood products to work together," emphasized Michael Hermens, Managing Director of APP Timber. "PEFC is an organization based on social dialogue, and thus it is only natural for a company such as APP Timber to support its activities."

International Stakeholder membership is open to entities operating in two or more countries, or legally registered as international organizations. Companies, organizations and associations whose principles and objectives are supportive of PEFC are welcome to apply. International Stakeholder members have the same rights and obligations as all other PEFC members.

Current International Stakeholder members include:

APP Timber
Building and Wood workers' International (BWI)
Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF)
Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI)
Earth Focus Foundation
European Network of Forest Entrepreneurs (ENFE)
European Tissue Symposium (ETS)
International Family Forestry Alliance (IFFA)
Metsaliitto Group
StoraEnso

"There is growing demand for PEFC certified products, both sawn timber and fiber-based products. Obtaining PEFC certification for the management of our forest holdings allows us to satisfy the demand from an increasing number of customers specifying PEFC," said Mats Sandgren, President of SCA Skog.

PEFC certification was conducted simultaneously with this year's FSC audit by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden. The certification is valid for all SCA Skog's five forest districts.

PEFC's sustainable forest management criteria are large parts aligned with FSC's criteria. In some areas, however, they require greater commitment than before, SCA reported. SCA must, among other things, require contractors involved in harvesting, silviculture and planning to obtain PEFC contractor certification to continue to receive work assignments from SCA.

"We congratulate SCA for achieving PEFC certification and for raising the bar for its sustainable forest management activities even further," commented Ben Gunneberg, Secretary General of PEFC International.

PEFC, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, is an international not-for-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting sustainable forest management through independent third party certification.

SCA Skog is responsible for forestry management of SCA's extensive forest holding and wood procurement to SCA's Swedish forest industry operations. SCA´s forest holding comprise 2.6 million hectares in northern Sweden, of which 2 million hectares is managed for timber production.

SCA Skog is part of SCA's Forest Products business area, which produces publication papers for newspapers, magazines and catalogues, as well as pulp, solid-wood products and renewable energy, in addition to offering cost-efficient transport solutions to SCA's units.

Measurement engineering specialist intensifies its presence in the Middle East in a joint venture with the Abudawood Group

After a 10-year collaboration with Saudi Arabian sales company Anasia (Abudawood Group), measurement engineering and automation specialist Endress+Hauser will establish a joint venture to seal the partnership and intensify the local market presence.

The new Endress+Hauser sales center, Endress+Hauser Arabia LLC, is a joint venture between the Endress+Hauser Group and Anasia, sister company to the Abudawood Group. Both companies have cooperated closely and successfully in Saudi Arabia in the past. The new sales center will start business with 35 people and will operate from three locations.

With headquarters in the coastal town of Al Khobar, two other offices are located in the capital, Riyadh, and in Jeddah. A service base will be maintained at the Jubail petrochemical complex. Next to the oil & gas industry, power generation, water & wastewater and seawater desalination are other important industries. Craig Horan will assume responsibility as General Manager, having coordinated the Saudi Arabian activities in the past.

“We are pleased that the excellent partnership of the past can now continue on a new and more intensive footing,” said Michael Ziesemer, COO of the Endress+Hauser Group. “Our aim is to be closer to our customers in the rapidly growing Middle East markets.” The new sales center will be supported by the Endress+Hauser Middle East Support Center in Dubai.

FM Global, one of the world’s largest business property insurers, has appointed Rod Fisher as senior vice president of underwriting and reinsurance.

In his new role, based at the company’s Johnston, R.I. USA-based corporate offices, Fisher will be responsible for the company’s overall underwriting and reinsurance functions. Previously, he served as senior vice president and manager of the company’s Central (U.S.) division, based in Park Ridge, Ill., USA where he was responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of the division, which serves clients in 22 U.S. states.

Fisher joined FM Global in 1985 as a field engineer, became a claims adjuster in 1987 and has held several management positions in sales and underwriting before being named a client service manager in 1999. In 2000, he was appointed vice president and operations manager for Los Angeles operations located in Woodland Hills, Calif., USA.

In 2002, he was recognized by Business Insurance magazine as one of the industry’s “35 Rising Stars” for his work on FM Global’s Client Servicing Process.

Fisher graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from Oregon State University and holds the CPCU designation from the American Institute of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters.