The global footprint of Sumitomo’s heavily polluting operations is increasingly attracting opposition from civil society worldwide. The company has begun to dramatically increase imports of wood pellets from the U.S. and Canada as “biomass fuel” where wood is burned in power plants to produce electricity. A Sumitomo pellet company recently faced criticism for its plans to log old-growth forests in British Columbia and its chief supplier in the Southeastern United States uses whole trees from already distressed ecosystems. With wood pellet production in both the U.S. and Canada
rapidly increasing, and Japan serving as the world’s fastest-growing market for
pellets, 11 the future of North American forests is increasingly tied to Japan’s
biomass industry, the largest player of which is Sumitomo.
Organization: Mighty Earth