Suzano marks centenary with US$100 million initiative to advance global efforts to protect and restore nature
- To mark its centenary, Suzano is announcing a new US$100 million initiative designed to advance global efforts to protect and restore nature over the next decade, by strengthening corporate sustainability practices in Brazil and beyond, and creating the next generation of experts and leaders that will tackle environmental challenges.
- An initial US$30 million is being put into partnerships that will accelerate research and education in conservation, climate change, and water, with a particular focus on Brazilian ecosystems, and drive forward private sector strategies and action on nature.
- As part of this initiative, Suzano has put in place MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) to collaborate with three leading global institutions: the University of Cambridge, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University.
São Paulo, 23 January 2024: The world’s largest market pulp producer, Suzano, is marking its 100th year in business by announcing a new US$100 million initiative designed to advance global efforts to protect and restore nature over the next decade. As part of this, an initial US$30 million will be put into a series of global partnerships designed to accelerate research and education in conservation, climate change, and corporate sustainability, with a particular focus on Brazilian ecosystems, and to help drive forward private sector strategies and action on nature.
Suzano has signed an MoU with the University of Cambridge, and a separate MoU with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University. These are expected to be the first of multiple partnerships formed with universities under the initiative, in Brazil and around the world.
The collaboration with the University of Cambridge will create new educational and research opportunities for postgraduate and doctoral students over a ten-year period, to study and research areas such as biodiversity conservation, climate change, water resource management, and corporate sustainability. Suzano will also make its business operations and conservation areas in Brazil available for research purposes to academics.
Under the MoU with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Suzano will explore the company’s interest in making a gift to support research, education, and training at the university. The two organizations will work together to pursue opportunities to further their mutual sustainability goals.
Alongside this, Suzano has agreed a five-year partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, that represents over 1,500 members, including governments, environmental groups, and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations.
This will see Suzano working with IUCN to develop its own ambitious nature strategy, as well as convening key stakeholders to share knowledge and best practices, helping to drive private sector action on nature. This will include setting measurable targets that demonstrate Suzano’s contributions to a nature-positive world, and engagement at a number of key upcoming international events, including the UN Biodiversity Conference in Colombia later this year, IUCN’s 2025 World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, and the COP30 climate talks in Brazil.
David Feffer, Chairman of the Board of Suzano, said:
“After 100 years in business, we have learned to take a long-term perspective and plant the seeds today for the future we want to achieve. Through this initiative and the new partnerships we are forming, we hope to help create and empower the next generation of experts and leaders that will help governments, companies and civil society to take action to protect and restore nature over the next century.
“We believe that education, science, and effective collaboration are three of the most powerful weapons we have to fight back against the dangerous decline in species, degradation of soils, and pollution of our waters and atmosphere. There is no time to delay, the world must halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. Our ambition is to start now, and have a vision for how we can be part of the solution for the next century.”
Professor Bhaskar Vira, Pro Vice Chancellor (Education) at the University of Cambridge, said:
“We are thrilled with the burgeoning partnership between the University of Cambridge and Suzano, marking a significant milestone in the University’s commitment to global collaboration. Suzano brings a host of unique and valuable assets to this partnership, and its multimillion-pound pledge will not only help cement Cambridge as a leader in the study of the unique ecosystems, biodiversity and socio-economic factors in the Brazilian landscape, but will also play a pivotal role in developing Brazil’s next generation of sustainability leaders.”
Arun Majumdar, Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University, said:
“At the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, we are educating and training leaders in sustainability for today and for tomorrow,” said Dean Arun Majumdar. “We are extremely pleased to be working with Suzano, because this agreement opens immense potential for expanding the knowledge and skills necessary to address the planet’s sustainability challenges and do so within an industry and nation so critical to ensuring a sustainable future for all.”
SungAh Lee, Deputy Director General and Member of the Executive Board at IUCN, said:
“Addressing biodiversity loss through the protection and restoration of nature is vital for the health and prosperity of communities and ecosystems. IUCN, the world’s largest environmental network, is a unique membership union that brings together governments and civil society to conserve nature and to ensure the sustainable and equitable use of natural resources.”
“Companies like Suzano have an essential role to play in the implementation of the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, through science and knowledge-based action. IUCN is encouraged by the growing momentum of companies thinking more about their nature risks and impacts, and looks forward to building strong collaborations, with all stakeholders, including the private sector, in driving and accelerating efforts to reverse biodiversity loss.”
Suzano is one of the world’s largest private sector landowners, sustainably managing around 16,000 square kilometers of eucalyptus farms in Brazil, alongside 10,000 square kilometers of conservation areas across some of the country’s most biodiverse ecosystems. The company’s tree farms provide the renewable raw materials that meet the needs of around 2 billion people for items such as tissue, toilet paper, books, packaging, diapers, and period products.
In 2020, Suzano set a series of long-term corporate sustainability goals that are central to its business strategy, which include: connecting 500,000 hectares of fragments of Brazil’s Amazon, Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes with ecological corridors by 2030; net removal of 40 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by 2025 after taking into account the company’s full value chain emissions; and lifting 200,000 people out of poverty in its areas of operations by 2030.
Suzano sits on the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TFND) and has committed to be one of the early adopters of the TFND recommendations. The business was the top scoring pulp and paper producer in Global Canopy’s Forest 500 rankings in 2023, and the environmental disclosure not-for-profit, CDP, scored Suzano with an A rating for its actions on water security, and an A- for climate change and forests.
Suzano has been helping to pioneer research and practical approaches to ecosystems restoration for over 25 years. Established in 1999, Suzano’s not-for-profit Ecofuturo Institute has been restoring a 7,000-hectare area that was formerly used as a commercial plantation in Brazil’s São Paulo state. Now known as Parque das Neblinas, the area has been recognized by UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program as a biosphere reserve for Brazil’s Atlantic Forest biome, and is now home to more than 1,300 identified species of fauna and flora, of which 41 are threatened with extinction and four were previously unknown to science.
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NOTES TO EDITOR
About Suzano
Suzano is the world’s largest producer of market pulp. Our responsibly-grown raw materials are used in products reaching over two billion people in more than 100 countries, including tissue and toilet paper, books, printing and writing paper, diapers and period products, packaging, textiles, and a range of innovative applications that can replace products made from fossil fuels.
Our pulp is made using biomass produced from farmed eucalyptus trees, offering a biodegradable, renewable and recyclable raw material for consumer and industrial use. We plant 1.2 million trees a day and only harvest what we plant. We manage around 26,000 km2 of land and around 40% of this is protected for permanent conservation, with a zero deforestation policy across all of our operations.
Suzano’s history goes back over 100 years. We are listed on the B3 stock exchange in Brazil (SUZB3) and the NYSE (SUZ) in the United States.
Learn more at: suzano.com.br/en
About IUCN
IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,500 Member organisations and some 18,000 experts.
It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards. IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, Local communities, Indigenous peoples’ organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development. Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of Local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being.
