June, 2008 Volume 08-136

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By Paul Pashnik, EMS Manager Environmental Management & Fire Protection

ISO14001 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (EMS)

uring the last week of June, the annual ISO14001:2004 surveillance audit was conducted on Coulson Group’s Manufacturing and Timberlands EMS program by our Registrar QMI SAI Glodal ( QMI – owned by CSA Canada was recently purchased by SAI Global ). The audit was conducted starting on June 24 when the audit team audited our office records, interviewed staff and then on June 25th split into 2 groups to audit both mill-site and field harvesting operations. Then on June 26th  the auditors complete HQ staff interviews and held an exit meeting where they reported their findings and preliminary assessment on  our EMS Program to the Coulson Management Team.

The audit Team reported that their audit indicated that although there is still room for improvement, they determined that both Manufacturing and Timberlands Divisions are in overall compliance with the ISO14001:2004 Standard.

They reported that within the Timberlands Division contractor’s level of awareness and understanding of responsibilities had improved significantly over last year and that on the other-hand some of the Company crews need a better understanding of the EMS with respect to their individual responsibilities. During the Audit a small oil leak was discovered and acted upon immediately. This immediate action helped with our overall audit rating of compliance. A big thank you goes out Ron Sorensen for conducting our Internal Audit and for accompanying the QMI lead Auditor during the field audit.

With respect to Manufacturing the auditor reported very good environmental awareness by all supervisors and crews – good improvement over last year. The auditor reported that follow-up and sign-off of SOPs was still needed from Bulk Fuel, Chemical and Compressed Gas suppliers.   A Big Thank you to John, Kuch, Scott Davidson and Darren Van Dyk.

At the HQ level, we need to update the organization charts with  the addition of our IT Manager - George Rose , and re-establishing the hot links for related Job Descriptions.

Congratulations goes out to all Coulson employees and contractors for the improvement over last year. Keep up the good work.

In case some of you have forgotten, our on-line EMS manual is accessible to everyone.
To log on to view the manual, simple enter http://ems.coulsongroup.com/

Auditor interviewing
Grapple Crew at Kennedy TFL54

Auditor inspects Stream Crossing Bridge
site preparation Block TR7 TFL54

Swedish Pulp Corporation Tours Coulson Operations

The Board of Directors of SODRA Corporation toured Coulson Manufacturing and CFP’s TFL54 Clayoquot Sound logging operations. SODRA Corporation is the 2nd largest producer of pulp in the world.

SODRA statistics are:

  1. An economic association of 50,000 landowners representing over 50% of the managed forests in southern Sweden. 
  2. The primary function of SODRA is to secure markets for the forest products produced by its members.  They do this through a combination of operations: (2006 results)
    1. SODRA Landowners harvest 18+ million cubic meters of harvest in 2006 on the heels of a hurricane and a harvest of 24 million cubic meters in 2005 (for comparison BC’s total coastal harvest is about 18 million M3)
    2. SODRA produces market pulp – from 3 mills in Sweden and two in Norway
    3. SODRA members own 9 sawmills, plus 10 value-added specialty product plants – 6 in Sweden, 4 in Norway
    4. SODRA supplies 20% of the bio-fuel requirements in Southern Sweden
    5. SODRA  R&D investments  in Sweden totals  $75 million annually

Wayne had met the CEO of SODRA in January 2008 when Brian Zak former President of the CFLA toured the island. Wayne agreed to participate in this June tour which was being organized for their Board of Directors to view both BC Coastal and BC Interior forest industry operations.

Coulson’s part of the arrangements were to organize and conduct a guided tour of the Coulson Martin Mars bomber base, Coulson Manufacturing sawmill and re-man plants and a flight to Clayoquot Sound to tour the MaMook Coulson TFL54 logging operations at Stewardson Inlet.  Vera Little served lunch to the entire group of 25. She served a delicious grilled west coast sockeye salmon.  Thanks to Wally Craig, Foster Coulson, John Kuch and Ken Matthews for helping out.

While in Port Alberni the group also toured Cathedral Grove Provincial Park, rode the Alberni Pacific steam train to tour the Mclean Steam Mill and also toured the Catalyst Paper mill with the Mayor of Port Alberni. This was followed by a great dinner at the Rim Rock Cypress. Thanks to Vishal and staff.


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