Sappi partners Wits to launch climate change and plantation sustainability research chair

SOUTH AFRICA – Paper and packaging group Sappi Southern Africa has joined forces with the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) to launch the Sappi Chair in Climate Change and Plantation Sustainability.

Launched in celebration of World Environment Day, this project aligns with Sappi’s drive to generate technical and operational solutions which mitigate against climate change risks and enhance reporting on carbon emissions, climate change and sustainability.

Professor Mary Scholes of the Wits School of Animal, Plants and Environmental Science, who is an internationally recognized authority on tree physiology and climate change, will act as the Research Chair.

Through the Research Chair, Professor Scholes will identify critical research needs and develop research outputs related to climate change, which is one of the University’s eight research priorities.

She will also lead the development of the capacity to manipulate and interpret climate modeling data.

The Chair will further focus on developing and mentoring young and upcoming academics and research, through the funding for one post-doctoral fellow as well as bursaries for one Master’s and one Honor’s student.

Scholes said: “We had asked the industry what they wanted, and they responded that they wanted a constant stream of knowledge and updated predictions in easy-to-understand approaches, as well as to develop new ‘think tanks’ to analyze and operationalize the data.”

Speaking at the launch, Tracy Wessels, Sappi Group Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability, added: “Like all other crops, the trees in the 399,996 hectares of land we own and lease are negatively impacted by climate change.

“While we practice climate-smart forestry and while our research teams have been hard at work developing drought-resistant genotypes, indications are that temperatures over the South African interior are projected to rise at about 1.5 to 2 times the global rate of temperature increase.

“There is increasing global pressure to account accurately for greenhouse gas emissions from forests, land and agriculture.”

The launch is taking place at the same time as the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in Durban (South Africa), where one of the key topics for discussion is the impact of climate change on the African continent.

It also comes on the World Environment Day which this year, which is focused on beating plastic pollution and transitioning to a circular economy.

This theme is significant for Sappi, given their portfolio of a broad range of paper-based sustainable solutions as an alternative to fossil fuel-based, non-renewable packaging across many product segments.

Sappi’s sponsorship of the Research Chair will take place over a period of three years, beginning in 2023.

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