By Martin Bayliss
With
every month that passes, it seems more tissue companies are putting the
environment in the forefront of their public face. More and more, they are
trumpeting their achievements, with a steady flow of ‘green’ products, with
registration to the proliferating group of organizations that endorse good
corporate governance, and with increasingly comprehensive sustainability
reports.
The industry leaders are also gaining greater recognition from environmental
lobby groups and other NGOs. Awards are flowing to tissue producers for
the progress they are making to reduce their environmental footprint.
In March, for example, Tissue World reported that SCA and P&G had
been named at the World Economic Forum in Davos as two of the 100 most sustainable
corporations in the world. It is the fifth time SCA has made the list, though
the first for P&G.
K-C, too, is winning prizes. The US Environmental Protection Agency has
included it in 15th place on its Top 50 of “green power users” and has also
awarded the company its SmartWay Excellence Award for leadership in conserving
energy.
Many other companies around the world are aiming to emulate them. Not
only the biggest operators – thought they certainly dominate the headlines,
given then cost in expertise and investment – of such pre-eminence, but
also many smaller companies with limited resources but the driving desire
to take their place at the high table..
It is a welcome change for an industry that has traditionally been high
on the black list of many green groups. And it reflects a growing realization
among tissue producers over recent years that a positive environmental profile
can pay dividends. There are of course costs to being an environmentally-friendly
company but there are also undoubted benefits. These come partly in the
recognition from green NGOs and government agencies outlined above, partly
in the consumer support that can result. Often, too, investment in the environment
– in the widest sense – can lead to cost savings, eg through reduced use
of energy.
In Lucca in June, Italian tissue group Sofidel joined the growing list
of companies reaching for global recognition as a green company, when it
announced its inclusion in the World Wildlife Fund’s list of Climate Saver,
becoming the first tissue company – and the first Italian concern in any
sector – to do so (see News in this issue, page ??).. WWF, like other green
NGOs (Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth etc), clearly has its heart in the
right place, even if one may occasionally wonder if its head is on the same
planet as the rest of us. Here, at any rate, its feet seem firmly on the
ground. What it is aiming at with its Climate Savers programme, is a reduction
in greenhouse gases.
“Climate savers agreements provide attractive solutions to climate change,”
it says in its introduction to the Climate Savers programme. “Attractive
because they save money, drive profitability, enhance reputation and demonstrate
corporate responsibility to communities and staff. The company benefits
and the planet benefits.
“Climate legislation is getting ever tougher. Shareholders, customers
and the media want to know whether companies are facing up to the realities
of climate change risk. WWF’s Climate Savers programme positions enterprises
strongly and securely to work proactively and constructively with these
serious challenges.”
Sofidel, accoirding to its CEO Luigi Lazzareschi, has joined the program
in its company’s interests. There are a number of benefits, Lazzareschi
said as he summed up the company’s approach to the WWF programme. There
is an economic benefit, he said, but there is also a bonus in terms of recruitment
– environmentally aware companies attract a higher calibre of talent. They
also offer a more presentable face to financial institutions, which are
imposing ever more stringent demands on companies before granting loans.
At the same time, rules are getting tighter, reductions in emissions are
leading to lower takes, customer loyalty is proving far stronger to brands
and companies with a strong environmental presence. This, said Lazzareschi,
is the “invisible part of the equation but the part thazt creates the fundamental
strength of the organization.”
Today, he concluded, the environment represents an opportunity for the
company at the forefront of technological and social development. Tomorrow,
for those who do not heed the signs, it will become a risk.
Whether one accepts in detail the thinking behind the WWF programme –
or that of other environmental NGOs – one has to pay heed to the scramble
among leading tissue producers for their approval. Increasingly, green credentials
bring buckets of gold in today’s environmentally-conscious world.
The criteria for acceptance as a model of sustainable rectitude may vary
from one place to another – recycled in one country, carbon footprint in
a second – but the principle is clear: green is the colour of the 21st century.
The planet’s life depends on it; so may your company’s survival.
With Sofidel, Europe’s No 4 tissue producer, joining the likes of SCA,
K-C and P&G, the writing is clearly on the wall. Without demonstrable
dedication to the environmental cause, a tissue producer
is condemning his company to the second rank, with the risk of far worse
as awareness increases globally.TW
