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Tembec releases sustainability report

“We are proud of our sustainability achievements and will continue to maintain responsible business practices that are harmonized with social and environmental considerations,” said James Lopez, Tembec’s President and CEO. “Tembec depends on renewable resources, and we know forward-thinking stewardship of those resources will ensure a sound future for all concerned.”

The 2011 Sustainability Report focuses on Tembec’s approach and results in five areas: health and safety, forest certification, stakeholder engagement, energy and greenhouse gases, and air and wastewater quality. In each of these areas, recent Tembec achievements underline the Company’s commitment to sustainability:

Health & Safety: Tembec has reduced its OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) incident rate by 76% since the inception of a health and safety plan in 2007.

Forest certification: Tembec is one of the few companies with Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certification on 100% of the public forestlands under its management. Earlier this month, Tembec increased its FSC-certified forestlands to 10.8 million hectares, an area more than twice the size of Switzerland. Certification follows a third-party audit process that shows that forest management practices comply with stringent FSC forest operations standards governing environmental and social responsibility.

Stakeholder engagement: Tembec took a leadership role in the multistakeholder approach announced in June 2012 to develop an action plan designed to protect the woodland caribou, an endangered species, and sustain communities and forestry businesses in Ontario’s northeast.

Energy and greenhouse gases: A $190 million investment now underway at Tembec’s flagship Temiscaming, Québec, facility will increase annual production of green electricity by up to 40 megawatts, and reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 70%.

Air and wastewater quality: In October 2012, our Matane, Quebec high-yield pulp mill became the third Tembec facility to use an anaerobic wastewater effluent treatment facility that produces methane biogas, which reduces fossil fuel usage.

The 2011 Sustainability Report, Tembec’s first, was developed using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) version 3.1 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.