North America

North America consumes more paper per person than anywhere else in the world and supplies 34% of global pulp. It also exports more wood pellets for biomass energy than any other region. The pulp, paper, and biomass industries here shape global markets and have enormous influence over forests, climate, and communities.

While some companies have begun improving sourcing and production practices, large parts of these sectors still rely on practices that degrade critical ecosystems. These impacts stretch from Canada’s boreal forests to the hardwood forests of the U.S. Southeast, and threaten the rights and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

For more than 20 years, EPN has built and mobilized a global network to address these challenges. We connect organizations across the region to share information, align strategies, and coordinate action that protects forests and communities. We work with civil society partners to hold companies accountable while also engaging companies and financial institutions to improve environmental performance and reduce impacts.

In North America, EPN focuses on two key areas: transforming the pulp and paper sector and addressing the impacts of forest biomass energy.

Pulp and Paper

North America’s forest products sector spans the boreal forests of Canada, the hardwood forests of the U.S. Southeast, and temperate rainforests along the Pacific coast. Industrial logging for pulp and paper remains a major driver of forest degradation, habitat loss, and carbon emissions across the region.

In Canada, logging in the boreal forest affects one of the largest intact forest ecosystems on Earth, with major implications for biodiversity, Indigenous rights, and global climate regulation. In the U.S. Southeast, intensive plantation forestry supplies domestic mills and international markets, relying on monocultures, heavy chemical inputs, and short rotation cycles that degrade soils and water systems.

Demand for virgin fiber remains high, driven by single-use products, packaging growth, tissue production, and high-volume paper uses such as paper communications delivered by default rather than electronically. Indigenous Nations and frontline communities are often disproportionately affected, facing pollution from mills, water contamination, and logging on traditional territories without free, prior, and informed consent.

EPN and our members are advancing sustainable forest and paper solutions across the United States and Canada. We work together to limit pulp mill and pellet facility expansion, reduce overall paper consumption, and advance paper and packaging reduction policies throughout the region. We also support the development and use of next-generation fibers that reduce reliance on virgin forest fiber and help transform supply chains.

EPN advances practical solutions that reduce waste and modernize outdated policies. We play a key role in multi-stakeholder coalitions working to reform policies that require excessive paper communications in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and financial sectors. Making electronic delivery the default, while still allowing print when needed, will reduce paper use in these sectors by more than 100 billion sheets each year, preserving about 11 million trees, avoiding 8.7 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, and saving more than 10 billion gallons of water annually.

Helping organizations understand and quantify these impacts is central to this effort. EPN’s Paper Calculator™ enables companies, institutions, and advocates to measure the environmental footprint of their paper consumption and identify savings in wood, water, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste and other environmental impacts.

We also engage major brands, retailers, and financial institutions to strengthen commitments, reduce risks from controversial suppliers, and track how North American pulp producers supply global tissue and packaging markets. This work connects forest impacts in North America to international brand responsibility.

Across North America, EPN convenes and supports cohorts, coalitions, and ad hoc groups to drive measurable progress on sustainable forest and paper solutions. By sharing knowledge, aligning strategies, and taking collective action, we amplify impact and support positive change in forests, communities, and supply chains. To join these efforts, please contact us: elizabeth@environmentalpaper.org

Biomass Action Network: North America Working Group

The US and Canada are key producers and suppliers of wood pellets, which are burned in biomass power stations worldwide, including in the UK, EU, Japan and South Korea. Pellet production and biomass integration into pulp mills have expanded rapidly and the US is now the largest manufacturer and exporter of wood pellets globally. Over a million acres of US forests have already been cut down to turn into pellets, while in Canada, investigations have revealed that some of the country’s rarest old growth forests have been logged for biomass. There is no guarantee that these trees will ever be regrown, and even if they are, primary old-growth forests cannot be replaced in our lifetime.

Pellet mills are often located in rural areas that are already burdened by industrial pollution. In the United States, they are particularly concentrated in the South and Gulf Coast, where systemic racial injustice has contributed to their disproportionate placement in low-income communities and communities of color. Pellet manufacturing releases significant amounts of harmful air pollutants, including known carcinogens. Exposure to these pollutants has been linked to a range of serious health problems, and nearby communities are experiencing elevated rates of respiratory illness and other health impacts.

The biomass companies involved have been shown to consistently violate provisions of the U.S. Clean Air Act, emitting well beyond their regulatory limits of dangerous chemicals. An investigation found that wood pellet mills owned by UK biomass energy giant Drax have violated environmental regulations 11,378 times in the US since 2014. The violations, which occurred at six wood pellet mills, include exceeding permitted limits of toxic air pollutants, bypassing crucial emission-control technologies and releasing contaminants into waterways.

EPN’s Biomass Action Network and our members are working across North America to address these issues. We document pellet mill impacts, support community advocacy around air pollution and health risks, and engage policymakers and financiers to challenge policies and subsidies that treat forest biomass as “renewable energy” or “carbon-neutral.” We scrutinize provincial and federal biomass policies, advocate for accurate carbon accounting, and oppose projects that would increase logging in primary and old-growth forests.

The North America Biomass Working Group meets regularly to share information, coordinate research and strategy, and strengthen collaboration across the United States and Canada. To get involved, please contact: elizabeth@environmentalpaper.org