On Stakeholder Engagement

At Enviva, we think a lot about stakeholder engagement. We understand that we have multiple groups of stakeholders — like any business, these stakeholders include our customers, regulatory agencies, and investors. But we must also consider the interests of our suppliers, our employees, our colleagues in the forest products industry, and our local communities, as well as landowners, environmental groups, and citizens. Speaking in the broadest terms possible, we might even say that the environment itself is a stakeholder.

We don’t operate in a vacuum, and many people depend on our business. At times, it can even appear as if our stakeholders hold views contrary to one another — in these situations, our challenge is to understand the diverse concerns of the many people with a “stake” in our work. By engaging with people in an honest and mutually respectful dialogue, we believe that we can find solutions with positive outcomes for all concerned.

Because we believe in open dialogue with our stakeholders, we have taken the unusual step of publishing our detailed sourcing data via the Track & Trace program. Because we believe in talking to people about how we can do things better, we brought together our Blue Ribbon Panel in May 2016 to discuss forest management in bottomland hardwoods. And because we believe in finding mutually beneficial outcomes we continue our work on responsible sourcing, most recently with our newly-assembled Bottomland Hardwoods Task Force.

Our commitment to working with all of our stakeholders respectfully and openly has led us to join The Forest Trust (TFT). TFT is a global non-profit organization that counts dozens of the world’s leading manufacturers and consumer brands among its members, all working together to source materials responsibly. Working at the intersection between businesses, communities, and people, TFT envisions and strives for a world where people and industry can together achieve harmony with the environment.

We are excited to work with TFT and its other members to continue our innovative work on supply chain transparency, and we enjoin our stakeholders to embark with us on our journey of continuous improvement in responsible sourcing. We’d like to hear from you. We have made so much progress together, and we can’t wait to see what comes next.

 

Yours in forest stewardship,
Jen Jenkins