Going Beyond the Mills: Energy-Efficient Infrastructure at Sappi

Logistics

Our focus on energy and emissions extends beyond our mill gates. Since 2009, Sappi has participated in the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) SmartWay® Transport Partnership, an innovative collaboration between the EPA and companies that provide freight delivery services. In support of the partnership, we include the SmartWay specifi cation in our carrier bid contracts, and since 2013, approximately 95 percent of our cumulative domestic ton-miles have been shipped by SmartWay carriers.

Data show that the US transportation sector uses more energy than the entire industrial sector. Every day billions of dollars in goods are in transit, and the logistics industry moves more than 56 tons of freight per person per year. While the transportation sector consumes roughly 29 percent of the total energy, it’s responsible for over 50 percent of NOx emissions and over 30 percent of VOC emissions, pollutants that contribute to smog and poor air quality.

IT Infrastructure

Our South Portland corporate office houses our data center. The information technology group constantly monitors the efficiency and costs associated with running the data center. Results show that we routinely keep our cooling requirements below 25 percent of the total power demand demonstrating best practices. In 2013, the group installed flywheel technology as an alternative to lead acid batteries for an uninterrupted power supply (UPS). We were the first company in the State of Maine to implement this technology in a data center which has enabled Sappi to realize a 95 percent improvement in UPS availability.

Read more from Sappi North America's 2017 Sustainability Report here: http://bit.ly/Sappi-SR17