|
Adventure Traveler Garry Sowerby in his own words:
Thursday, September 23
Timmins and Wawa, Ontario
Environmental Initiative #45
Tembec, Timmins, Ontario
It's said that we lease the earth from our children.
A lease agreement like any other, this means that there is some
sort of security deposit you have to pay when you sign the lease
that you may lose if you leave the place in a damaged state in
need of repair.
The security deposit on the planet is not only a financial one.
It's life -- ours, our children's, the planet's and the other 30
million species on it.
Tembec takes all of this to heart.
Their environmental efforts in the forest industry,
an industry that is often maligned in this regard, have been
consistently recognized with a 'Green Ranking' since the operation
began in Temiscaming, Quebec in 1973.
Their mission, which they call Forever Green and
Impact Zero, is to promote sustainable forest management and environmental
protection in their operations through an ISO 14001-registered
Environmental Management System (EMS).
Richard Groves, Chief Forester Ontario, Guy Noel,
EMS Coordinator, Bryan Neeley, Environmental Coordinator and Blair
Sullivan, General Manager for Northern Ontario East region gave
the Mission Green team a warm welcome today at the Timmins Sawmill
and showed us around.
Every aspect of what they do here is analyzed from an environmental
standpoint. I hadn't really thought about it before but, as they
explained, responsible forestry means treating trees like a crop.
Instead of the cycle being one season, you have to think of the
timeline in terms of 5 or 6 decades. You have to plant in cycles,
rotate the crop. You have to consider the land that the trees are
on. You can't abuse and misuse it.
I related it to the record drives of my past. You can't beat up
the vehicle you're using to get you around the world. You have
to respect it, nurture it and drive it kindly or it will break
and you'll be stuck. All of the people depending on you to reach
the goal will be stuck too, disappointed and probably angry.
When you set up a Sawmill, you have to think long-term.
You can't blow into town, get everyone all excited, raze everything
and then abandon the flattened forest and the people who have centred
their life on the mill.
Tembec has always thought long-term when it comes to their social,
corporate and environmental responsibilities. An international
organization with over $4 billion in sales in over 60 locations,
as far-reaching as China, they have provided employment and sustainability
to countless communities around the globe.
The Rain Forest Alliance presented Tembec with a Corporate Sustainable
Standard-Setter Award for the example that the company has set
for other corporations. It was one of the first companies to support
the Kyoto Protocol, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by more
than 25% since 1990.
Our hosts also filled us in on their stewardship of the Gordon
Cosens Forest, the largest forest in the world certified by the
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This certification includes a
number of conservation-oriented conditions that go well beyond
any existing provincial requirements. Tembec applies up to a dozen
different
management strategies and multiple techniques across the 5 million-acre
landscape, the first Boreal forest to receive certification in
North America.
We left Timmins with the impressive environmental track record
of Tembec swimming in our minds. It wasn't just what the company
has done but their on-going commitment that so impressed us. By
2005, Tembec intends to obtain certification of all 32 million
acres of Canadian forest under its management, going above and
beyond regulatory requirements.
The employees are all committed to ensuring that the goals and
procedures of all the company's operations continue to reduce energy
and its dependence on fossil fuels.
Mission Green salutes Tembec and its employees for providing an
economic backbone to countless beautiful communities and for unfailingly
sticking to their environmental beliefs and responsibilities. And
for taking good care of the planet for the next tenants.
http://www.tembec.com/DynamicPortal?key=web&lng=en-US&crit=toolbar_home&page=tpl_home_news
You are now leaving the mission green website
to an external website.
Environmental Initiative #46
The Trans Canada Highway I've driven the lonely stretch of Trans Canada Highway between
Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay dozens of times since first
venturing across Canada in 1970. But my obsession was always
to get through the 700 kilometres of two-lane blacktop as quickly
as possible. Those hours held hostage to the blur of woods and
rock dotted with a smattering of road signs proclaiming hard-to-pronounce
villages seemed a waste of time.
Lake Superior, unpredictable and desolate, was usually not visible
since I tried to schedule the transit as an all-nighter. It was
a place to make up time and a part of the journey to get behind
me during cross-country junkets.
All that has changed gradually over the past
few years as I've had the chance to put together programs in
this area that involve venturing off the main road and discovering
the tidy communities and the breath-taking lakescapes that
exist 'out there'.
This particular cross-country junket, Mission Green, has made
me think about the Trans Canada Highway in a new light.
As we pulled into Wawa, we realized that we were very near the
midpoint of the world's longest national highway and we paused
to celebrate the fact that we had only about 4,000 km to go before
reaching the other side of the country. Woohoo!
We squawked over our 2-way radios (as we have all along the
previous 4,000 km or so of the TCH) that, in Mission Green's
travels, we would be driving on the highest point of elevation
of the Highway just after Thanksgiving, when we reach the Continental
Divide at the Alberta-British Columbia border at Kicking Horse
Pass.
We also talked about the fact that the Highway, a much-discussed
national item since 1910, was officially opened in 1962 when
the final portion at Rogers Pass was paved.
People who visit Canada are often amazed by how similar Canadians
are to each other, despite the vastness of our land. It seems
we, as a country, owe a great deal to the efficiency of the Trans
Canada Highway.
It wasn't that long ago that a 'smooth' crossing
of the country by automobile meant a substantial portion of
the journey had to divert through the US! The first successful
but not-so-smooth crossing of Canada by car was in 1912, when
Thomas Wilby supplemented existing dirt roads with railway
rights of way along the rugged Lake Superior north shore, which
we are so easily driving today, and over the Rocky Mountains
to get from Halifax to Victoria.
It took him two months so we figured we were right on track
since we left Halifax on August 16 and won't get to the west
coast until mid-October!
It's not that we're being inefficient. It's just that there
are so many environmental initiatives to visit that our route
follows an exaggerated zigzag pattern.
It may seem a bit odd to salute the Trans Canada Highway as
an environmental bonus to Canada but think of the urban congestion
that has been averted thanks to the Highway. And think of how
much more efficiently goods and people can be transported across
the country.
It makes sense to us, as we use the indispensable Trans Canada
Highway to salute Canada and its environmental efforts in vehicles
that are lessening the impact on the ozone and efficiently getting
us to the west coast at the same time.
http://www.transcanadahighway.com/general/highwayhistory.htm
You are now leaving the mission green website to an external
website.
|
