Committed to building a sustainable future, J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) invests, through continuous improvement and innovation, in new projects and initiatives to reduce its carbon emissions, water consumption and waste.
During Canada Environment Week, the company shared shifts applied to its operations that help them operate sustainably every day:
- Conserving natural wonders
JDI’s award-winning, voluntary conservation program has grown from 29 sites in the 1980s to almost 1,900 sites to date, with 156 sites added in 2021. With almost 25% of its land being primarily for conservation efforts, the company ensures that its future forests remain diverse and the wildlife that depends on it can thrive. According to the company, its foresters are trained annually to identify, report, and protect vulnerable plants and wildlife.
- Leading the way
Irving Pulp & Paper is the only pulp mill in Canada to operate without a solid waste landfill. Through investments in treatment and refining, the company has been able to work with local agronomists, farmers, and composting facilities to make use of its process waste to generate value.
- Investing in a greener future
Each year, JDI invest in ways to reduce the consumption of fresh water in its processes and monitor water quality in the operations. In 2017, Lake Utopia Paper commissioned a new, state-of-the-art, effluent treatment and biogas facility. Not only does this facility allow the company to meet future proposed effluent treatment regulations, but also to reduce energy consumption (and resulting emissions) by over 50 per cent through the generation and use of resulting biogas as a process fuel.
Additionally, JDI is investing over $150 million at the Irving Pulp & Paper Mill in west Saint John to build a new Environmental Treatment Facility. The project will reduce the mill’s water consumption significantly by approximately 50%.
- Improving log yielding
It takes several decades to grow a tree, but the company only get one opportunity to process it into lumber. Therefore, it needs to ensure the use of the best tools, technology, and processes, yielding the highest volume of boards for each log consumed.
In 2016, following the advancement of new technologies for log optimization and lumber grading, JDI decided to modernize over 50 percent of its machine centers. The $50 million investment involved new saw lines with advanced scanning, optimization and cutting tool technologies, which create a 3-D image for each log to extract the most volume or value of lumber.
The Sawmill Division also implemented a lumber supply optimization system, interconnecting all softwood framing lumber mills, to determine the best cutting solution for each log specific to each mill, each week. This optimization tool considers a variety of factors to produce the lumber required by our customers while maximizing the log yield.
To learn more about its sustainable commitments, visit J.D. Irving’s website.
