2020 Sappi Southern Africa Corporate Citizenship Report

Reach out

By reaching out to others and working together to solve challenges, we can achieve much more than we can alone.

What is this about?

To build a better world, we need to be supportive, empathetic, inventive, passionate and above all, cooperative.

Why is this a priority goal and why does it matter?

For South Africa and for Sappi: Perhaps it's best summed up by the African proverb: "Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable".

What is Sappi doing about it?

Building partnerships starts with our great people, who add real value to our stakeholder relationships and to our business. We recognise them for their problem solving, resilience and collaborative spirit and we'll continue to invest in their development and focus on engaging them more closely (see Revise and Respond sections). We believe that sharing value with our communities makes us stronger. Which is why we've appointed a third-party service provider to create a societal impact strategy. This work, still in its early stages, aims to restructure disparate current initiatives into a single coherent framework which can be holistically understood and communicated; link our social strategy to our core business strategy and enhance our strategic approach to local communities and national and local government.

Developed by Genesis Analytics

Looking forward: Our Thrive25 target aligned with this SDG

Build and activate mutually beneficial partnerships

How can I support this goal?

Understand that the SDGs are the ultimate partnership for development. Familiarise yourself with them, talk to your family and friends about them and join organisations that promote them


Given the wide scope of sustainability, the SDG framework gives us focus. It also offers a common language to engage our employees and to guide our interaction with our customers and other stakeholders. Integrating the SDGs into our Thrive25 business strategy gives us clarity and purpose in unlocking the power of renewable resources to help build a thriving world.