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SUSTAINABILITY
Smurfit Kappa Group has placed sustain- ability at the heart of its business strategy for many years, according to McGann. “In the business we’re in – we own forests in Latin America, and we are very significant interactors with forestry in Europe – we’ve always been mindful of the need to renew and replace trees that are cut basically for paper purposes,” he says. Fromthat starting point, the group has
today moved into the areas of recycling, of optimal use of natural resources and avoid- ance of landfill, and of course of lowering carbon emissions, he continues. The com- pany recently issued its third annual sus- tainability report, a useful discipline, he believes. “It creates a greater discipline internally.
If you publish you have to be satisfied that what you’re saying is valid. It has also cre- ated a greater discipline in how we chal- lenge and measure ourselves, so that we’re always calibrating and quantifying and set- ting targets.” It is a strategy that makes good business sense too, he says.
‘If you take a long enough view, the effects of climate change and the effect itwill have on consumer behaviour, on your cost structures, you end up having to look very hard at sustainability’
JIM CORBETT,MD, BEWLEY’S
“We’ve always caveated our approach to sustainability and the environment on the grounds that it also has to make commer- cial sense,” he says. “In fact it has major commercial value and benefit to us as a company, in parallel with the positives for the environment. “Commercially it obviously suits us to be more progressive
than our competitors. The big international brand companies, they’re way down the line in terms of commitments, demands, desires and progress on this subject. Unless people can actu- ally serve themto the standards they are seeking and requir- ing, then they won’t be able to be suppliers. “Everybody is looking for testimony and evidence of
progress on sustainability.We’ve said we will take the totality of our business and ensure that we can, through our products, allow customers to communicate to their customers that what they are acquiring is the most sustainably progressive. “We in turn are working with our suppliers. In the case of
forestry we’re ensuring that in five or 10 years all of our prod- uct raw materials will be Chain of Custody-certified, and we will be able to confirm the levels of CO2 emissions, the level of water discharge, and the water cleanliness.”
A BUSINESS ISSUE Bewley’s is the largest importer, roaster and supplier of fresh coffee in Ireland and the first coffee company to import Fair- trade-certified coffee into the country in the 1990s. In 2009 it became Ireland’s first fully certified carbon neutral coffee company. For Bewley’s managing director Jim Corbett, sustainability
is very much a business issue, and not simply one of corporate social responsibility, so difficult economic times should not deter companies. Indeed Bewley’s is a voluntary participant in the CDP. “I think if you are going to approach sustainability froma CSR or PR point of view you will probably fail,” he says.
72 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW Issue 3 Autumn/Winter 2011
“Here at Bewley’s we’ve always ap- proached it as a bona fide business issue – and that doesn’t go away in a recession. “Bewley’s approach to sustainability
started five or six years ago when it be- came clear to us that climate change was already affecting producer countries and producer farms in those areas where we purchase tea and coffee. “Central America, South America,
Africa were already seeing the effects of escalating temperatures, lack of rainfall and changes in climatic conditions. This was in many cases forcing farms out of production and exacerbating the supply situation for our raw materials. “In looking at what we could do as Bew-
ley’s to improve that, we started examin- ing our entire supply chain froma sustainability point of view and asked how sustainable it would be over the next 10 or 20 years.We became quite concerned at the outcome of our investigations.” As a result, in 2005 the company began
to examine how it could reduce its impact on the environment. “The easiest starting point is to simply reduce your energy consumption and that has become easier froma P&L point of view because of the rising costs of electricity and gas,” says Corbett. The company purchases all its energy fromrenew- ables company Energia. “But sustainability is about much more than simply cost-
saving. It is about looking at the risk items in your business, at your approach to risk management,” he explains. “If you take a long enough view, the effects of climate change and the effect it will have on consumer behaviour, on your cost structures, you end up having to look very hard at sustainability, and your carbon footprint is an ideal way to measure that. “In our case we decided in 2008 to go carbon neutral, and
2009 was our first year of being fully certified as carbon neu- tral. It’s been quite a journey.” The company has since retained its carbon neutral status
through the so-called net zero process. “Once we had reduced our carbon footprint to what was economically feasible for the business, we then purchased carbon offsets to reduce our cal- culated carbon footprint to a net zero position,” says Corbett. “It is not something everybody may choose to do, but it does
sharpen our focus as a business in terms of measurement of the impact our business is having, and it has changed the way we look at business processes and investment opportunities. We now look at themalso in the context of what it will do to our carbon footprint. “We have gone through a journey in relation to carbon off-
sets. In 2009 we invested in a fir tree plantation in Norway, but on reviewing that after the first year we felt that the Nor- wegians probably didn’t need our money. So we looked harder in 2010 for projects which would be closer to our own supply chain. In 2010 our offsets were purchased froma hydroelectric scheme in Peru and a wind farm project in Nicaragua – well-
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