Grounded in Truth, Rooted in Our Mission

Today we celebrate the 52^nd Annual Earth Day and I want to take a moment to recognize the people, companies, organizations, and communities that work every day to preserve, restore and safeguard our planet in an effort to build a healthier world for our children and future generations.

The challenges of the current geopolitical environment remind us that the work ahead to mitigate the effects of climate change now will be hard and likely contentious.  Transitioning to a cleaner, greener, renewable world will require detoxifying the debate, finding compromise and resolutions, collaboration across industries, and a commitment from every global citizen, organization and business.

Enviva is at the forefront of these efforts and we are proud to have been recognized for our positive impact by many around the world who have come with open minds and sincere inquiry into our business.  We have been similarly disappointed by criticism from those who have come with a preordained narrative which is then used to misinform the public.

With new industries and new ideas come passionate advocates, ambassadors, and influencers, as well as cautious supporters, skeptics, and even vocal critics, especially when these new industries and ideas take hold and grow rapidly around the world.  To remain strong and successful among these different perspectives in times like this, a business must stay grounded in truth, science-based facts, and integrity.  Woody biomass as a renewable energy solution is one of these brave new ideas.  Enviva stands by its mission to displace coal, grow more trees, and fight climate change.  Here’s why….

Since 2004, as the pioneer in the biomass industry, we’ve built a business focused on our core values: caring about people and our communities, fighting climate change by displacing coal, and ensuring that we are growing more trees.  Amid the backdrop of the world warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius and the indisputable effects of climate change, here is what we have learned:

• Enviva does not cause deforestation. We source our wood in the U.S. Southeast, a region where forests are primarily owned by private landowners and these sustainably managed forests have grown by 40% over the last 25 years, while supplying more than 20% of global demand for forest products, including bioenergy, making it one of the most vibrant, robust and growing forest resources in the world. Further, USDA data shows that forests in Enviva’s own supply base have increased by 21% over the last ten years. Enviva leads the industry in sustainability and responsible sourcing, strictly adhering to our Responsible Sourcing Policy and our industry-leading Track & Trace® technology to ensure we are keeping our forests healthy, thriving and growing.

• All of our wood, no matter what form it takes when it crosses the scales at our plants, is low-value wood. And to a professional forester, the value of a piece of wood is determined by its quality, not its size. An untrained eye often mistakes low-value wood for high-value lumber. This could be for multiple reasons: it could be hollow, it could curve at one section, or it could be a top or branch of a very large tree, thinnings, limbs, tops, or low-grade trees that would otherwise go unused.

• The use of wood bioenergy as a climate solution is recognized by the most authoritative scientific institutions and government bodies around the world, including the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which just reaffirmed this in its most recent report on climate change issued on April 4, 2022.

• Enviva provides a sustainable, renewable resource globally, to nations that lead the world on climate-forward policies moving us closer to a net-zero planet. Bioenergy receives bipartisan support in the U.S and today on Earth Day, President Biden signed an Executive Order recognizing the role American forests play in wildfire resilience and climate change mitigation; the White House specifically highlighted in its Fact Sheet wide-ranging support for healthy forest economies, including grants to expand markets for innovative wood products and wood energy that support sustainable forest management.

• Sustainably sourced biomass provides reliable and dispatchable energy for both power and heat generation as well as being able to decarbonize heavy industries, such as cement, steel, lime, and aviation fuels. Our wood pellets reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 85% on a lifecycle basis compared to coal, and by more than 70% compared to natural gas.

• Enviva makes a positive economic and environmental impact across our operating footprint, leading the industry with the best environmental control technologies while partnering and empowering the communities in which we operate and are privileged to call home.

These are the facts about what we do, how we work, and how we engage with the world around us.  We will continue to work closely with our local communities and scientific experts, private forest landowners, conservation organizations, and a broad set of other stakeholders to ensure our operations and wood sourcing positively impact the local environment and surrounding communities.  To all stakeholders, we pledge to continue being transparent, candid, and fact-based about our activities, our impact, and the outcomes we create.

If we do everything right by our people, our forests, our customers, and society, we will continue to generate long-term and dependable value for our communities, partners, and investors while also enabling countries to reduce their carbon emissions and tackle climate change.

Sincerely,

John Keppler, Enviva Chairman and CEO