Sustainability is an essential part of Suzano’s strategy. The company understands that as important as creating value for shareholders is creating value that is shared with society right from the start. In 2020, important steps were taken in this direction.
Suzano’s sustainability strategy lies at the core of our Cultural Drivers. Due to the nature of our business, which depends directly on natural cycles, and to the positive relationship with the communities in the locations we operate, this topic has always been essential for us. In 2019, after our merger process, we began to analyze our social, environmental, financial, and governance performance in an even more systemic manner, leading to a structural change in our operating standards, in new product and market developments, and in how we engage with our stakeholders. Therefore, we aim to consolidate our role as a reference in this important movement, summarized today through our finances with the acronym ESG, meaning Environment, Social, and Governance.
In Suzano’s evolutionary journey, we understand that sustainability is an essential part of the business. How, then, can we progressively materialize it in all of our deliverables, processes, and relationships? In February 2020, the company released its Long-Term Goals, publicly making ambitious commitments that must be carried out by 2030, in line with the Paris Agreement proposals and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The year 2020, however, brought an unprecedented crisis, accelerating the notion that the role of leading companies like Suzano—present in the lives of more than 2 billion consumers on the planet—is to contribute, through its operations, to the construction of a better and more sustainable future for all.
The concept of stakeholder value is based on the principle of creating shared value, which means that as important as creating value for shareholders is creating value that is shared with our various stakeholders who are part of the ecosystem in which we operate.
All society benefits, for example, when our organization works to replace raw materials of fossil origin with more sustainable solutions, extracted from our renewable forests. Society is further strengthened by education and income generation programs geared toward neighboring communities or through ambitious actions to reduce and capture CO2 originating from the company’s production processes. The fronts seeking this convergence are many and growing.
Thus, in 2020, we also continued to expand and strengthen our operations in the area of sustainable finance. For the first time, Suzano issued a Sustainability-Linked Bond (SLB) in the capital market, becoming a pioneer in the Latin American market and in the pulp & paper sector. According to the principles of this instrument, the company associated the use of these financial resources to achieving the goal of reducing the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2030. The total amount raised funds for the implementation of the company’s strategy, allowing us to strengthen our operations in the constant and growing creation of shared value.
As a result of this dynamic sustainability agenda, Suzano’s activities have been recognized by renowned external evaluators. In 2020, the company was chosen to be a part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index – Emerging Markets (DJSI Emerging Markets) and the Corporate Sustainability Index 2021 (ISE) of B3, Brazil’s Stock Exchange. These are important messages signaling that we are on the right track. But we know that we can and need to continue in order to advance in our strategy, practices, and transparency to improve these and other indexes.
Businesses impact and are impacted. At this point of no return, social and environmental concerns are becoming increasingly more relevant in our forestry, industrial, and logistics operations, in the offices, and in the areas of finance, research and development, and new products, among other sectors that are instrumental to our business. We have entered the era of the regenerative economy, which, in addition to financial returns, favors the recovery of the environment and the perpetuation of life, with quality and well-being for society.
Malu Pinto e Paiva*
Former Suzano’s Executive Director of Sustainability
Marcelo Bacci
Chief Financial, Investor Relations, and Legal Officer
*Malu left Suzano in March 2021. She led the Sustainability area throughout 2020, a period that comprises the content contained in this report.
