Sustainable Forestry Tour: Educating the Social Media Generation

Domtar, the Forest Stewardship Council® and Procter & Gamble brands Charmin and Bounty recently hosted two social media influencers during a sustainable forestry tour. It's just one way we're helping to raise awareness for the next generation of digital natives.

Renee Peters and Bella Bucchiotti, both lifestyle bloggers with a robust social media following, visited a hay farm turned pine forest in Arkansas. This forest supplies wood to our Ashdown Mill, which produces pulp that is supplied to customers such as Procter & Gamble for use in tissue and other everyday products.

While visiting this FSC-certified forest, Peters and Bucchiotti observed a variety of plants and wildlife thriving in southwestern Arkansas, nicknamed The Natural State. Our sustainable forestry tour was a perfect opportunity to show how we and others are working to protect our natural resources.

Bloggers Shared How Tour Changed Perceptions

Peters' blog post 'How One Small Tree Farm and a Leading Corporation Helped Fuel My Hope for a Sustainable Future ' recounted her experience:

'I learned firsthand how some of the biggest players in the paper products industry are using responsible, sustainable management practices to actually create healthy forests and foster human wellbeing at the same time. … I saw deer and birds, and even traces of wild boar that regularly bathe in their mud. On a once-degraded hay farm now stand hundreds of thousands of healthy trees. Where there once was a landscape altered by humans harming the natural ecosystem, there now stands one that mirrors the natural local environment. Partnerships like this (of leading corporations, local communities and environmental leaders) may seem like a small win, but this is the kind of collaboration that our planet needs right now. When corporations commit to doing the right thing, they have the potential to create a scalable, positive impact.'

While sharing her sustainable forestry tour experience, Peters highlighted the efforts by Domtar, Procter & Gamble and partners such as World Wildlife Fund, Rainforest Alliance, the Nature Conservancy, FSC and the Four States Timberland Owners Association to promote responsible forest management.

In a video Bucchiotti posted to YouTube, she shared with followers what she learned on the sustainable forestry tour. She included this quote from landowner Allen Morgan: 'FSC hasn't changed our management at all, but it verifies our management. It proves to the rest of the world that what we're doing is correct and it's environmentally friendly. … You can comfortably enjoy it and know that the earth is being treated right.'

Bucchiotti finished the video by saying, 'Knowing that products that I use daily come are coming from a sustainable resource makes me feel so much better about using [them].'

Sustainable Forestry Tour Promotes Eco-Friendly Message

Through events like this sustainable forestry tour and workshops for paper industry professionals, we are sharing a sustainability story with a new generation of manufacturers, consumers and landowners who are committed to environmentally responsible sourcing and manufacturing.

Paige Goff, Domtar's vice president for sustainability, says it's important for companies in the forest products industry, their customers and their nonprofit partners to reach beyond traditional audiences.

'It's refreshing for us to see the forest through a young adult's eyes, especially those who are committed to sustainability and who have platforms to spread the word to many other people who may not be familiar with Domtar,' she says. 'We're proud of our work with customers and landowners to make certification possible and preferred.'

Tags: forest education, sustainable forestry