David Marshall has fond memories of growing up on his family’s farm and forestland. “My grandfather planted an 18-acre apple orchard, as well as a pine forest in the back of his property,” says Marshall. “I spent a lot of time there impressed that the trees had been planted by the hands of my own grandfather. It grew into this beautiful place. I’ve been an outdoors guy my whole life, and here I am, years later, still reflecting on the power of nature and the impact we have.”
That early connection to the land as well as time spent planting trees while in college led Marshall to a career in sustainability, first in urban planning and then, beginning in 2017, for the forest products industry with Resolute Forest Products, now part of Domtar. Today, Marshall serves as Domtar’s vice president of Sustainability Governance & Reporting, a position that builds on his decades of local, national and international experience in corporate sustainability; environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk management; community and sustainability development; public affairs; government relations; and corporate and non-profit governance.
Marshall leads Domtar’s Risk Management, Governance & Reporting team, which is responsible for sustainability strategy governance; ESG risk, compliance and regulatory monitoring; voluntary disclosures and reporting; and performance monitoring and data management. In October 2025, the team released Domtar’s first integrated Sustainability Report. The disclosure reflects the company’s annual performance, and it would not have been possible without partnering with teammates in nearly every department across the company — a true reflection of the strength of Domtar’s cross-functional collaboration.
“It’s been exciting to create a shared vision for Domtar that integrates our various perspectives on and experiences with sustainability,” says Marshall. “We’ve accomplished a lot in just two short years to create a cohesive and actionable plan.”
We spoke with David Marshall about his work at Domtar and how it will help shape the future of the forest products industry.
David Marshall speaks on a panel about sustainability and supply chains. The event was hosted in October 2025 by the Environmental Business Council of Quebec.
Tell us a bit about Domtar’s integrated 2030 sustainability strategy. How did your team approach that work?
Sustainability at Domtar is driven, in many ways, by what our stakeholders are interested in, both environmentally and socially. Our team ensures that what we’re focused on as an organization reflects the priorities, concerns and interests of our various stakeholder communities — from our customers to our suppliers on the business side, to community groups, non-governmental organizations and rightsholders, like First Nations and other Indigenous groups. We spoke to more than 80 individual stakeholders, and another 500 responded to a survey, including community economy development corporations, local businesses, elected officials and people in government — not to mention our very own employees: key internal stakeholders keen to share the risks, opportunities and impacts related to their own work.
Our sustainability strategy is how this all comes together toward driving positive outcomes for the environment, our people and communities, and Domtar. That’s where the objectives and reporting come in. We ensure what we’re telling the public reflects what we’re actually doing on the ground. And I think we have a great story to tell.
The new Sustainability Report is the first full report since Domtar, Resolute Forest Products and Paper Excellence became an integrated company nearly one year ago. What does the report represent for the new Domtar?
When I look back two years ago when we first started the work of integration, each legacy company approached sustainability differently. What we did was bring together not only the existing strengths of each business but also the unique capabilities that would help us enhance our overall approach to sustainability, creating momentum to lead us into the future.
Three large companies came together to create a global forest products company with a much bigger footprint. And because of our new footprint, people are now paying closer attention to us. It’s become even more important that we steward our natural resources responsibly while ensuring our business impact benefits the world around us.
Today, the proof is in the pudding. The 70 pages of the report show that our companies have truly come together, and everything we’ve been working toward for the past two years is now bearing fruit.
Whether it’s water management, human rights, biodiversity or forest management … these are all very important things for a company like ours to be thinking about, talking about and committing to targets on a public level. No matter what we accomplish — and I believe we will accomplish a lot — it’s going to move the needle and require that other companies, and our competitors in particular, do the same.
David Marshall presented a Domtar-sponsored award — Canada’s Clean50 Award for greenhouse gas emission reductions — to the Hospital for Sick Children, where Marshall’s father worked for 20 years as hospital chaplain.
With an increasing demand for transparency around sustainability, how do you think things will change in the future for the forest products industry?
It’s a big industry, and many factors like location, products and manufacturing processes can influence what forest products companies focus on when it comes to sustainability and responsibility. It’s not necessarily a one-size-fits-all solution.
Even within Domtar’s legacy companies, the concerns of, say, Resolute weren’t the same concerns of Paper Excellence simply because of geography and scope of business. But as an integrated company, we now share all those concerns, from woodland management and Indigenous relations to environmental stewardship and governance. So, we have to look at sustainability from a broader perspective.
The same is true for the industry as a whole. As it grows and takes on new challenges, companies will have to adapt and adjust how they operate and how they report on those risks, opportunities and impacts. And as we innovate within the forest products industry, we’ll have opportunities to create new and exciting solutions to address global issues such as single-use plastics and turn academic theories into real wood fiber-based solutions.
We can have a safer, cleaner, more sustainable planet by making hard decisions with the future in mind. When I look at Domtar and how much thought we’ve put into our long-term vision on this foundation of renewable, reusable and recyclable forest products, I’m excited about what more this company can do to solve some of the challenges our world is facing.
Check out Domtar’s first integrated sustainability report online or download a PDF.
The post David Marshall Is Helping To Write Domtar’s Sustainability Story appeared first on Domtar.
