2007 Annual Report - Sappi

Sustainability at a glance
Our public commitment to sustainability
We believe that the essence of sustainability is to create and protect shareholder value over the long term. Social, environmental and economic
factors – people, planet and prosperity – are all interconnected and are an intrinsic part of our value proposition. Our commitment to sustainability
is underpinned by our listing on the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Index of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange, our membership
of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and our Sustainable Development Charter, developed in 2005.
A snapshot of our non-financial performance indicators is set out below. Further details can be found in our 2007 Sustainability Report (available
on request from Group Head Corporate Affairs – contact details on page 194), or on our website www.sappi.com.
Our Charter commitments
Prosperity
Running our business efficiently and ensuring
long-term profitable growth for shareholders
and other stakeholders.
Examples of how we lived up to them
Announced our highest profit for the year since 2002, demonstrating an upward
trend for the fifth consecutive quarter
Listening to our customers, anticipating
• Met printers’ needs for a fast-drying grade of coated fine paper with the
and exceeding their needs. development of Tempo, due to be launched in 2008
• Launched Flo, a best-in-class economy paper
• Met the need of environmentally-conscious consumers with:
– Lustro ® Offset Environmental (LOE), which contains 30% post-consumer
waste and is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain-of-Custody (COC)
and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI ® ) certified
– Royal Web Recycled which contains 50% post-consumer waste and is
FSC accredited
– Typek ® Recycled, a standard office paper incorporating 30% post-consumer
waste and 20% post-industrial waste
Practising good corporate governance by
conducting our operations in a responsible
and ethical manner and by ensuring that
our activities, services and products comply
with or exceed relevant laws, regulations
and standards.
Responding to business challenges and
enhancing competitive levels of performance
and productivity through technological
innovation and pursuit of excellence.
Understanding the social and economic
benefits of our activities and their contribution
to sustainable livelihoods.
Continued to promote high standards of governance and abide by the
Code of Ethics
• Continued research work into process and product development
• Sappi well positioned to benefit from development of EUCAGEN
Eucalyptus grandis genome project which will establish the DNA sequence
for this species
• Sappi’s Technical Innovation Awards programme continued to reward high
levels of technical innovation
Conducted a pilot socio-economic impact study at Ngodwana Mill in South Africa
to measure the impact of our activities. We are currently revising the methodology
People
Promoting the wellbeing, health and safety • Globally, the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) for employees
of our employees, contractors, communities dropped between 2003 and 2007 by 36%. Sappi Fine Paper Europe by 50%,
and consumers of our products. Sappi Fine Paper North America by 30%, Sappi South Africa by 29%
• Globally, the LTIFR rate for contractor employees decreased between 2003
and 2007 by 57%
• New risk-based National Occupational Safety Association South Africa
(NOSA) safety system instituted for Sappi Forest contractors
Rewarding our employees fairly and equitably.
As remuneration and performance are linked, we conducted a performance
management audit to ascertain effectiveness of our performance
management system
Empowering and assisting our employees Globally, there was an average of 40 hours of training per employee in 2007
to attain their full potential through training,
personal development and career advancement.
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