Resolute Named to Best 50 Corporate Citizens List by Corporate Knights

MONTREAL, June 4, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Resolute Forest Products Inc. (NYSE: RFP) (TSX: RFP) has been named to Corporate Knights' Best 50 Corporate Citizens List for 2014.

"Resolute employees have worked hard to put our sustainability principles at the heart of every decision we make," said Richard Garneau, President and Chief Executive Officer. "By carefully balancing environmental, social and economic priorities, Resolute is becoming a more efficient operator, a better employer, and a stronger partner for customers and communities."

For the Best 50 designation, Corporate Knights measures companies across twelve key performance indicators using publicly available data, covering the management of resources, employees and financials. Specific indicators include: energy and water use; greenhouse gas emissions; leadership gender diversity and "clean capitalism" executive pay link. Corporate Knights is recognized globally for its transparent and objective approach to measuring corporate sustainability performance.

Some of Resolute's recent sustainability accomplishments include:

• Closing in, ahead of schedule, on the goal the Company set as a member of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Climate Savers program to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 65% by 2015, compared to 2000 levels. Resolute's 65% goal is an industry-leading GHG reduction target and represents the equivalent of taking 1.57 million cars off the road.
  
  
• Maintaining 100% third party certification of the Company's managed woodlands to one or more of the three internationally-recognized sustainable forest management standards.
  
  
• Expanding the Company's Align^® family of environmentally responsible papers that use up to 50 percent less fiber and have an environmental footprint up to 85 percent smaller than its competitors.
  
  
• Partnering with First Nations in the Company's operating communities. In 2013, Resolute's Opitciwan (Quebec) joint-venture sawmill was awarded the Aboriginal Forest Products Business Leadership Award by the Forest Products Association of Canada and the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. Resolute also recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Thunder Bay sawmill, a unique partnership between Resolute and the Fort William First Nation.
  
  
• A 2013 Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) incident rate of 1.02, which is considered world class.

"I am proud of what Resolute and our employees have accomplished," continued Richard Garneau. "We are honored that Resolute made the Best 50 list. This recognition speaks to our ongoing efforts to be a sustainable supplier of choice for our customers and a strong civic partner in the communities where we live and work."

About Resolute Forest Products
Resolute Forest Products is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including newsprint, specialty papers, market pulp and wood products. The Company owns or operates nearly 40 pulp and paper mills and wood products facilities in the United States, Canada and South Korea, and power generation assets in Canada. Marketing its products in close to 90 countries, Resolute has third-party certified 100% of its managed woodlands to at least one of three internationally recognized sustainable forest management standards. The shares of Resolute Forest Products trade under the stock symbol RFP on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Resolute and other member companies of the Forest Products Association of Canada, as well as a number of environmental organizations, are partners in the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. The group works to identify solutions to conservation issues that meet the goal of balancing equally the three pillars of sustainability linked to human activities:  environmental, social and economic.

SOURCE Resolute Forest Products Inc.