On the 16th of November, employees from Sappi Fine Paper Europe’s Headquarters in Brussels headed out to the Forêt de Soignes, armed with 2750 saplings, ready to be planted. Sustainability is an everyday reality at Sappi, and this initiative is ‘real’ example of how Sappi people can, and do, embrace sustainability on a day to day basis.
Employee-led tree-planting started at Sappi in Spring 2010. Since then, over 8000 trees have been planted by employees in conjunction with the ANB (Agentschap voor Natuur en Bos), the equivalent of the Department of Forestry. This organisation is responsible for the planting of approximately 30,000 trees in the Forêt de Soignes every year as part of the National Forest Management Plan (Belgium). Over 50 people from the company volunteered to take part in the very physical team building exercise, and the result brought great satisfaction to the group.
Sophie de Guignard, responsible for coordinating the group said, “We‘re looking forward to next year when we will plant our 10,000th tree. It will be a significant milestone, and a great reason to inspire others to share the same experience, and understand how to make sustainability real.”
Sappi’s tree planting initiative belongs to a series of sustainability driven initiatives at Sappi all with the objective of demonstrating that sustainability is at the heart of everything that Sappi does. Sappi cares, and wants to engage with others to care together. In September, the Treehouse was launched (www.the-treehouse.be). The Treehouse partnership is both a physical and virtual platform, for like-minded individuals and companies to come together to find ways to embrace sustainability in their daily activities. Sappi’s new sustainability website - We Care (www.sappipositivity.com) - is similarly focused on sharing knowledge and inspiring others to join and build momentum.