ACE tree huggers: Carton kings boost sustainable wood fiber use

The seventh annual Proforest report released last week details progress on the Chain of Custody (COC commitment) made by the three carton giants back in 2007.

Together, SIG Combibloc, Tetra Pak and Elopak comprise the Alliance for Beverage Cartons & The Environment or ACE.

ACE said the independent report showed the three companies are on track to meet their commitment of sourcing 100% wood fiber (a softwood and hardwood blend is the main material used to make beverage cartons) traceable to legal and acceptable sources by 2015.

Traceability vital to combat illegal logging – ACE UK​

100% of fiber used in the EU already comes from plants that are FSC COC certified, ACE added, while 46 or 89% of converting plants owned by the three firms worldwide are now FSC COC certified, up from 81% in 2012.

Thus, only six more converting plants must be certified to meet ACE’s commitment of securing COC certification for all manufacturing plants by 2018.

Richard Hands, CEO of ACE UK, said: “Traceability is one of our industry’s most important strategies to combat illegal logging, and is equally important in avoiding socially and environmentally unacceptable sources of wood.”​

Read the Proforest report in full​

Sweden and Finland supply most of the wood fiber for European beverage cartons, and ACE said forest volumes are increasing in these countries, as tree growth exceeds cutting.

*FSC Controlled Wood is the name the UK-based Forest Stewardship Council gives to wood that is still vetted and deemed suitable to form part of an FSC-Certified product.

Certified fiber is fiber supplied by a liquid packaging board (LPB) production facility possessing an appropriate FSC COC certificate, which is sold as certified.

You can read Proforest's full report here​.