Sappi today announced its appointment as the official recycling partner for the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge® to be held on 08 March 2012 at Wanderers, Johannesburg. “We have not only entered the Challenge as a team but we are thrilled to announce that we are the Green Ambassadors for the race,” said Anton van Rooyen, General Manager Sappi Refibre.
The J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge® Johannesburg leg of the race attracts 12,000 participants and thousands more at the ‘after party’. As Green Ambassadors, Sappi will put up a 6 x 6m walk through display to raise awareness of the environment and of the need to Reduce, Re-use and Recycle. Van Rooyen commented: “We are committed to the 3Ps of sustainability – Prosperity, People and Planet. Recycling reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill. This is also important, as landfills generate methane, a greenhouse gas with 25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. So by recycling, we are indirectly helping to combat climate change.”
Recycling also has economic benefits: Sappi ReFibre provides financial support and resources to hundreds of entrepreneurs who have set up recycling depots in their communities. Sappi ReFibre’s War on Waste recycling bins and promotional materials have become a familiar sight at schools, in offices and at public events across the country.
In 2011, Sappi’s paper sales into the South African market were 819,382 tons, of which the company recovered 203,836 tons. One of Sappi’s sustainability targets is to increase this percentage even further.
The JPMorgan Chase & Co. Corporate Challenge Series is currently staged in 15 cities worldwide and attracts more than 200,000 permanent workers from 7,500 leading business and government institutions every year. Since the first series in 1977, the Corporate Challenge has been J.P. Morgan’s way of supporting a healthy, fit workplace that fosters collegiality and partnership.
Sappi together with its recycling partners Wastebank and Moonprint Concerts for the Earth will oversee the execution of all waste removal and recycling at the event. The J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge® takes place on an international platform; hence it is all the more important for clients to witness the dedication that J.P. Morgan and Sappi both contribute to responsible waste removal and recycling.
“While the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge® is a race to the finish for the participating teams, in the bigger environmental picture, we are also racing against time in the face of dwindling resources and global warming. By heightening awareness of the need to recycle, we are ensuring that only footprints stay behind. We look forward to working with Moonprint in achieving this,” added Van Rooyen.
About Sappi Southern Africa
Sappi works closely with customers, both direct and indirect, in over 100 countries to provide them with relevant and sustainable paper, paper-pulp and chemical cellulose products and related services and innovations.
Our market-leading range of paper-products includes: coated fine papers used by printers, publishers and corporate end-users in the production of books, brochures, magazines, catalogues, direct mail and many other print applications; casting release papers used by suppliers to the fashion, textiles, automobile and household industries; and in our Southern African region newsprint, uncoated graphic and business papers, premium quality packaging papers, paper grade pulp and chemical cellulose.
Our chemical cellulose products are used worldwide by converters to create viscose fibre, acetate tow, pharmaceutical products as well as a wide range of consumer products.
The pulp needed for our products is either produced within Sappi or bought from accredited suppliers. Across the group, Sappi is close to ‘pulp neutral’, meaning that we sell almost as much pulp as we buy.
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