Domtar reveals sustainability strategy to 2020

Photo provided by Domtar.

MONTREAL—Domtar, a pulp and paper manufacturer and provider of personal care products including the adult incontinence product Depends, on Thursday issued its 2011 Sustainable Growth Report that outlines the company’s sustainability strategies until 2020.

The report also satisfies the B-level requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)—a first for Domtar.

“We recognize that in an industry experiencing a secular decline of two to four per cent per year, our key sustainability challenge is how we manage our transformation from paper-maker to fibre innovator,” John D. Williams, Domtar’s president and chief executive officer, said.

Domtar is tackling sustainability on five fronts: through the sourcing of its fibre, the environmental footprint of its facilities, its customer relationships, the quality of its workplaces and its relationship with its communities.

The success of these endeavours will be measured using a total of 35 key performance indicators (KPIs) that include:

• Obtaining 100 per cent of its fibre from FSC-certified sources;

• Reducing Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its pulp and paper mills by eight per cent by 2020 compared to 2010 levels;

• Implementing programs to help customers use its products more responsibly— the firm won that won the Environmental Strategy of the Year award at the 2011 Pulp and Paper International Awards for its
PAPERbecause campaign and;

• Continuing technical manufacturing skill development programs.

“The release of a key performance indicator framework is an important milestone in our long-term sustainability strategy,” Williams said.

“By addressing sustainability in a systematic way we are making this company more resilient, better able to seize opportunities for innovation and growth, as well as more open to constructive input from our shareholders, customers, suppliers, and environmental partners.”

Facility-level focus

Domtar says it is at the stage where it optimizing the use of resources across its manufacturing operations and the established KPIs are going to be “adapted to—not adopted” by each facility.

“Rather than following the common practice of establishing corporate performance objectives that dictate required investments and operational changes across facilities, our corporate goal setting begins with the recognition that ever facility has its own industrial ecology — different products, fuels, fibre mix, water resources, community priorities and ecosystem restraints,” the report said.

Transparency

The company is also offering consumers insight about the environmental impact of some of its paper products and mills through tools like the recently Domtar Paper Trailcalculator.

The calculator generates environmental impact reports, which include data on water usage, distance of fibre transport, GHG emissions, production waste sent to landfill and renewable energy use. The calculator also compares performance with those of its competitors.

“Each and every day in business, we face a wide array of social, environmental and economic influences. Howe we choose to embrace these changes—as risks or opportunities—influences how a company is perceived in its industry, how prospective workers view our company, how partnerships develop, and how customer relationships establish foundations built on trust and mutual benefit,” Williams said.

Domtar’s sustainability efforts aren’t simply environmental initiatives—it’s a philosophy that permeates every aspect of its business as it works to move into markets beyond beyond its roots in pulp and paper.

“Quite simply it’s our sustainability efforts that create our competitive advantage.”