To assure customers, neighbours and other stakeholders of the sustainability of our forest management practices, we at Millar Western have achieved a number of highly regarded, independently audited environmental certifications. Though already subject, as a Canadian forest company operating in the Province of Alberta, to some of the most stringent and effective forest management laws in the world, we have elected to pursue these certifications to provide customers with independent verification of our conformance to generally held principles of sustainability.

Our pulp, lumber and woodlands operations are all recognized under the demanding FORESTCARE code of practice. Our Whitecourt pulp mill and woodlands operations' environmental management systems are certified under ISO 14001. Our Whitecourt Forest Management Agreement area is certified under the CSA-Z809 sustainable forest management standard. And, most recently, our Whitecourt forest and pulp operations have been certified under the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) Chain of Custody standard. While earlier certifications attest to the sustainability of Millar Western's forestry practices within the publicly-owned forest land base assigned to our company for management, this latest achievement allows us also to account for timber coming into our operations from other sources (e.g. purchased wood and wood obtained through fibre exchange agreements with other companies). PEFC Chain of Custody certification enables us to make specific and verifiable claims about the percentage of certified wood fibre in our products and, also, to give assurance to customers that none of the timber used to make our pulp was acquired from controversial sources.

Next, as part of our ongoing effort to meet the needs of our customers, we will be pursuing sustainable forest management certification of those timber volumes we harvest outside our assigned land base. We expect to complete this process in early 2009, at which time we will be able to offer an even higher percentage of certified wood-fibre content in our pulp products.

2006 CAN/CSA-Z809 Sustainable Forest Management Audit Findings

2006 Sustainable Forest Management Plan (Updated July 2007)

2007 Annual Sustainability Report