Abitibi-Consolidated first registered under CSA PLUS Chain of Custody Standard in Quebec
October 18 2004 - 10:01AM
PR Newswire (US)
Abitibi-Consolidated first registered under CSA PLUS Chain of
Custody Standard in Quebec A (TSX) ABY (NYSE) MONTREAL, Oct. 18
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. (TSX: A; NYSE:
ABY) today announced that its Quebec-West Woodlands Division and
Champneuf Sawmill are the first in Quebec to be certified by the
Canadian Standards Association (CSA) under standard CSA PLUS 1163 -
Chain of Custody for Forest Products Originating from a Defined
Forest Area Registered to CAN/CSA-Z809. This standard is designed
to chart the progress of fibre used by sawmills from its
point-of-origin in forests that have been certified under the CSA's
sustainable forest management standard. CSA PLUS 1163 certification
is a voluntary process designed to assess the ability to manage a
chain of custody system. The certification process requires that
independent experts audit the Company's performance against a set
of objective standards and procedures for chain of custody. The
Quality Management Institute (QMI) conducted Abitibi-Consolidated's
third party audits on the Quebec-West Woodlands Division and
Champneuf Sawmill and recommended that the systems of the two
operations be registered under CSA PLUS. "Abitibi-Consolidated is
the first Company in Quebec to implement a chain of custody and to
be audited by a third party," stated, Louis-Marie Bouchard Senior
Vice-President, Woodlands & Sawmill Operations. "With this
system successfully implemented and certified, the Company has
demonstrated its proactive approach to meet the needs of customers
who request assurances about the percentage of certified fibre used
in our divisions." The goal of this initiative was to test and
assess the applicability of standard CSA PLUS 1163 with a view to
implementing it on a broader basis within the Company. The
Quebec-West Woodlands Division also successfully passed a recent
follow-up audit of its ISO 14001 certified environmental management
system as well as its CSA certified sustainable forest management
(SFM) system; a standard that was revised in 2002. It is one of the
first in Canada to pass this review under this revised CSA SFM
standard. "These results demonstrate that our forest management
practices are sustainable for the long run; and
Abitibi-Consolidated is proud of its continued industry leadership
in achieving third-party certification," added Bouchard.
Abitibi-Consolidated is a global leader in newsprint & uncoated
groundwood (value-added groundwood) papers as well as a major
producer of wood products, generating sales of CAN $5.4 billion in
2003. The Company owns or is a partner in 27 paper mills, 22
sawmills, 4 remanufacturing facilities and 1 engineered wood
facility in Canada, the US, the UK, South Korea, China and
Thailand. With over 15,000 employees, excluding its PanAsia joint
venture, Abitibi-Consolidated does business in approximately 70
countries. Responsible for the forest management of 17.5 million
hectares of woodlands, the Company is committed to the
sustainability of the natural resources in its care.
Abitibi-Consolidated is also the world's largest recycler of
newspapers and magazines, serving 16 metropolitan areas in Canada
and the United States and 130 local authorities in the United
Kingdom, with 14 recycling centres and approaching 20,000 Paper
Retriever(R) and paper bank containers. DATASOURCE:
ABITIBI-CONSOLIDATED INC. CONTACT: Investors - Lorne Gorber,
Manager, Investor Relations, (514) 394-2360, ; Media - Marc
Osborne, Manager, Corporate Communications and Media Relations,
(514) 394-2340,
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