APP-China Revises Sustainability Commitments

Asia Pulp & Paper says it has published new sustainability commitments for its Chinese operations, but the company has not announced specific numeric targets.

APP’s Paper Contract with China 2011 manifesto builds upon its first Paper Contract from 2008. APP says the upgraded version provides further details on APP-China’s commitment to sustainable practices, and calls on all industry players to collaborate to pursue growth in a more sustainable manner.

The commitments in the new manifesto include:

• To continuously seek and improve sustainable forestry and conservation protection practices in the areas where APP-China operates.
• To contribute to the fight against global warming by implementing measures to conserve energy, reduce emissions, and improve production capabilities while engaging employees to support the company’s environmental initiatives.
• To continue APP-China’s commitment to community empowerment by promoting economic growth, creating job opportunities, investing in infrastructure in rural areas, and building schools where it operates.
• To promote a sharing platform with related stakeholders, including the government, industry associations, academia, NGO, media and other pulp & paper enterprises.

APP-China has also pledged a commitment to the UN CEO Water Mandate, a public-private initiative designed to help companies develop, implement and disclose water policies and practices. APP’s pledge covers six major mills within the group: Gold East, Hainan Jinhai, Ningbo Zhonghua, Ningbo Asia, Gold Huasheng and Gold Hongye. APP says it is one of the first pulp and paper manufacturers in China to commit to this mandate.

By the end of 2010, APP-China says it had invested more than RMB 5.5 billion (US$846 million) in energy saving and emissions reduction.

In the previous Paper Contract with China manifesto, APP-China says it already set clear goals for water consumption, wastewater discharge, and COD emission for paper/pulp per ton. It also continued to evaluate, refresh and build upon its initial objectives to ensure that sustainability standards are continuously rising, the company said.

Neither contract is available in English on APP-China's paper contract site, and the company's announcement did not mention any specific numeric targets in either contract.

APP says its mills in China can keep their average water consumption per ton of paper below ten tons, while the "international advanced level" is between twelve and eighteen tons. Meanwhile, APP-China's average wastewater discharge per ton of paper is below nine tons, less than one half of the volume that national standards require, the company says.

APP estimates that China’s wastewater discharge could be reduced by 3.3 billion tons per year if all of the country’s paper companies operated at APP-China’s guaranteed levels.