Sappi Partners With Suppliers Who Are Leaders in Sustainability
Sappi North America's partnerships with its supply network are key to creating an increased circular economy
Partnering with our supply network is key to creating a more circular economy. Science-based targets provide companies with a path to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goals for limiting global warming. In early 2022, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) approved Sappi’s global two-component goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 41.5% by 2030 and encouraging 44% of our suppliers, by spend, to set science-based targets by 2026.
In procurement, the target for Sappi North America is to direct 37% of our annual third-party spend to suppliers with science-based goals by 2026. SBTi requires targets to cover at least 67% of Scope 3 emissions, and this requirement helped guide our 2026 goals.
We started our journey in 2019 at 12% of our spend with SBTi-committed suppliers. SNA suppliers already aligned with SBTi include companies from our categories of pulp, chemicals, logistics, packaging and some original equipment manufacturers. Our pulp procurement team is leading our initial discussions with suppliers about their plans for SBTi.
Internally, we are planning how best to achieve our 2026 target by gathering input from suppliers who have already committed to SBTi and by talking to key suppliers that have not yet signed up.
In 2022, we distributed our second supplier GHG emissions survey. The goal is to obtain information that will allow Sappi to calculate and report our Scope 3 emissions from the manufacture of products that we purchase and the transportation of those products to Sappi facilities. At this point, not all of our suppliers calculate GHG emissions at the product level. We will continue to work with them to communicate the importance of this effort.
During 2022, Sappi salespeople collected data from existing and potential customers to learn what is important to them in the area of sustainability. The information includes whether those customers are signatories for SBTi. It is vital that we work together to understand our full value-chain impact on GHG emissions and, most importantly, to create options for improvement. Through this collaboration, we will be able to contribute efficiently and innovatively to a more circular economy.
Looking to the future, Sappi is developing a supplier sustainability awards program to recognize our partner suppliers who are leaders in various areas of sustainability. We are exploring other programs that recognize suppliers in areas such as philanthropy, carbon reduction, sustainable innovation and certifications, and we hope to elevate this work as part of our supplier engagement.
