Sustainabilty is about more than protecting the environment and conserving our natural resources. It's also about people. By our definition, sustainability means operating in a way that does not compromise the needs of future generations.
Addressing Critical Needs In Our Communities
Every community has a unique set of critical needs. Understanding these needs is key to creating value for generations to come. That is why community engagement is central to our sustainability strategy.
Community engagement allows us to understand the issues that are important to each community. Embracing the needs of our communities is how we ensure the long-term success of our business.
Since 2010, International Paper has invested more than $165 million to address critical needs in the communities where our employees live and work.
Signature causes
With more than approximately 48,000 employees around the world, International Paper enhances the communities in which we operate. We concentrate our efforts on four signature causes, as well as environmental causes important to local communities.
Education
The future of our communities depends on the children, so we support strategic collaborators that focus on helping children succeed.
Hunger
We work with food banks and other agencies to address hunger and food security for children, families and seniors.
Health & Wellness
We engage our employees and work with agencies to promote healthy living habits and achieve measurable improvements in health and wellness.
Disaster Relief
We partner with agencies to help communities prepare for and recover from natural disasters, and we use our Employee Relief Fund to support our impacted colleagues.
At International Paper, we mobilize our people, products and resources to address critical needs in our community.
Mobilizing our PEOPLE: Jackson Box Plant Rallies Behind Education
Employees at our Jackson, Miss., box plant recognized an educational need in their community and rallied together to provide school supplies for their local elementary school.
Mobilizing our PRODUCTS: Fighting Period Poverty in Our Own Backyard
Lack of access to feminine hygiene resources can inhibit young women from attending school. In Memphis, we mobilized our pulp products and boxes to help improve girls’ access to feminine hygiene products in local schools.
Mobilizing our RESOURCES: Partnering with Arbor Day Foundation for Community Resilience
By supporting the Arbor Day Foundation’s Community Tree Recovery Program, we’re planting thousands of trees to strengthen communities affected by natural disasters. See the impact these trees are having in Orange, Texas.
Expanding Our Impact Through Collaboration
We're proud to work with organizations that make a significant impact on the communities where we live and work.
American Red Cross®
International Paper is a national Annual Disaster Giving Program member for the American Red Cross. This commitment builds upon our long-time support of American Red Cross disaster relief programs and helps more than 100 communities across the country.
Arbor Day Foundation®
International Paper's support of Arbor Day Foundation's Community Tree Recovery Program is promoting community resilience by helping homeowners recover the beauty and benefit of trees after a natural disaster, as well as helping to restore forestlands impacted by natural disasters.
Coaching For Literacy
Together, International Paper and Coaching for Literacy support the Fight for Literacy Games initiative benefiting school children from kindergarten to 3rd grade. The Fight for Literacy Games empower NCAA basketball coaches, their teams and fans to participate in literacy awareness efforts, volunteer work and fundraising activities.
Feeding America®
Feeding America® is the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the U.S. and also represents our largest collaboration across people, products and resources in the U.S., as we work together to "box out hunger" and to provide disaster relief.
Reading is Fundamental
International Paper supports Reading is Fundamental through their Books for Ownership program, which gives age-appropriate books to first-graders in school districts where our employees live and work, so they can begin building their own home libraries.
The Global FoodBanking Network
We are working with The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) to expand child-focused programming to feed food insecure and undernourished children in Brazil, Canada, Poland and Spain. In just one year, funding is expected to provide more than 2.4 million pounds of food to more than 100,000 hungry and malnourished children so they can start their day prepared to learn and thrive.
United Way
Each year, we conduct more than 80 local United Way campaigns in the U.S. and Canada, enabling employees to donate to their communities in a meaningful way. International Paper matches employee donations with 60 cents on the dollar. In addition to financial pledges, employee volunteers participate in a variety of United Way Days of Caring projects.
For a complete listing of our global collaborations, visit www.IPGiving.com.
Key Takeaway
Sustainability means more than just protecting the environment in every step of the supply chain. Community engagement is central to our sustainability strategy. We are committed to mobilizing our people, products and resources to address critical needs in our communities.