We plant
AS MY FATHER, MAX FEFFER, WOULD
The year 2020 was marked by a challenging scenario, unprecedented in the past four decades. Our way of life, work, and how we relate with others were transformed, and in the blink of an eye, we were forced to learn and adapt to this new reality. If there ever was any doubt, now there is none: people, communities, the environment, businesses, institutions, governments—we are all interconnected. We impact and we are impacted.
In this context, the role played by organizations like Suzano was and is even more important. We are responsible for the changes we want to see in the world, and we are part of something bigger. As my father, Max Feffer, would say: the kind of life we want depends on what we do.
If, in the past, the main purpose of organizations was to generate shareholder value, our view is that this is not enough anymore. We understand that we need to create and share value with the various audiences with whom we relate: the stakeholder value. We have been adopting this vision for almost two decades now, and 2020 was proof that we are on the right track.
With strength and kindness, we put our Drivers into action and communicated our purpose: renewing life inspired by trees. It is precisely in these challenging moments that we reveal our essence. We take care of our 15,000 employees, we work on behalf of the environment and society with “innovability” (innovation + sustainability), while delivering exceptional results and making a difference in the lives of billions of people with our products.
In this report, we highlight our main achievements and business challenges in 2020, as well as the initiatives that contributed to health and safety so that we could face this pandemic together.
I would also like to point out our contribution to help Brazil assume its global leading role on environment and bioeconomy. We believe that part of this task should be taken on by the private sector, and the planted tree sector is one of the most relevant on this front.
At Suzano, we are committed to a series of long-term goals, such as replacing 10 million tons of plastics and petroleum products with products from renewable sources by 2030. It is with challenging goals like this, courage and a robust plan to face them, that we will continue working to become part of the solution to the great challenges of the 21st century.
I am an optimist and I see every crisis, regardless how severe, as an opportunity. It’s time to review our course, make adjustments, and prepare for a different—and better—future. Waves of growth and recession have been around since the beginning of time; the world is cyclical, and we must be prepared to weather any storm, always learning from our experiences and guided by our values and purpose.
After all, we plant the future.
David Feffer
Chairman of the Board
of Directors of Suzano
