Hosted by the FSC Circularity Hub, General Assembly participants actively engaged in an interactive workshop that brought diverse perspectives to the table exploring potential FSC solutions for the circular economy.
Subhra Bhattacharjee, Director General of the Forest Stewardship Council set the scene for the session “Forests for all forever: Circular Visions for FSC”, emphasizing that innovative approaches are needed to reduce pressure on forests.
“For FSC, circularity cannot be a buzzword. It cannot be just another business line. The core here is, we have to do it right. We have to make an impact, and we have to make sure that we maintain, perhaps enhance, the integrity of the system.”
Perspectives from the ground
The demand for forest-based products is increasing across industries as diverse as packaging, construction, textiles, and even the automotive industry. Some projections foresee a quadrupling in demand for forest-based fibers by 2050 – a trajectory far beyond what forest ecosystems can supply while remaining healthy, resilient systems capable of helping us mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Loa Dalgaard Worm, Head of FSC Circularity Hub, explained: “The world’s major companies are already looking into what we could be doing to make us less vulnerable to forest fibres increasing in price, being subject to forest fires, to drought, to beetle attacks, and therefore being much more volatile as resource stream.”
Fernando Martínez, from Brambles, shared his company’s experience with circular systems. For more than 10 years they have rented out their pallets, recovered, repaired, and reused them: “As any other business focusing on doing the right thing, we would gladly embark together with FSC for a certification of our circular process,” he said. “Circularity pays off in both financial terms and environmental. At Brambles, we believe circularity is not only possible, it is essential. FSC has the opportunity to pave the ground for extending circularity for other industries by doing exactly what FSC does best; providing a science-based and impact focus framework in circularity for our certification holders. We can build a future where forests thrive, businesses grow sustainably and waste becomes a thing of the past.”
Participants in the workshop also noted that the work of the FSC Circularity Hub - with its agile and highly member-informed approach - marks a potential new way for FSC to work and innovate. The Hub will gather all input from this session to continue exploring circular visions for FSC.
Learn more about FSC and the circular bio economy at fsc.org/circularity
For more information, contact circularity@fsc.org
