| Industry | pulp and paper |
|---|---|
| Founded | Augusta, Georgia, U.S. (1927) |
| Founder(s) | Owen Robertson Cheatham |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Employees | 40,000 (4Q 2010) |
| Parent | Koch Industries |
| Website | gp.com |
Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, packaging, building products and related chemicals. As of Fall 2010, the company employed more than 40,000 people at more than 300 locations in North America, South America and Europe. It is an independently operated and managed company of Koch Industries.
Contents |
Georgia-Pacific was founded by Owen Robertson Cheatham in 1927 in Augusta, Georgia as the Georgia Hardwood Lumber Co. Over the years it expanded, adding sawmills and plywood lumber mills. The company acquired its first west coast facility in 1947 and changed its name to Georgia-Pacific Plywood & Lumber Co. in 1948. In 1956, the company changed its name to Georgia-Pacific Corp. In 1957 the company entered the pulp and paper business by building a kraft pulp and linerboard mill at Toledo, Oregon. The company continued to make a series of acquisitions, including US Plywood in 1987, Great Northern Nekoosa in 1990 and the Fort James Corporation in 2000. The Fort James Corporation itself was made up of a series of mergers that included the Fort Howard Corporation, the James River Corporation and Crown-Zellerbach.[1] In August 2001, Georgia-Pacific completed the sale of four uncoated paper mills and their associated businesses and assets to Canadian papermaker Domtar for US$1.65 billion.
It was announced on November 13, 2005 that Georgia-Pacific would be acquired by Koch Industries.[2] On December 23, 2005, Koch Industries finalized the $21 billion acquisition of Georgia-Pacific. Georgia-Pacific was removed from the NYSE (it had traded under the symbol GP) and shareholders surrendered their shares for about $48/share.
The Georgia-Pacific Center in Atlanta continues to house the company's headquarters.
On January 11, 2010, Georgia-Pacific signed an agreement to acquire Grant Forest Products' oriented strand board ("OSB") facility at Englehart, Ontario and the associated facility at Earlton, Ontario, as well as its OSB facilities at Clarendon and Allendale, South Carolina, for approximately $400 million. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2010, following appropriate US and Canadian regulatory review and court approval.[3]
| Financial Information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005* | 2004 | 2003 | |
| Net Sales (US$M) |
Private | 19,656 | 20,255 |
| Net Income (Loss) (US$M) |
Private | 623 | 254 |
| * Georgia-Pacific was acquired by Koch Industries, Inc., in December 2005. The company no longer publicly reports financial information | |||
Georgia-Pacific publicly reports on its environmental performance through its Environmental and Social Responsibility report which is available on its web site.[4] Based on year 2000 data,[5] researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts named Georgia-Pacific as the fifteenth-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States. In that year, Georgia-Pacific facilities released more than 22,000,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air.[6]
Like all large manufacturers, each year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires Georgia-Pacific to report publicly quantities of certain chemicals that facilities release into the air, water and onto land. For the most recent reporting period – 2006 (as of Spring 2008) – the company showed a 12 percent decrease in these releases from 2005. From 2000 to 2006, Georgia-Pacific has reduced its total releases and transfers of these specified compounds by 26 percent.
In 1995, the company drew criticism for allegedly pressuring the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to approve legislation that would allow Georgia-Pacific to "avoid installing pollution gear at many of its plants."[7] In 1996, Georgia-Pacific agreed to pay for at least US$26,000,000 in environmental measures and $6,000,000 in fines to settle allegations that particle emissions from its facilities endangered people and crops in the southeastern United States.[8]
Georgia-Pacific is also involved in several remediation sites, many of which were landfills used by other manufacturers, municipalities and other businesses, and individuals. Two of the primary remediation sites - the Fox River in Wisconsin and Kalamazoo River in Michigan - involve the cleanup of PCBs.
Many years ago, GP predecessor companies and others recycled wastepaper, including carbonless paper, into other paper products. At the time, carbonless paper was made with a chemical containing PCBs. The PCBs were washed from the paper and discharged in the mills' wastewater to the rivers.
In 2007, the EPA announced legal agreements among itself, Michigan, Georgia-Pacific, and Millennium Holdings (a corporate successor of the Allied Paper Corporation) requiring the companies to clean up an estimated $21,000,000 worth of environmental damage to the Plainwell Impoundment Area. Another settlement required an additional $15,000,000 of environmental work on the Kalamazoo River Superfund Site.[9]
Georgia-Pacific is the world's largest recycler of recovered wastepaper.
In 2009, the EPA awarded Koch subsidiary Georgia-Pacific its SmartWay Excellence award, "an innovative collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the freight industry designed to increase energy efficiency while significantly reducing air pollution," and specifically commended Georgia-Pacific. The award states:
In, 2008, 93% of Georgia-Pacific's freight was hauled by SmartWay Transport Partners, an increase of 47% over the previous year. Of the 145 carriers Georgia-Pacific uses, 104 were SmartWay carriers, an increase of 33% over 2007. In 2008, Georgia-Pacific experienced tremendous growth in its intermodal shipping. Georgia-Pacific was able to work with its customers to increase lead-time and create more intermodal freight shipments without significantly impacting customer's needs, thus increasing intermodal loads by 39% in 2008 as compared to 2007. Georgia-Pacific uses advanced software to pack loads more efficiently and increase cube utilization in its trailers. The company also reduced empty loads by 10%, increased utilization of local fleets, and established an idling reduction policy in place at its 12 distribution centers. And, in summer of 2008, Georgia Pacific held a fuel conservation summit to explore ways that shippers and carriers could work together to further reduce fuel consumption from its freight transport operations.[10]
In 2010, Georgia-Pacific, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, donated 682 acres (2.76 km2) near Wauna, Ore., to The Nature Conservancy. The Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, which is supported by Koch Industries, also made a $1 million grant to The Nature Conservancy in Kansas to help it acquire the nearly 11,000 acres (45 km2) Tall grass Prairie National Preserve.[11]
Koch subsidiary Georgia-Pacific operates under many different brand names.
|
||||||||||||||