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KapStone Charleston Kraft Shows Sustainability Leadership With PEFC Chain-Of-Custody Certification

Posted on: Monday, 15 June 2009, 16:01 CDT

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C., June 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of a broad commitment to corporate social responsibility, KapStone Charleston Kraft LLC, an unbleached Kraft paper and lumber producer, recently certified to SFI(R) standards, is proud to announce today it has also achieved certification to the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC(TM)) chain-of-custody (CoC) standard across its five chip mills, Summerville Lumber Mill and Charleston Kraft paper mill. KapStone Charleston Kraft LLC is wholly owned by KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation (Nasdaq: KPPC).

"At KapStone Charleston Kraft, we have a strong commitment to sustainability, and so do our customers," said Bruce Hoffman, Vice President and General Manager. "Achieving multiple certifications in SFI fiber sourcing and chain-of-custody and PEFC chain-of-custody is the foundation of our efforts to provide our global customers with increased choices in purchasing products containing fiber sourced by following responsible forestry practices."

With more than 494 million acres certified, PEFC has become the world's largest forest certification umbrella organization with 35 independent national schemes in membership from all over the world. The PEFC provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests. Through PEFC chain-of-custody certification, companies must have a tracking system in place so they can tell customers the amount of certified, uncertified and recycled content in the forest products they buy, use or sell.

Included in KapStone's PEFC CoC certifications are five chip mill sites located in Kinards, Elgin, Andrews, Hampton and Givhans, a lumber mill in Summerville, S.C., and a paper mill in North Charleston, S.C.

"Certification to the PEFC Standard means we will be able to meet increasing market demand for sustainably produced products, which is good for our business and good for our forests," said Terry Jenkins, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Specialty Products.

About KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation

Headquartered in Northbrook, Ill., KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation is a leading North American producer of unbleached Kraft paper products and linerboard. The Company is the parent company of KapStone Kraft Paper Corporation, which includes paper mills in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., and North Charleston, S.C., a lumber mill in Summerville, S.C., and five chip mills in South Carolina. The business employs approximately 1,550 people.

About PEFC

The PEFC Council (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1999, which promotes sustainably managed forests through independent third party certification. The PEFC provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests.

PEFC is a global umbrella organization for the assessment of and mutual recognition of national forest certification schemes developed in a multi-stakeholder process. These national schemes build upon the inter-governmental processes for the promotion of sustainable forest management and a series of ongoing mechanisms supported by 149 governments in the world covering 85% of the world's forest area.

PEFC has in its membership 35 independent national forest certification systems of which 25 to date have been through a rigorous assessment process involving public consultation and the use of independent assessors to provide the analysis on which mutual recognition decisions are taken by the membership. These 25 systems account for more than 200 million hectares of certified forests producing millions of tons of certified timber to the marketplace making PEFC the world's largest certification system. The other national members' schemes are at various stages of development and are working toward mutual recognition under the PEFC processes.

About SFI Inc.

SFI Inc. is a 501c(3) non-profit charitable organization, and is solely responsible for maintaining, overseeing and improving the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program (www.sfiprogram.org), which is internationally recognized and among the largest in the world. It is one of the fastest-growing forest certification programs with over 160 million acres (65 million hectares) of SFI-certified forests across North America. The SFI Standard also includes unique fiber sourcing requirements that promote responsible forest management on all suppliers' lands and a chain-of-custody certification, which can communicate to buyers how much certified fiber is in a specific product. The SFI forest standard is endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes, a global umbrella organization that has strict requirements for endorsement. SFI Inc. is governed by a three-chamber board of directors representing environmental, social and economic sectors equally.

SOURCE KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation

Source: PR Newswire

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