In the United States (US) Enviva Holdings LP, the world's largest wood pellet producer has published its 2020 Impact Report, which details the progress made in 2020 to implement the company’s Responsible Sourcing Policy (RSP) provisions in its operations. Enviva’s RSP provides strict sourcing guidelines that hold the company to the "highest standards of sustainability, integrity, forest stewardship, and continuous improvement" and serves as the guiding principle for its global wood sourcing.
To continue to deliver on the company’s commitment to responsible and sustainable wood sourcing, in early 2020, it set out new goals and initiatives, defined as its 2020 Implementation Plans.
These plans are set in three key areas: sustainable forestry standards, verification and transparency, and conservation leadership across the US Southeast, where the company owns and operates wood pellet production plants – nine wood pellet plants across six states with a total permitted capacity of over 5.3 million tonnes.
Since the COVID 19 pandemic took hold in early 2020, we worked effectively to deliver on our goals in spite of the uncertainty we faced. And because we made good progress and found new ways to work and collaborate with partners despite the pandemic, I am especially proud to publish our second Impact Report, highlighting our 2020 progress and achievements, said Dr Jennifer Jenkins, VP, and Chief Sustainability Officer at Enviva.
This is the company’s second Impact Report, closing out the yearly cycle which marks the last step in Enviva’s annual RSP reporting cadence.
Some of the key accomplishments cited in the 2020 Impact Report are:
- The publication of Enviva’s first Corporate Sustainability Report, featuring a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and a discussion of the company’s sustainability journey from its inception in 2004 to the present;
- Enviva created and reported a custom Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Index by drawing material variables from the Biofuels, Pulp & Paper, Forest Management, and Industrials categories. This voluntary disclosure of data is an innovative first in the biomass industry and was vetted by a third-party verification body, Bureau Veritas;
- Enviva made good progress on its five-year partnership with The Longleaf Alliance to restore longleaf forest systems across its sourcing regions. Some examples include increasing the company’s purchasing from restoration projects on public lands and conducting outreach to private landowners interested in establishing or improving longleaf.
- The company announced a partnership with Finite Carbon via its CORE platform, which will create high-quality, credible forest offsets within its supply regions; and
- Enviva partnered with GoChain to conduct a pilot program designed to enhance the traceability of its pellets using blockchain technology. Given the pilot’s success, Enviva anticipates further exploration and piloting of blockchain.
