Canfor’s Houston mill has already hit one of a series of targets laid out for how the company views its place in the communities in which it operates and of its environmental and other impacts in those communities.
That target is to have Canfor’s Canadian wood products operations as a whole use Indigenous vendors for at least five per cent of spending by 2025. The Houston mill now uses Indigenous vendors for seven per cent of its spending.
”Houston is meaningfully contributing to Canfor’s Canadian wood products operations spending 5 per cent of their spend with Indigenous vendors by 2025,” said company official Michelle Ward of the target laid out in the company’s 2021 Sustainability Report.
Canfor’s wood operations and pulp operations are also committed to a goal of 33 per cent of new hires as being from under-represented groups by 2025. As it is, under-represented groups made up 24 per cent of new hires across Canfor in 2021.
Ward cautioned that the company does not have specific hiring targets for each of is mills in that as a whole, it is working toward that 33 per cent goal by 2025.
“While not representative of all under-represented groups, approximately 7 per cent of our employees at Houston have self-identified as Indigenous,” said Ward.
At the same time, the company has also set targets for emissions reductions regarding climate change as well as reducing its impact on water and air quality and on waste management.
“Making sustainability a core value in our business is not only the right thing to do for the planet, our people, stakeholders, partners and customers, but it makes us a better company,” said Canfor president and CEO Don Kayne.
Plans across the company to reduce carbon emissions include the Houston mill but nothing specific has yet been announced.
In other Canfor news, operations closures of one day a week continue at its western Canadian mills, including Houston.
“Our Houston facility is anticipated to continue operating four days a week until the end of September,” said Ward.
The mill was closed this past week completely and is due for another closure Aug. 29 to Sept. 2.
First announced in May, the company said the closures are because it can’t get enough rail cars to ship the products it was producing, resulting in inventories building up.