In the summer of 2002, an audit team from KPMG Performance Registrar Inc

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Neenah Paper Ontario Forestry Operations
2005 SFI Surveillance/ISO Registration Audit December 2005
In September 2005, an audit team from KPMG Performance Registrar Inc.
(KPMG PRI) carried out an annual surveillance audit of Neenah Paper
Company of Canada’s (Neenah’s) Ontario forestry operations against the
requirements of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) standard. A
registration audit against the ISO 14001:2004 standard was conducted at the
same time. This Certification Summary Report provides an overview of
the audit process and KPMG’s findings.
About Neenah Paper
Neenah Paper is a manufacturer and marketer of fine and technical paper
and kraft pulp headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia. The Company
produces approximately 700,000 metric tons of pulp annually and has rights
to harvest from 2.4 million hectares of Canadian timberlands.
Neenah employs about 2,100 employees in the United States and Canada,
and has six manufacturing facilities at Neenah and Whiting in Wisconsin;
Munising, Michigan; Pictou, Nova Scotia; and Terrace Bay and Longlac in
Ontario. More information on Neenah Paper can be found at
www.neenahpaper.com.
Neenah Ontario Forestry Operations
Operations included within the scope of the audit included Neenah’s
planning and forestry operations on Crown land in Ontario, where the
company has a Sustainable Forest Licence (SFL) for operations in the
Kenogami Forest, and procurement operations for the company’s Terrace
Bay pulp mill.
The Kenogami Forest is managed under a Sustainable Forest Licence issued
by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to Neenah Paper in
accordance with the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, 1994.
The Kenogami Forest consists of approximately 1,691,903 hectares of
forested Crown land within a total managed landbase of 1,927,378 hectares
and is located within the Boreal forest region of Northwestern Ontario. The
average annual harvest area is 13,998 hectares with a forecast annual
3harvest volume of 1,284,068m .
The main communities associated with the Kenogami Forest are the
municipality of Greenstone (communities of Longlac, Nakina and
Geraldton), the towns of Terrace Bay, Schreiber, Rossport, Ginoogaming
First Nation, Long Lake Reserve 58, Aroland First Nation, Pays Plat First
Nation, Constance Lake First Nation and Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan
Anishinaabek First Nation.
The Kenogami Forest falls within parts of Site Regions 2E, 2W, 3E, and
3W as documented in Ecological Site Regions and Site Districts of Ontario,
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Findings - Neenah Paper Ontario Forestry Operations Page 2
1996. The main species harvested are spruce (black and white), balsam fir,
jackpine, and poplar with lesser amounts of white birch, cedar and tamarack.
Audit results
Audit Scope Minor non-conformities from
previous audits that remain 0 The surveillance audit was conducted against the specific requirements of the
open 2002-2004 edition of the SFI standard plus the incremental requirements of the
newly published 2005-2009 version of the standard. New major non-conformities 0
New minor non-es 7
Certification History of Neenah Paper Ontario Forestry
New opportunities for 6 Operations improvement
Neenah Ontario Forestry Operations first obtained SFI certification in 2004. An additional 1 minor non-
ISO 14001 certification was subsequently obtained at the same time as the first conformity and 6 opportunities for
SFI surveillance audit which is reported here. improvement were identified that
related specifically to ISO 14001
conformance but did not affect SFI The Audit nce.
• Audit Team – The SFI surveillance/ISO registration audit was conducted
by Chris Ridley-Thomas RPBio (BC), CEA(SFM), EMS(LA), Sylvain
Frappier, ing.f., EMS(A) and Andrew F. Howard, EMS(LA). Chris and
Andrew are employees of KPMG PRI, and have conducted numerous forest
management audits under a variety of standards including SFI, ISO 14001,
CSA Z809 and FSC. Sylvain is an independent consultant with experience
in conducting forestry audits against the ISO 14001 and SFI standards. Types of audit findings
• Combined SFI Surveillance/ISO 14001 Registration Audit – Annual SFI Major nonconformities:
surveillance audits are conducted to ensure that the requirements of the
Are pervasive or critical to the standard continue to be met. Two pre-assessment audits (Fall,2004 &
achievement of the SFM Spring,2005) against the ISO 14001 standard had been conducted on Objectives.
Neenah’s Ontario forestry operations. The 2005 SFI surveillance/ISO 14001
Major non-conformities must be registration audit involved an on-site assessment of Neenah’s environmental
addressed immediately or management system (EMS) and SFI program, and included visits to field
registration cannot be achieved sites to evaluate the extent to which the operation’s forest management
/ maintained. plans and practices conform to the requirements of the ISO 14001 and SFI
standards. Minor nonconformities:
• Company Representative – Mr. Michael McLarty served as the Are isolated incidents that are
representative for Neenah Paper’s Ontario Forestry Operations during the non-critical to the achievement
audit. of SFM Objectives.
All non-conformities (major and
Use of Substitute Indicators minor) require an action plan
within 30 days and must be The following substitute indicators were evaluated during the audit: addressed by the operation.
• The indicator for average clearcut size was replaced with an indicator based Opportunities for
on natural disturbance patterns consistent with the current requirements of Improvement:
the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, which uses natural disturbance
Are not non-conformities but are patterns to drive clearcut size in Ontario.
comments on specific areas of
the SFM System where
improvements can be made.
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Findings - Neenah Paper Ontario Forestry Operations Page 3
Audit Objectives
The objectives of the 2005 SFI surveillance/ISO Registration audit were to:
• Evaluate the progress of Neenah’s Ontario forestry operations towards
implementing the corrective actions developed to address the findings from
the initial 2004 SFI verification audit.
• Assess the extent to which the Operation’s EMS, forest management plans
and practices conform to the requirements of ISO 14001:2004 and the SFI
standard.
• Review the Operation’s implementation of new SFI requirements associated
with the 2005-2009 version of the SFI standard.
Audit Conclusions
The audit found that:
• The Operation’s EMS met the requirements of the ISO 14001:2004 in all
material respects. A subsequent technical review of the audit file confirmed
the audit team findings and the operation was registered to the ISO Operator interviews during
14001:2004 standard as of November 7, 2005 for a term of 3 years. SFI/ISO 14001 audit.
• Forest management plans and practices continue to meet the requirements
of the 2002-2004 version of the SFI standard in all material respects.
• Neenah’s Ontario forestry operation has made excellent progress towards
addressing the findings of previous SFI audit.
• The Operation had already implemented most of the incremental
requirements included in the 2005-2009 version of the SFI standard, and
has developed an action plan to address any remaining gaps by the end of
2005.
Good Practices
During the course of the audit, a number of good practices were identified
including:
• The operation has a very well designed procurement monitoring, tracking
and reporting process which has been implemented effectively.
• We found clear evidence of effective management of procurement sources
during break-up period when ground conditions are frequently unfavorable
for logging in many areas and water flows are high increasing the risk to
water courses. Harvested area being prepared
for tree planting by Donaren
• The operation has upgraded its species at risk field guide and issued the Scarifier.
guide to all operators as part of SFM training.
• We observed strong progress on the implementation of operational controls
and the delivery of operator training programs.
• The operation has developed and implemented a comprehensive SFM
monitoring program.
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Findings - Neenah Paper Ontario Forestry Operations Page 4
• Development of a new forest inventory was initiated in 2005.
Follow-up on Findings from Previous Audits
The 2005 audit found that Neenah’s Ontario forestry operation had implemented
its action plans for non-conformances found in the previous SFI audit and all of
the findings from the previous audit were closed. Good progress has also been
made on opportunities for improvement identified during the initial assessment.
New Areas of Nonconformity
The 2005 surveillance audit of Neenah’s Ontario forestry operations identified a total Careful Logging Around
of 7 new minor non-conformities. These are: Advanced Growth (CLAAG)
harvest pattern used on lowland • Approximately 4,000 ha of Neenah private land now in active forestry use is not sites.
yet within the scope of the operation’s SFI program.
• The operation lacks a well distributed formal policy demonstrating commitment to