Letter from Colin Matthews, DLC sustainable development committee chairman
Dear stakeholder
We are determined to operate responsibly, thereby underpinning the sustainability of our businesses and local communities. We recognise that Mondi has a broader role in society – as a creator of wealth, as a fair and safe employer and as a responsible corporate entity. Our sustainability efforts form an integral part of our business activities.
Almost all of our commitments set in 2005 were exceeded, met or almost met (by more than 90% of target). We congratulate our management and employees on this.Our next key milestone is the 2015 sustainable development commitments, which are in the process of being finalised and will be reported on in next year’s report.
A collaborative approach
We are always eager to work closely with a range of appropriate NGOs and associations. We partner with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the WWF, The Forest Dialogue (TFD), the Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC™), and many other local and national NGOs. As a Group, we are supportive of the WBCSD’s Vision 2050 of a world well on the way to sustainability by 2050 and one of the ways we are playing our part is as a core member of the Ecosystem Focus Area, using our forestry operations in South Africa as a pilot in the Ecosystem Valuation Initiative.
We recognise and support the United Nations (UN) Development Programme’s Millenium Development Goals. We remain committed to ensuring that the Global Compact and its principles are part of the strategy, culture and day-to-day operations of our company, ensuring that its ten principles are embedded in what we do for the environment, the communities in which we work and society at large. Our 2011 UN Global Compact 2011 Communication on Progress report can be found here.
Taking stock of our footprint
We are particularly proud of our environmental achievements, focused mainly on containing and minimising the Group’s environmental footprint. Part of our strategy has been, and will remain, to reduce atmospheric emissions measured against unit production of our finished goods. In other words, we shall continue to reduce our total CO2e emissions for every tonne of paper and board we produce.
This extends to our other environmental impacts too. We have steadily reduced the volumes of water we use and the effluents we release from our plants. We have reduced the volumes of waste sent to landfill and we are increasingly energy efficiency.
Our businesses are inherently sustainable as our paper and packaging products have two significant advantages over many other products – they are based on natural fibres from forests that are non-depletable/renewable and the majority are easily recyclable. Nevertheless we need to ensure the protection of high conservation areas and the conservation of biodiversity in our forests.
Going beyond our raw materials, our sustainability commitment has shaped our product offerings and resulted in the Green Range: paper and packaging products with an enhanced environmental profile and an emphasis on efficiency, energy, non-depletable, renewably sourced materials and safety.
Safety is a key item on the agenda at every DLC Board meeting and we have tasked management with finding new ways to further entrench safe behaviour throughout the business. Following 2009’s success in delivering zero fatalities, we deeply regret that two people were fatally injured during the year, both in South Africa. The Group’s policy of zero harm remains our target and a thorough investigation was undertaken after each incident to ensure that we continue to refine the safety measures, including training programmes, necessary to keep all our employees and contractors safe. A number of operations have been very successful in their pursuit of zero harm, with 9 out of our 21 mills and forest areas reporting more than a million lost-time injury (LTI)-free hours.
We are proud to be admitted once again to the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Index of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the FTSE4Good UK, FTSE4Good Europe and FTSE4Good Global indices of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). In addition, Mondi’s sustainability efforts have been recognised with Mondi being nominated in 2009 as the best performer in the basic materials sector of the Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD) and rated as the leading company in the new WWF voluntary rating tool of fine paper companies’ global ecological footprint. Mondi has also been recognised by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an independent not-for-profit organisation developed on behalf of global investors, as a leader in climate change disclosure and performance.
Last change: 19.12.2011