SUSTAINABILITY
REPORT
OUR VISION AND STRATEGY
FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Our vision is to be recognised as the leading international paper company – a truly sustainable business built on a positive approach to the health, wellbeing and capabilities of our people, our environmental management and our financial prudence and integrity.
When the Group’s organisational values were being developed, sustainability was selected as one of the seven PaperlinX Values. As we try to balance cost constraints, social impacts and ecological performance, our focus on continuous improvement means that the organisation must make real and measurable changes every year. Our main strategy for delivering these changes is embedding sustainability into our business strategy and planning, structures and processes.
As a manufacturer and distributor of paper, we have certain responsibilities. Building our business upon paper – a sustainable product made from a renewable, natural resource that is completely recyclable – has many implications. These unique product features have become increasingly relevant to environmentally conscious consumers the world over. To maintain our Company’s growth we must focus our strategy on these three areas:
- Economic sustainability – the successful performance of our business model.
- Social sustainability – meeting society’s expectations of our responsibilities to our employees and the communities in which we operate.
- Environmental sustainability – managing natural resources wisely to continually improve our environmental performance.
Our commitments are set out in the PaperlinX Sustainability Charter, launched in 2004. Our business is founded on mutually beneficial relationships and partnerships with a range of stakeholders, and through the Charter we are committed to open dialogue, ethical behaviour and good business conduct.
Driving Sustainability Improvements
Supporting our sustainability commitments is a framework of management, risk and governance involving all levels of the Company from the Board through to operational teams. The Company has a risk oversight and management regime that involves detailed analysis of the material risks to the business worldwide. Board committees have responsibility for specific areas of compliance, and the regime’s effectiveness is subject to annual certification by the Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer.
Good performance in occupational health and wellbeing, safety and the environment are key strategic issues for PaperlinX. A Board committee consisting of four Non-executive Directors convenes with the Managing Director and the Group General Manager Environment Safety and Health (ES&H) on a quarterly basis to consider safety and environmental issues that may have strategic, business and reputation implications for the Group. This Safety and Environment Committee reviews policies and monitors compliance, assesses management systems, standards and practices, and reviews significant incident investigation reports.
The Committee also regularly visits sites within the Group to gain first-hand knowledge of operations and performance. During the year, the Committee visited sites in the UK and The Netherlands.
To further integrate sustainability between operational and commercial efforts, the Sustainability Affinity Group was created. This global team, with representatives from each business region, is responsible for marketing sustainable product brands globally, coordinating a global sustainability position and ensuring regions have sustainability plans in place to deal with environmental risks and opportunities.
Global Environmental Management Approach
The Company has a multifaceted approach to environmental management that is underpinned by an Operations Management System (OMS), as well as the identification and implementation of strategic priorities.
The OMS provides a framework for managing ES&H through performance requirements for all operational activities. These cover risk management, legal compliance, improvement, roles and responsibilities, training and compliance, communications, documentation, operational control, emergency response, contractor management, incident reporting, record keeping and auditing.
In addition, we identified key strategic priorities for the 2008–2010 period that will add significant value to the Company’s ES&H management. They are:
- To align all levels within the organisation with positive performance indicators in order that all our people understand how they can contribute to performance improvement.
- To instill a positive ES&H culture that aligns with the PaperlinX Values and results in a permanent change in commitment and behaviour through understanding the existing culture, and developing and implementing a cultural change programme.
- To achieve a reduction in our environmental footprint and leverage our environmental philosophy by engaging our people.
Environmental Management in Manufacturing
In addition to the OMS, each of our four paper mills in Australia has a site-specific environmental management system (EMS) that provides the processes and procedures for compliance with environmental requirements. These include site-specific licences that are issued by the Australian Government and Australian State Governments, as well as existing standards and codes of practice. Each site’s EMS complies with the International Standard ISO 14001 for environmental management, the leading standard for manufacturing sites, along with ISO 9001 quality management systems. Performance against the EMS is assessed by external auditors SAI Global and Det Norske Veritas (DNV).