The decision will make AL-PAC only the third FSC-certified forest industry company in Canada.

AL-PAC public affairs co-ordinator Brydon Ward said the firm would conduct an independent audit in early 2003 using US and Canadian forest audit company Smartwood. "In our minds, this is as green as it gets," he added.

Ward said FSC certification was an endorsement of AL-PACs environmental commitment. "People are too easy to tar AL-PAC with the same brush as other forest companies, but we like to think we are more environmentally committed," he added.

The decision to embark on the certification process had been mainly customer-driven, Ward said.

AL-PAC exports Kraft pulp to the US, Western Europe and a significant portion to pulp buyers in the United Kingdom. It produces 600,000 tonnes of Kraft pulp a year, approximately 80% of which is hardwood Kraft pulp, and claims to have one of the largest single-line Kraft pulp operations in the world.

AL-PAC was also the first Kraft pulp mill in Canada designed specifically to use chlorine dioxide in its bleaching process to produce elemental-chlorine free (ECF) pulp.

Story by Andy Scott