Forests are one of nature’s most powerful systems to capture the carbon dioxide that causes climate change. Our actions at Sappi keep forests forested, make them more resilient in a warming world, and ensure that our global decarbonisation efforts go hand-in-hand with scaling up nature-based solutions.
The production and use of forest products with Sappi, which includes everything from paper and packaging to fibres for clothing, doesn’t necessarily lead to less forest. In fact, demand for our forest products can actually lead to more forestland.
How? Demand leads to a need for more responsibly grown trees. And that means more landowners are keeping their land forested—rather than using it for agriculture, ranching or other non-forest uses.
Growing and protecting forests is not the only response we need to climate change. Rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, increased wildfires, and the spread of pests and diseases from climate change are threatening forests now, not in the distant future. We’re working at the frontline with our partners to adapt to these threats and safeguard forests for the realities of a warming world.
Climate action is about climate-smart research to help our forests become more resilient to future climate change, innovating with woodfibre for a bio-based circular economy, and co-creating with our partners to use more renewable energy and boost our operations' energy efficiency
GIOVANNI SALE
GENERAL MANAGER, SUSTAINABILITY AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE, SAPPI SOUTHERN AFRICA
Climate action means allying state-of-the-art engineering with forests and nature’s tools – both to increase the share of renewable energy that powers our operations and to reimagine the use of woodfibre in the everyday products we all need for more sustainable lives.
How we’re decarbonising
At Sappi, we’ve set greenhouse gas reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) to decarbonise our global business and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
In 2022 we also created our first Sustainable Financing Framework. We are advancing on three pillars for decarbonisation that each region applies to their specific business and regulatory environments.
We co-create by continuously investing in state-of-the-art technology and processes to make Sappi more eco-effective.
We co-create to increase our share of renewable energy and procure more green
electricity.
We co-create to produce fibre-based solutions that can replace fossil derived or more resource-intensive products.
How trees fight climate change
Trees and forests play an integral role in the global carbon cycle. By sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in forest biomass and soils, forests store vast amounts of carbon and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. If afforestation, reforestation, and restoration efforts were scaled up, trees and forests could mitigate climate change even more.
Managing forests for wood production can help to maximise their contribution to carbon sequestration. It also produces wood, a renewable, natural material that can substitute fossil-fuel derived alternatives.
Forest management practices which rely on scientific knowledge of silvicultural best practices applicable in respective vegetation zones, promote growth and carbon sequestration.
In our timber plantations in South Africa and in the managed forests where we source wood raw material, the cycle of regeneration, growing, thinning and harvesting is actively managed to enhance biodiversity, resilience, and maintain functional ecological conditions.
Watch to learn more about how trees fight climate change.
Sappi is firmly committed to zero deforestation
There are places in the world where deforestation is devastating ecosystems. But this damage is not from the responsible forest product industry that we’re proudly part. As the UN reports, “agricultural expansion drives almost 90% of global deforestation, with more than half of forest loss due to conversion of forest into cropland, whereas livestock grazing is responsible for almost 40 percent of forest loss.”
Sappi acts as a powerful force to prevent deforestation. We neither harvest nor buy woodfibre that originates from tropical natural forests and our wood sourcing causes zero deforestation. Our commitment to zero deforestation means knowing the source of woodfibre and ensuring that suppliers implement practices to promptly regenerate forests post-harvest, which is required under the global forest certification standards that Sappi is committed to upholding.
Learn more about our responsible sourcing practices.
Adapting to a warming world
Adaptation to climate change is not just an option—it’s an urgent necessity to safeguard forests. Together with our partners, we're pioneering climate-smart forestry practices and research to meet this challenge today and tomorrow.
From conducting investigations with satellite imagery to planting more resilient hybrid species and implementing fire protection strategies, we're at the front lines of climate action in forests.
Embracing precision forestry
Technology is revolutionising how Sappi keeps an eye on forests and the ecosystems inside. The precision technology we’re adapting into our practices is making us faster and smarter as responsible forest stewards.
Detects heat from plants and trees, helping foresters spot plant stress or disease early, even before visible signs. It’s also great during fire season, helping to detect hot spots and assess fire risks to prevent flare-ups.
Uses drones to create 3-D forest models, giving insights into young plant health and mortality, assesses plant quality in nurseries and conducts volumetric analysis in forest and mills.
maps forests using laser pulses, providing detailed data on canopy structure and terrain features and offers insights into stocking information, growth traits and variances across landholdings.
Enables scans of seedling nutrients, seedling tolerance against frost and drought as well as testing on disease-resistant varieties.
Tracking our progress
We invite you to track Sappi’s progress with us. We transparently disclose our global and regional emissions annually in our Group Sustainability Report as well as the programmes below.
- EU Emissions Trading System
- Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
- US Environmental Protection Agency’s Mandatory Reporting Rule