Sappi Limited (JSE),

Feature-rich

The new www.sappi.com features full descriptions of products and services offered; comprehensive award-winning educational materials for customers; in-depth sustainability reporting; easy access to corporate social responsibility efforts like Ideas That Matter; dynamic portals for customers and investors and a prominent social media presence. The site will also feature user personalisation, ensuring that the most relevant information is provided first to frequent visitors.

“A dedicated team of Sappi employees across the world has been working tirelessly over the last year to create a website that not only encapsulates our global 2020Vision, but that serves each of our key stakeholders in a way that is both informative, actionable and personalised,” said André Oberholzer, Group Head Corporate Affairs of Sappi Limited. “Sappi.com is now an essential source of information for all our stakeholders. We’re proud and excited by this launch, but our work is far from done. We’ve laid a solid foundation and will remain dedicated to quality. The team at Sappi will be making continuous improvements for each of our unique stakeholders.”

Two new features: Sappi&You and Investor hub

While the entire website was redesigned, there are two features with increased functionality that offer additional benefits to users. First, the Sappi&You Online portal for European customers offers a personalised online experience for printers, publishers and brand owners. Supported by eCommerce, it provides increased functionality to support our customers. Information is tailored to the customers’ specific needs allowing fast access to transactional information, local specialists, detailed product information, sample ordering or benefit from Sappi’s in depth technical knowledge and support areas. It is not only customers who benefit from Sappi&You Online, companies who would like to learn more about how Sappi&You can support their businesses will find useful information about our co-development approach as well as putting them in touch with our local specialists.

Second, a new hub dedicated to investors will provide background information on Sappi and the industry, as well as regularly updated share pricing, financial results, upcoming financial events, financial presentations and information on the 2020Vision.

Resourceful investment

“We see this investment as a key resource that helps drive our company toward our goal of ‘One Sappi’ – a single global brand,” continued Oberholzer. “With more resources immediately available to our audiences than ever before, and our resulting increased transparency, we will continue our position as a thought leader in the industry. We are excited to enter the next phase of our business strategy, where we will continue to innovate and offer products and services that are of the highest quality to our customers.”

The post Sappi Limited launches new website highlighting global presence, increased functionality and robust educational resources    first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

Forests – in all forms – are essential to life on our planet. They provide clean air, water and climate regulation. As a renewable resource, forests are an important part of the solution to meeting global needs for foods, fuel, fibre, medicine and other essential products to our daily lives.

The global forest products industry is inherently renewable. ICFPA members are committed to sustainable forest management with some 300 million hectares of certified areas from which is sourced a significant amount of wood fibre used by the industry.
“By following best practices, well-managed forests of all types are a positively contribution to the provision of distinct products and services that are essential for human well-being and development. Thus our industry is helping to alleviate climate change impacts while provides social inclusion”, said ICFPA president Elizabeth de Carvalhaes.

“South Africa’s pulp and papermaking industry is built on the country’s large plantation forest industry, explains Jane Molony, executive director of the Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA) which is represented on the ICFPA. “Our plantations are managed in a sustainable manner, which means that as one tree is felled in one part of the forest, another is planted in another area. This ensures that the supply of trees for pulp and paper making is renewed into the future.”

Molony adds that trees are the source for thousands of products – from traditional products such as timber, pulp and paper and biomass energy to liquid biofuels, biochemicals, biomaterials, nanofibres or nanocrystals of cellulose to improve products used in such applications as automobiles, aerospace, defence, etc.

ICFPA is proud to represent the contributions of the global forest products industry to sustainable development, ensuring that environmental, social and economic benefits are available to current and future generations.

The 2015 ICFPA Sustainability Progress Report highlights the industry’s improvements across a range of sustainability indicators and focuses on the industry’s contributions toward a green economy, including the reduction on Greenhouse gas emissions intensity, the uptake in certified sustainably managed forests and a high paper recycling rate.

The ICFPA represents more than 30 national and regional forest and paper associations around the world. Together, ICFPA members represent over 90 percent of global paper production and half of global wood production.

For more information about the sustainability of the global forest and paper industry, visit icfpa.org.

The post Celebrating trees on International Day of Forests 2016 first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

New study commissioned by Two Sides explains why the popular “go paperless – save trees” slogans are misleading and false.

The post Going Paperless Does Not Save Trees first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

The full statement is available at http://www.icfpa.org/uploads/Modules/Publications/icfpa-statement-on-paper-recycling.pdf.

“Forest and paper associations around the world recognize the importance of paper recovery for recycling,” said outgoing ICFPA President Donna Harman. “With this policy statement, we are encouraging national governments to pursue best practices to enable recovered fibre to find its highest end-use.”

The global paper recycling rate stands at about 58%. Some developed countries have achieved as high as 70 to 75%. Many developing countries are establishing infrastructure to help improve paper recycling rates.

The statement calls for educating citizens on the importance of recycling, allowing the marketplace to determine recovered fibre’s best end-use, and ensuring functioning waste markets while respecting national contexts and systems. The ICFPA believes that extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems “should not be a preferred choice where existing markets for collections and reuse of recovered paper are efficient and effective.”

“We are proud to say that South Africa’s paper recycling rate stands at 64% of recoverable paper, higher than the global average,” says Jane Molony, executive director of the Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (Pamsa).

Apart from diversion from landfill and the recovery of recyclable fibre and other substrates for re-use, the spin-off of recycling is job creation. It is estimated that between 80,000 and 100,000 people benefit from collecting recyclables, particularly in the informal sector.

The Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (RecyclePaperZA), which is allied to Pamsa, continually seeks to advance the sector through its entrepreneurship training programme, awareness campaigns and school curriculum project.

The ICFPA’s statement is the latest in a series of policy statements underwritten by its members associations. All ICFPA policy statements are available at icfpa.org/resource-centre/statements.

The ICFPA represents more than 30 national and regional forest and paper associations around the world. Together, ICFPA members represent over 90 percent of global paper production and half of global wood production.

For more information about the sustainability of the global forest and paper industry, visit icfpa.org.

The post Global forest and paper industry releases policy statement on paper recycling first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

“Sadly only 5% of homes actively recycle their paper and board,” says Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (RecyclePaperZA) operations director Ursula Henneberry.

National Recycling Day on Friday, 14 September, is the perfect opportunity for South Africans to take a more active role in recycling, in the home and at the workplace.

The simplest way to green our future

Paper, one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable products, is made from farmed trees, just as your morning cereal was made from farmed wheat or corn. Plantation trees help to absorb carbon dioxide from and release life-giving oxygen into the atmosphere.

Trees, and thus paper and wood products, store this carbon as solid matter. By recycling paper, we can ensure that this carbon is kept out of the atmosphere for longer. Paper recycling is one of the simplest ways that we can green our future.

“If we do not recycle, paper will rot among other rubbish and emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” says Henneberry.

A tonne of recycled paper can save up to three cubic metres of landfill space and subsequently reduce transport costs for local municipalities.

By recycling paper, milk and juice cartons, glass, aluminium and plastic, we contribute to less pollution and litter, and create a healthier, greener and cleaner society.

Top tips for aspiring recyclers

1. Do your research and find out which companies collect paper in your area. Visit www.mywaste.co.za for these details.
2. Do not mix your paper with other recyclables.
3. Do not let your paper get wet or soiled by other rubbish. Keep it under cover or in a closed plastic container.
4. Get to know what is recyclable and what is not. The following paper types cannot be recycled:

– Foil gift wrapping and foiled lined boxes
– Wax coated or laminated boxes such as frozen food boxes
– Empty cement and dog food bags
– Disposable nappies
– Carbon paper
– Sticky notes

1. Remember that juice, milk and custard cartons ARE recyclable. Simply rinse, flatten and place with your paper recycling.
2. Newspapers are best recycled within three months.
3. If you don’t have a formal recycling collection service or drop-off depot in your neighbourhood, consider putting your recyclables in clear plastic bags so that the people who sort through the piles of refuse on collection day are afforded some dignity by not having to trawl through your week’s household waste.

Give paper a new lease on life

Paper can be recycled up to seven times. Some virgin or new wood fibre is required to make recycled paper possible in the first place and is always needed to keep the global fibre cycle going. But have you ever wondered where recyclable paper goes or what it becomes?

• Corrugated boxes and magazines = new corrugated boxes
• Newspapers, magazines = newspapers
• Office paper, newspapers, printer offcuts = tissue products, kitchen and industrial paper towelling
• Office paper, corrugated boxes, printer offcuts, cardboard trims = cereal boxes, soap cartons
• Newspaper, cardboard trims = moulded paper products such as egg boxes.
• Milk and juice cartons = board paper.

Next time you open your grocery cupboard or medicine cabinet, think about the role that paper plays in your life in its various and versatile forms.

The post Why we should be recycling our paper first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).