The Thing About…Earth Day

In honour of International Mother Earth Day (22 April), we wanted to draw your attention to Sappi’s YouTube video on sustainability and its importance to the successful longevity of Sappi’s business.

The video is part of Sappi’s “The Thing About” series narrated by environmental journalist Johan Botha, that shares information about the company’s commitment to People, Planet and Prosperity through conservation and biodiversity management, community initiatives and partnership programmes as well as land and forest stewardship projects.

Dr Dave Everard, Sappi Environmental Manager explains how the company strives for a balance of these “3Ps” to manage the business in such a way that it is financially viable, environmentally sound and socially responsible. Dr Everard says he believes that, “timber, or vegetation biomass is one of the saviours to future sustainable issues of the planet,” and “creating more markets to use timber is a good thing as long as the timber is produced in a responsible way.” As Sappi grows, it continues to find innovative ways to improve yield, and minimise and reuse waste without negatively impacting the people and natural environment through plantation farming.

Sappi’s Ngodwana Energy Biomass Project was recently named a preferred bidder in the South African Department of Energy’s 4th window Renewable Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme. Through this project, Sappi will use locally-supplied biomass to produce energy for the national grid.

For more information on Sappi’s sustainability initiatives, please see the company’s Group Sustainability Report.

Stay tuned to Sappi’s YouTube channel. We’ll let you know about future videos in this series released in the next few months.