SFPNA Sustainability Report 2012: Letter from Mark Gardner
“It is clear that the actions we take to improve our environmental and social performance are the very same actions that drive our financial success and set the foundation for long-term profitable growth.”
Our strategic vision is clear: We must remain committed, as an organization, to exercise foresight and courage and take the actions necessary not only this year but in the years that lie ahead. It is this vision that drives our comprehensive sustainability strategy, one that recognizes that financial success can only be found when we make the right decisions to invest in our people, in our communities and in processes and capital projects to improve our environmental performance. We must execute against this vision—now and for the long-term.
Our track record is clear: Over the last five years we have achieved considerable success in meeting or beating our long-term sustainability goals—while at the same time improving profitability, growing our market presence, and meeting evolving customer expectations. Producing more from less, we are better positioned to effectively compete for customers whose values align to our own: high quality products, responsibly made; efficient and flexible services that avoid waste and redundancy; and well trained employees committed to safety, responsiveness and innovative solutions. These are the organizational qualities and capabilities that will define the long-term sustainable success of our company.
Environmental Performance
In 2012, we continued our progress across many environmental performance metrics as detailed in this report. Increased efficiencies and productivity at our mills, along with a company-wide focus on waste reduction, led to lower greenhouse gas emissions, improved energy efficiency, lower organic waste to landfill, and lower raw material waste through process re-use. We continue to source 100 percent of our wood from our regional North American wood baskets from landowners we know and trust, and remain committed to providing state-of-the-art sustainable forestry management services through our team of talented and experienced foresters located in both Maine and the Great Lakes region. These achievements, and many others, help secure our low cost position, enable us to compete successfully across global markets and will attract reinvestment in all three of our businesses.
At the Forefront of Innovation
This coming year, we will embark on an exciting new addition to our portfolio with the US$170 million pulp mill conversion at Cloquet Mill, expanding our reach into the high-growth dissolving pulp business. When this major investment comes online in 2013, it will bring Sappi’s total specialised cellulose capacity to over 1.3 million metric tons each year and ensure prosperity for many years to come. As we look to the future, Sappi believes that investing in our people enables us to compete at the forefront of innovation. We are proud to support a highly skilled workforce.
Safety Performance
The benchmark for measuring the overall health of any manufacturing organization is its safety performance. SFPNA’s improvements in safety performance are driven by the fundamentals: our commitment to responsible work practices, well maintained physical assets, good housekeeping, regular training programs, transparent communication, rigorous reporting (including near misses) and, most importantly, strong safety leadership at all levels of our organization.
This year, our overall safety performance improved significantly, with a 25 percent reduction in safety incidents, and a drop in our Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) to 0.72 from 0.92 in 2011. While we are gratified by this improvement, we remain very focused on our ultimate goal of zero injuries and have set expectations throughout the organization for step improvements in 2013 through lifelong learning, including opportunities for our own in-house engineers and research and development teams. As thought leaders in the industry, we strive to attract new employees with a fresh perspective and are actively engaged in an open, transparent dialogue about sustainability with our customers, employees and additional stakeholders.
Our legacy of sustainability relies on building on our past and utilizing best practices to strengthen our core business. The achievements and positions on key sustainability issues outlined in this report reflect our unwavering commitment to evaluate how to better manage our operations, improve yield and safety, and lower costs to create a more prosperous future for our customers and for Sappi.
Read the full SFPNA Sustainability Report 2012 by downloading an online PDF version from our eQ microsite at: http://www.na.sappi.com/eQ/index.html
