Sappi North America Highlights Continued Commitment to Communities and Safety in 2020 Sustainability Report

May 19, 2021 /3BL Media/ - Sappi North America, Inc., a leading producer and supplier of diversified paper, packaging products and pulp, today released its 2020 Sustainability Report, illustrating Sappi's continued commitment to sustainable development. The report highlights the ways that Sappi remained innovative and prosperous during the COVID-19 pandemic; its commitment to employee safety and third-party collaborations for sustainability initiatives; and ambitious plans to meet its strategic business goals for 2025.

"In 2020, we continued to build on our sustainability commitments and created a foundation of new strategies to tackle our global business goals which will guide us into 2025," said Mike Haws, President and CEO, Sappi North America. "We are confident in our capacity to grow as a business while contributing toward building a circular, sustainable economy."

Sustainability Achievements

Sappi North America's 2020 results exhibit its commitment to innovation, sustainability and business growth throughout its communities. Highlights from the report include:

• How Sappi responded to the pandemic as an essential business. Sappi's mills continued to operate as an essential business during the pandemic, and pivoted to creating new products at the onset of the crisis last spring. Its products are now being used to create face shields, packaging for COVID-19 test kits, and disinfecting wipes.
• A record year for safety. The safety and wellbeing of Sappi employees continues to be a top priority for the company. The company's injury rates in 2020 were the most favorable in Sappi's history, with a lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) of 0.16. This is the third consecutive year that Sappi set a new best-year LTIFR.
• Recognition of industry-leading sustainability performance. In 2020, Sappi North America was awarded a Platinum score by EcoVadis, a leader in third-party evaluations of business sustainability performance. Sappi scored in the top 1 percent of companies evaluated within its sector, alongside the company's regional counterparts in Sappi Europe and Sappi Southern Africa.
• Personal and financial resilience. Despite significant challenges over the past year, Sappi finished 2020 on a positive note. Its operational flexibility, and that of its employees and stakeholders, allowed the company to partly mitigate decreasing demand in some sectors by meeting the unexpected need for other products, such as food packaging and pulp for tissue producers.

Sappi North America's 2025 Goals

Sappi Limited's 2020 vision was focused on lowering total energy consumption, reducing waste and increasing certified fiber. For 2025, the company will continue to focus on responsible operations and sourcing, driven by a refreshed corporate brand and purpose as a renewable resources company. Dedicated teams across Sappi evaluated the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) themes and identified seven goals where it can be the most impactful, while addressing broader global concerns. In North America, Sappi is answering the call to help build a better world, in partnership with other global businesses and local communities, to set and achieve ambitious goals for sustainable development.

"We are very pleased with Sappi's achievements over the last year during these unprecedented times," said Beth Cormier, Vice President of Research, Development and Sustainability, Sappi North America. "Across our global operations, the Sappi family was able to adapt and create innovative solutions, a testament to our resourceful and hardworking employees. Our expectations remain high that over the next five years we will see continued success in sustainable development globally and in our local communities."

To read Sappi North America's full 2020 Sustainability Report and request a copy, please visit: https://www.sappi.com/sustainability-and-impact.

About Sappi North America, Inc.
Sappi North America, Inc., headquartered in Boston, is a market leader in converting wood fiber into superior products that customers demand worldwide. The success of our three diversified businesses – high-quality graphic papers, pulp, and packaging and speciality papers – is driven by strong customer relationships, best-in-class people and advantaged assets, products and services. Our high-quality graphic papers, including McCoy, Opus, Somerset, and Flo, are the key platform for premium magazines, catalogs, books, direct mail and high-end print advertising. We are a leading manufacturer of dissolving pulp with our Verve brand, a sustainable fiber, which is used in a wide range of products, including textile fibers and household goods. We deliver sustainable packaging and specialty papers for luxury packaging and folding carton applications with our single-ply packaging brands, Spectro and Proto, and for the food and label industries with our specialty papers, LusterPrint and LusterCote. We are also one of the world's leading suppliers of casting and release papers with our Ultracast, PolyEx and Classics lines for the automotive, fashion and engineered films industries. Customers rely on Sappi for high technical, operational and market expertise; products and services delivered with consistently high quality and reliability; and, state-of-the-art and cost-competitive assets and innovative spirit.

Sappi North America, Inc. is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Sappi Limited (JSE), a global company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with more than 12,000 employees and manufacturing operations on three continents in seven countries and customers in over 150 countries.

Read more from Sappi North America's 2020 Sustainability Report here.