As the first forest products company to become FSC-certified in North America, we continue to pursue innovative sustainable forestry practices to remain a leader in transparency and accountability. And while we may have been around for nearly 175 years, we aren’t afraid to take a technological leap.

Domtar has been actively exploring blockchain technology as a new and modernized opportunity to increase supply chain transparency and build even greater trust among stakeholders. Now, we are ready to turn theory into practice.

Why? Because blockchain, which can capture and store geolocation data, has the potential to provide the level of transparency that we and our customers want from our suppliers.

“The traceability of all forest products is critically important to ensuring that forests are well managed and responsibly harvested,” says Paige Goff, Domtar’s vice president of sustainability.

“However, gaining this level of transparency can be challenging, and that’s where blockchain technology becomes a really promising option to allow us to better understand where the forest products we use every day come from,” Goff says.

Blockchain has the potential to improve transparency and efficiency across our internal operations. It provides our wood procurement managers with compliance verification and undisputable traceability of wood that is then communicated to our executive level for decision-making across the organization.

It also reinforces accountability among industry peers, which can contribute to improving the reputation of the industry.

Domtar joins U.S. Endowment’s ForesTrust blockchain network

In early 2021, Domtar joined forces with the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, a nonprofit organization working with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities.

Domtar is proud to be among the first forest products companies to sign on to the ForesTrust blockchain network, a collaboration between the U.S. Endowment, IBM and others to provide a cost-effective network to accurately and efficiently track wood and wood fiber from the forest to the consumer.

“We are thrilled that Domtar is joining the U.S. Endowment in moving towards a more secure, sustainable and streamlined industry supply chain,” says Pete Madden, President and CEO of the U.S. Endowment. “Domtar’s guiding principles include sustainability and innovation, which make them a natural partner in leading the way to a new industry standard through the U.S. Endowment’s ForesTrust blockchain network.”

ForesTrust seeks to provide an efficient way of working across the fiber supply chain for member landowners, harvesters, producers, logistic suppliers, retailers, regulators and consumers by building a safe and secure blockchain network. It seeks to provide transparency into each step of the product journey, aims to tackle illegal logging and guarantees mandated forest governance by trading partners. Ultimately, it will promote even greater transparency across the global wood supply chain.

“We have made great strides to improve supply chain transparency over the last several decades and we are now ready and excited to take on the next frontier of chain-of-custody accountability—to help promote the highest standard in sustainable forestry and to preserve this most precious renewable resource for future generations,” says Goff.