WWF GFTN, ITC plan to go green - Economic Times
July 12, 2009
WWF-INDIA and ITC have joined hands to promote sustainable forest management practices.
Since ITC's Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division (ITC PSPD) draws from the corporate commitment to the triple bottomline and continuously works towards becoming the benchmark for sustainable practices in the paper industry in all areas of its operations, the company's PSPD has signed the agreement of membership with WWF GFTN (Global Forest and Trade Network).
Incidentally, GFTN is WWF's initiative to eliminate illegal logging and improve the management of valuable and threatened forests, encourage sustainable forest management practices and minimise the forest footprint of industries trading in or procuring forest goods.
Following the agreement, ITC will seek to progressively cover the wood sourced from its farm and social forestry programmes under a credible forest management scheme like Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The increasing volume of certified fibre sourced from these plantations will enable ITC to offer discerning customers products labelled under credible Chain of Custody certification schemes like FSC.
It will include business to business products such as packaging boards, graphic application boards, a wide range of communication papers and the consumer range of paper products like Paperkraft copier and Classmate notebooks marketed by ITC's education and stationery products business.
''ITC's participation in the GFTN is in line with the company's commitment to sustainable forestry management and manufacture of paperboards and paper products from renewable plantations'', Pradeep Dhobale, divisional chief executive of ITC's Paperboards & Specialty Papers Division stated in the official communiqué
