Taking climate action
Climate Action
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By decarbonising our global business and scaling up nature-based solutions, we’re increasingly part of the solution to climate change.
As a business rooted in nature, we understand that climate change is not a distant threat—it’s a challenge today to forests, forest products businesses like ours, and the world’s future. That’s why taking climate action isn’t just our responsibility—it’s essential now.
Forests are one of the planet’s most powerful carbon sinks, and when managed sustainably, they help absorb more carbon than they emit. Sappi’s commitment to responsible forestry, decarbonising our operations, and innovation with nature’s tools makes us part of the solution to climate change.
Our climate actions align with climate science and support a just energy transition.
Steve Binnie
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.
Sappi takes climate action by allying state-of-the-art engineering with forests and nature’s tools. All in ways that increase the share of renewable energy that powers our operations and allows us to reimagine the use of woodfibre in the everyday products we all need for more sustainable living.
How we’re decarbonising our global operations
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).
Our climate strategy and regional decarbonisation roadmaps guide our journey and capital investment. Compared to our 2019 baseline, Sappi's absolute GHG emissions have decreased by over 30% by FY2024. This was achieved through a combination of increased renewable energy use, more efficient self-generation of electricity, efficient energy management and organisational changes.
Our approach to decarbonisation embeds Sappi’s carbon impact into capital allocation processes, using an internal carbon price to guide decision-making. We model physical and transitional scenarios to assess climate risks and opportunities, informing our mitigation and adaptation strategies. We continuously monitor and transparently report on our climate KPIs and have integrated our science-based targets into long-term remuneration awards.
In South Africa, we acknowledge the challenges posed by reliance on coal and the social implications of decarbonisation, which drives us to engage with regulators and stakeholders to advocate for a just transition where progress is shared, fair and equitable.
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.
Forests and trees as climate solutions
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.
In the business of growing forests
The production and use of forest products—ranging from paper and packaging to textile fibres—does not necessarily lead to less forest. On the contrary, responsible demand for forest products can encourage forest expansion. How? Increased demand drives the need for responsibly managed forests. As a result, more landowners are incentivised to maintain their land as forest, rather than converting it to agriculture, ranching, or other non-forest uses.
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. At Sappi, we are firmly committed to zero deforestation. Learn more about our responsible sourcing practices.
Adapting forestry to a warming world
Rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, more frequent wildfires, and the spread of pests and diseases are already affecting forests—not decades from now, but today. Sappi is working on the front lines with our partners to address these challenges. Together, we're pioneering climate-smart forestry practices and research to adapt to a warming world. 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
In South Africa, Sappi has a comprehensive tree plantation management and monitoring system (integrated with GIS), which it implements to ensure, among other goals, legal compliance with all laws and the protection of the environment, especially water, soil, biodiversity and the air.
Technology is revolutionising how Sappi keeps an eye on ts tree plantations, bringing big advantages in cost, accuracy and scalability. 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.
Working across our value chain
Working together in partnership with suppliers enables us to actively identify risk, assess social and environmental performance, as well as encourage commitment to sustainable choices and the UN SDGs. In line with our Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) endorsed commitment that 44% of our suppliers (by spend) have science-based targets by 2026, we have a focus on climate action in our engagement with suppliers.
Sappi's engagement with Tier 1 raw material suppliers on greenhouse gas emissions is key to gain a deeper understanding of our products' overall carbon footprint. It helps us to identify where hard-to-abate emissions lie, uncover opportunities for value chain abatement, and work with suppliers on their product and process innovations. We started our new supplier engagement programme in early 2024, further building on our approach to managing Scope 3 emissions hand-in-hand with our suppliers to reduce the carbon emissions of Sappi products.
Learn more about sustainable procurement.
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