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Rainforest Alliance Announces 2005 Individual and Corporate AwardeesLarge and Small, from Canada to Ecuador, Leaders in the Emerging Certified-Sustainable Sector Will Converge at New York Conference and Awards DinnerMarch 6, 2005 New York, NY -- What do North American forestry giants, Brazilian and Colombian coffee farmers, the biggest US food company, a small tour boat operator, Ecuador's second largest banana producer, and one of the world's biggest commercial printers based in Wisconsin have in common, and why are they converging on New York May 11 for a conference and gala dinner?
They are all 2005 Rainforest Alliance sustainability award winners and part of the vanguard of a market-driven environmental movement towards "sustainable certification" -- diverse producers, service companies, traders, wholesalers and retailers using environmentally and socially responsible practices that meet the strict standards of the Rainforest Alliance, a New York-based not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to protect ecosystems and the people and wildlife that depend on them by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.
These producers and purveyors of coffee, bananas, timber products, pulp and paper and ecotourism, are all exemplars of commercial operations retooled to meet the Rainforest Alliance's standards and receive Rainforest Alliance and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) seals of approval, helping conserve biodiversity and provide sustainable livelihoods for their workers. Their products make sustainable choices available to consumers at the supermarket, Kinko's, Home Depot and many other familiar outlets.
Now they are heading to New York for a May 11th daytime conference at Time Inc.'s headquarters on how best to market their "certified sustainable" products to environmentally- and socially-minded consumers, whose purchase choices are driving the fast-growing certification movement. The conference includes a press availability at 2pm.
That evening amid the famous dioramas and fossils of the American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West at 79 th Street, the participants will be formally recognized at the Rainforest Alliance Annual Gala awards dinner for their leadership in helping conserve living habitats and wildlife while invigorating human communities. The annual gala dinner, brings together environmentalists, progressive companies, celebrities and business and diplomatic leaders.
"These are some of the companies and people doing the most today to make sure that museum exhibits are not all that is left of precious wildlife and forest resources for our grandchildren," said Tensie Whelan, executive director of the Rainforest Alliance. "On large scales and small, they are showing the world how to make commercial activity sustainable, so that instead of destroying sensitive environments and perpetuating poverty, our economy actually preserves habitats and improves workers' lives and communities."
The 2005 awardees and sponsors participating in the May 11th conference and the gala include:
2005 Individual Sustainable Standard-Setters Grupo Kachalu, Colombia Luis Pascoal, DaTerra, Brazil Santiago Dunn, Ecoventura, Galapagos Islands Tom Quadracci, Quad/Graphics, USA
Corporate Sustainable Standard-Setters The Candlewood Timber Group, Inc., Argentina / USA Favorita Fruit Company, Ecuador The Forestland Group, LLC, USA
Corporate Green Globe Awardee Kraft Foods Inc.
Individual Green Globe Awardee Alan Knight, until recently head of sustainability at B&Q, UK
2005 Gala Co-ChairsECOM / Atlantic (USA), Inc Tembec
2005 Rainforest Alliance Awardees and Gala Sponsors
Individual Sustainable Standard-Setter Awardees
Grupo Kachalu - The first Colombian producer to achieve Rainforest Alliance certification, Grupo Kachalu is an association of 14 coffee farms in the northeastern region of a country, which contains 15% of all terrestrial biodiversity in less than 1% of the earth's surface. These farms surround a forest preserve, which is the last refuge of an endangered species of Andean oak. Their high quality coffee plants are grown using environmental best practices, in the shade of native trees such as ingas, eritrynas, cedars, ficus, albizzias and tubebuias providing a buffer zone that helps preserve and extend habitat for wildlife and plants while protecting local waterways.
Luis Pascoal, DaTerra -Luis Noberto Pascoal is the owner of a large coffee farm in the cerrado or high plains region of southeastern Brazil, known for its superior beans and outstanding social programs and sustainable techniques including water conservation and recycling, organic fertilizer production and forest, waterfall and wildlife protection. It was the first in Brazil to earn Rainforest Alliance certification, and has also acquired ISO, EurepGap and UTZ Kapeh certifications. The cerrado is Brazil's second largest ecosystem after the Amazon rainforest, but only 1.5% of it is protected, leaving conservation to private efforts like Pascoal's. Daterra coffee is planted amidst native plateau grasses, low trees and shrubs, which provides unique wildlife habitat. The 17,300-acre farm includes 9,800 acres of nature preserve, on which biologists have found rare macaws, owls, jaguar tracks and a giant anteater.
Santiago Dunn, Ecoventura - Owned by Santiago Dunn, the Ecoventura company owns four Galapagos Islands tour boats that have been certified to meet the strict standards of SmartVoyager, a certification program founded by the Ecuador-based non-profit Conservación & Desarrollo and the Rainforest Alliance to protect the islands' fragile and unique ecosystem and endangered species. Tourism traffic in the Galapagos has grown from 46,000 in 1994 to 60,000 in 2000. More traffic usually means more pollution and erosion, more illegal fishing and the introduction of alien species. But SmartVoyager-certified boats like those of Ecoventura demonstrate how to vastly reduce environmental impact while contributing to sustainable economic development of tourist destinations. The boats use only TBT- and lead-free paints and biodegradable soaps, recycle and treat their wastes, run on fuel-efficient engines, employ refueling safeguards, and manage supplies to guard against alien species. The crewmembers are provided with advanced training, better living quarters and healthcare. Ecoventura is a leader in a growing movement to make ecotourism accountable to strict standards and inspection regimes. Tom Quadracci, Quad/Graphics -- Based in Sussex, Wisconsin, Quad/Graphics is the world's largest, privately held printer of catalogs and magazines, including Newsweek. Chair and CEO Thomas Quadracci was the first world-class commercial printer to seek SmartWood/FSC chain-of-custody certification. SmartWood, a program of the Rainforest Alliance, certifies forest management operations that meet strict environmental and social standards of the FSC. "Chain-of-custody" certification tracks wood products from the forest to final destination, guaranteeing finished products contain responsibly managed wood supplies. Quad/Graphics uses pulp from sustainably managed, SmartWood-certified forests, and reduces resource use in its own processes through a patented ink-jet recovery system, its own special Enviro/Tech inks, recycling 98% of all solids, and extensive energy and fuel conservation programs. With nine printing plants, 12,000 workers and annual sales of $1.9 billion, the impact of Quad/Graphics sustainability programs is huge.
Corporate Sustainable Standard-Setter Awardees
The Candlewood Timber Group, Inc. - Founded in 1998 by a distinguished group including a former dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies a former president of Yale and current chair of Edison Schools, and a former head of forestry and UNDP, Candlewood is dedicated to sustainably managing its 250,000 acres in Argentina of "the Yungas" - humid subtropical forests, which are among the world's most threatened ecosystems. They contain 50% of Argentina's biodiversity, yet only remnants remain, decimated by indiscriminate clearing for monoculture, and by poorly implemented gas and oil pipeline development. Most of Candlewood's lands lie in a UNESCO-declared Yungas Biosphere Reserve, supporting jaguars, tapirs, monkeys and 300 bird species, including 20 endemic and highly endangered species. 37,000 acres lie in the foothills of the Andes, in one of the world's most biodiverse and important tropical forests, which has been seriously damaged by drilling and clear cutting of BP Argentina Exploration Co., an affiliate of the British oil giant BP. In a landmark case headed to trial this year, Candlewood is fighting to stop BP's negative impacts. The case will be an important precedent for balancing the interests of various stakeholders - including forest, conservation, mineral rights -- in environmentally sensitive areas.
Favorita Fruit Company -- Ecuador's second largest and most progressive banana company, Favorita, owns 32 farms totaling 16,000 acres and produces more than 36 million boxes of Rainforest Alliance certified bananas every year for global markets, including for companies such as Chiquita. Rainforest Alliance Certified banana farms conserve rainforests, control water pollution, practice recycling and safe waste disposal, dramatically decrease agrochemical use and offer improved quality of life for farmers and their families. Starting in 1994, Favorita invested millions in improving processing, storage and sanitary facilities, providing medical care for workers and schools for children, planting hundreds of thousands of trees and managing a unique tropical rainforest science center. Six years later it became the first banana producer to achieve 100% compliance with Rainforest Alliance certification standards on all its farms. Their example proved that these practices save money and resources while boosting production and worker satisfaction. Today, more than 15% of all bananas in international trade come from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms.
The Forestland Group, LLC - Based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, TFG is one of a growing number of timberland investment management organizations (TIMOs) that organize and manage partnerships of institutional investors in forestlands, working to grow the value of the land and maintain the productive capacity of the forest. Among its 1.5 million acre holdings in 11 states are large environmentally sensitive forests in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, containing 300 lakes and beautiful shorelines across eight counties. This year TFG announced an unprecedented $58 million land-protection agreement placing it under a conservation easement and allowing public access for recreation. TFG earned its first Rainforest Alliance FSC certification in 1999. It works to regenerate forests naturally, plants carefully to achieve fully stocked mixes of pine and hardwood, and establishes wildlife corridors. TFG is currently on track to become the first TIMO to certify its entire portfolio with the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program, setting a new standard for the growing TIMO sector. US-based TIMOs currently manage over 18 million acres, and their holdings could surpass 30 million in the next decade.
Corporate Green Globe Awardees
Kraft Foods Inc. -- One of the world's leading coffee companies, and the largest food company in the United States, Kraft is blending Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee into several of its popular coffee brands including Carte Noire, Jacques Vabre, Maxwell House, Jacobs, Kenco and Gevalia . Kraft has also launched a Kenco brand in the United Kingdom and a new All Life brand in the United States, both made from 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified beans, and sold in hotels, cafeterias and restaurants. By bringing sustainable coffee to mainstream brands, Kraft is helping to grow the overall demand and expand the global market for sustainably produced coffee, benefiting an ever-increasing number of farm communities. In 2004, Kraft bought six million pounds of coffee from certified farms in Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico, will double that amount in 2005, and increase the amounts thereafter. This year CEO Roger Deromedi and other Kraft executives personally visited Rainforest Alliance Certified farms in El Salvador, meeting directly with farmers and workers.
Individual Green Globe Awardee
Alan Knight -- Until recently the director of sustainability at the UK company B&Q, Europe's largest home improvement retailer, Knight is a tireless advocate for sustainable forestry certification. He helped the Forest Stewardship Council in its early days and worked to ensure much of B&Q's wood products are sustainably produced and FSC certified. Most recently, he helped broker an agreement with the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program to verify that ALL the timber products B&Q stocks in key stores in the UK come from sustainably managed forests meeting strict SmartWood/FSC standards. SmartWood auditors will work with B&Q to track lumber and wood products from the sales floors of its major stores back to where they were grown. B&Q will target business customers such as the British Government and purchasing departments as well as general trade customers who increasingly demand timber and manufactured wooden products from sustainably managed forests. 2005 Rainforest Alliance Gala Co-Chairs
ECOM / Atlantic (USA), Inc. - Headquartered in Switzerland, ECOM is one of the principle buyers of Latin America's coffee output and one of the world's oldest agricultural products processing and merchandising companies. Founded in 1849 in Spain, ECOM deals directly with global traders and producers - both large and small - to source and develop international commodity products, especially cotton, coffee and cocoa. Committed to promoting sustainability on a global scale, ECOM collaborates with the Rainforest Alliance certification programs, lending its knowledge of global consumer markets and origin countries, helping identify certification candidates and marketing strategies for certified products.
Tembec -- Based in Canada, Tembec is an integrated forest products company with 55 manufacturing units in Canada, France, the US and Chile involved in the production of wood products, market pulp and papers. It manages 32 million acres of Canadian forest, and has been an industry leader in obtaining Rainforest Alliance/SmartWood/FSC certification. Its 5-million acre Gordon Cossens Forest, SmartWood certified in 2003, is one of the largest certified forests in the world and the first boreal forest FSC certification in North America. The company has also certified a 372,000-acre tract it manages within traditional Ktunaxa-Kinbasket First Nations lands, and signed an unprecedented consultation agreement with the Ktunaxa Nation on sustainable forestry practices. Tembec intends to obtain certification for all 32 million acres of Canadian forest under its management by 2005, going well beyond regulatory requirements to protect sensitive spaces, respect local communities and indigenous peoples and promote sustainable forestry practices.
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