Unisource Worldwide, Inc. is a subsidiary of

Veritiv Veritiv Corporation is a business-to-business provider of packaging, publishing, and hygiene products. It has 125 operating distribution centers throughout the United States and Mexico. It is headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, part of the At ...

and is a distributor of printing paper, packaging equipment and supplies, and facility maintenance equipment and supplies. It also provides

logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

services to other companies through its truck fleet and warehouses.

History and ownership

Unisource was formed in 1996 when it split off from

Alco Standard Corporation The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

. After acquiring several local and regional distributors, Unisource was itself acquired by Georgia-Pacific LLC in 1999. In 2002,

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

purchased a 60 percent ownership in Unisource Worldwide. Georgia-Pacific retains 40 percent ownership. In 2004, the CEO, Chuck Tufano, was succeeded by Allan Dragone. In 2005, the company donated $50,000 to the American Red Cross International Response Fund in response to the 2005 earthquake and tsunami in Southeast Asia. In 2014, the company became a subsidiary of

, following the spin-off of

International Paper The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 56,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. History The company was incorporated January 31 ...

's xpedx.

Sustainable business initiatives

Unisource was the first national paper distributor in the United States to attain certification from all three major chain-of-custody certification organizations: the

Forest Stewardship Council The Forest Stewardship Council A. C. (FSC) is an international non-profit, multistakeholder organization established in 1993 that promotes responsible management of the world's forests via timber certification. It is an example of a market-ba ...

™ (FSC®), the

Sustainable Forestry Initiative The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is a sustainability organization operating in the U.S. and Canada that works across four pillars: standards, conservation, community, and education. SFI has two youth education initiatives: Project Learning ...

® (SFI®), and the

Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization which promotes sustainable forest management through independent third party certification. It is considered the certi ...

(PEFC). In 2010, Unisource began requesting supplies to fill out a Sustainability Scorecard "to ensure that environmental responsibility is being practiced and assessed according to standard industry procedures." Unisource is a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Unisource is a U.S.

Green Building Council A green building council (GBC) is any national non-profit, non-government organization that is part of a global network recognized by the World Green Building Council. A green building council's goal is to promote a transformation of the built e ...

member.U.S. Green Building Council (http://www.usgbc.org/myUSGBC/Members/MemberDetails.aspx?CID=10080548)

References

{{Reflist, 2 Companies based in Gwinnett County, Georgia Companies established in 1996 Bain Capital companies Corporate spin-offs 1999 mergers and acquisitions