Sappi North America Releases 2018 Sustainability Report, Celebrates Transformational Year With New Team

BOSTON, April 25, 2019 /3BL Media/–  Sappi North America, Inc., a leading producer and supplier of diversified paper, packaging products and dissolving wood pulp, on Wednesday released its 2018 Sustainability Report showcasing its industry-leading sustainability efforts. The report highlights the yearly progress toward its long-term sustainability goals through ongoing investments in employees and mills, safety standards, environmental commitments and continued innovation.

“Through investing in our people and our mills, holding ourselves to the highest safety standards, and growing our environmental stewardship, we strengthen the sustainability of our company for the long term,” said Mark Gardner, President and CEO, Sappi North America. “We know these commitments create value for our customers, our communities, and our shareholders and we are proud to report the progress achieved in 2018.”

Sustainability Achievements

The 2018 highlights include:

• Excellent industrial safety performance with a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate of 0.35 for the year—the lowest in Sappi North America’s history.
• Among the lowest carbon footprints in our sector, with just 0.38 tons of CO₂ generated per ton of product made. In fact, over 75% of our total energy needs are derived from renewable resources like woody biomass.
• 100% of our wood and pulp is sourced in conformance with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) Fiber Standard and 58% is third party certified under either SFI, FSC, PEFC or as part of a certified Point of Harvest program.  
• Strong and innovative waste reduction initiatives, including reuse of byproducts to avoid landfill.  Looking at pulp mill operations alone, this year we reduced waste by 18 percent from our 2014 baseline.

A New Sustainability Team to Move Sappi North America Forward

“As part of our commitment to excellence in sustainability, Sappi North America has invested in a multi-functional, new team of experts, building on its legacy strengths,” said Jennifer Miller, Chief Business Sustainability Officer, Sappi North America. “In 2018, Sandy Taft was appointed Sustainability Director, responsible for setting a comprehensive sustainability strategy supporting business goals; Rebecca Barnard was named Forestry Certification Manager to drive our commitments to responsible sourcing of wood and pulp from sustainably managed forests; and Lynne Palmer was promoted to Manager, Packaging Product Stewardship to implement rigorous protocols to ensure packaging safety and sustainability.” 

To read more of Sappi North America’s 2018 Sustainability Report and learn about its sustainability initiatives, please visit: https://www.sappi.com/sustainability-north-america.

ENDS

About Sappi North America, Inc.

Maintaining its position as a leader in diversified wood fiber products, Sappi North America is focused on achieving the goals set in the Sappi Group’s 2020Vision. Sappi North America employs over 2,000 individuals at its three mills, sheeting facility, Technology Center, and supporting offices across the U.S. Altogether, the sites produce 1.35 million metric tons of paper, and over 800,000 metric tons of kraft and dissolving wood pulp (DWP) annually.  

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 four diversified businesses – high-quality Coated Printing Papers, Dissolving Wood Pulp, Packaging and Specialty Papers and Casting and Release Papers – is driven by strong customer relationships, best-in-class people and advantaged assets, products and services. Our high-quality Coated Printing 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 Wood Pulp with Verve, 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, Classics and Neoterix 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 is a 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.