SAPPI is pleased to announce that all three of its manufacturing regions – Europe, North America and Southern Africa – have once again achieved the highest possible rating, Platinum, in the annual EcoVadis Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ratings. This achievement places the regions individually and Sappi collectively in the top one percent of all companies reviewed.
EcoVadis is the world’s most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, intelligence and collaborative performance improvement tools for global supply chains. Over 90,000 companies from over 160 countries across more than 200 purchasing categories have been assessed. Companies are evaluated for their performance in terms of a total of 21 criteria, which in turn are divided into four general areas: environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.
Tracy Wessels, Sappi Limited Group Head: Sustainability and Investor Relations, said: “This is the third year in a row that all our regions are awarded the top rating, underpinning our deeply entrenched commitment to sustainability principles.”
Particularly noteworthy was the fact that Sappi North America and Sappi Southern Africa scored 90 percent for environment, while Sappi Europe scored 100 percent.
“These achievements highlight our long-standing commitment to best practice in this area and demonstrate that we are not just talking about treading more lightly on the planet, we’re taking robust actions to make this a reality, also aligned to our United Nations Global Compact and Sustainable Development Goals commitments,” said Wessels.
“While we’re extremely proud of being in the top one percent of all companies assessed, we’re not resting on our laurels. We leverage the EcoVadis assessment to benchmark ourselves and identify areas for improvement across all our operations as we work to provide sustainable solutions that contribute to a thriving world. In doing so, we’re enhancing both our own and our customers’ CSR performance,” she added.
As increased supply chain transparency and engagement have become substantially more important globally, Ecovadis is an extremely useful tool for companies looking to enhance corporate social responsibility performance through their value chains. Many of Sappi’s customers operate in international markets with different regulations and have extensive supply chains spanning the world. EcoVadis provides them with a consistent methodology for assessing environmental, social and governance performance.
