AJ Devanesan
President and COO of APRIL

CONTINUED economic uncertainty has led many to question whether it is an appropriate time for companies to reduce their investments in sustainability. My view is that this is precisely the right time to invest in sustainability.

This question exposes a lack of understanding of what sustainable development means, which leads to a misguided perception that it is an add-on that is not essential to business success. As a paper and pulp producer in China and Indonesia, our company is on the front line of sustainable development. We know that our future is directly connected to that of our natural surroundings and of the people living close to our operations.

APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd) receives official government licences for industrial tree plantations in Sumatra, where the major part of our operations exist. Without undertaking proper environmental assessments as well as thorough consultations with local communities, we would undermine the fundamentals of sustainability.

Take, for example, our expansion into the Kampar Peninsula on the north coast of central Sumatra. The peninsula covers about 650,000 hectares in the Riau province, containing a large peat dome, estimated to be the world's largest ground carbon store. Primarily a peatland forest, it is under serious threat of unabated degradation through population pressure, slash-and-burn farming, illegal logging and fires, as well as uncontrolled drainage from a network of abandoned canals now used by illegal loggers.

This degradation is resulting in the emission of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2).

As practitioners of sustainable development for more than a decade, APRIL advocates active forest management in the Kampar Peninsula, and are deploying science-based management systems that will turn our government-licensed Kampar Ring into a well-managed area, with a positive carbon footprint in the wider, protected landscape.

Developed by APRIL and a team of internationally recognised scientists, our sustainability strategy will create a buffer zone with an Acacia Plantation Ring on the degraded perimeter of the Kampar Ring, based on High Conservation Value (HCV) assessments by independent third parties. This project will protect and conserve the HCV forests in the area.

We are confident our operational plans will sustain 20,000 permanent jobs and provide steady livelihood and income generation to an area where there are few revenue opportunities for local people. Our work also delivers improved living conditions, power supply and access to education, among various benefits.

Our plans for Kampar reflect APRIL's philosophy of ensuring sustainable plantations that also provide socio-economic benefits to local communities. We believe a commitment to sustainability increases a company's access to markets, capital and talent. It drives a company to enhance products, services and brands with positive environmental and social properties that can open up new markets.

Looking at APRIL's own journey towards sustainability, we have adopted five steps to a more sustainable (and competitive) business.

Adhere to the Triple Bottom Line

APRIL's approach to sustainability is guided by the 'Triple Bottom Line' principle of responsibility to People, Planet and Profit. This means that social investment, environmental concern and economic development are integrated into APRIL's management and business decisions, and represent a fundamental part of APRIL's core values.

We take a serious view of our responsibility to manage these resources sustainably, especially in Indonesia, where forest degradation is a major concern; out of 120 million hectares of land classified as forests, only 86 million hectares remain under forest cover.

Focus on the right issues

Companies need to invest in addressing the issues that matter most to their business and which have the greatest impact on their stakeholders.

As Indonesia's only member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and a signatory to the United Nations' Global Compact, APRIL is committed to the highest standards of operational excellence. Our Mosaic Plantation Concept implemented across all our plantation developments ensures that forest landscapes are maintained to conserve biodiversity, and social and ecosystem services while meeting market demands.

Listen to your stakeholders, build partnerships

Transparency and accountability are critical to winning stakeholders' trust, and also add internal pressure to succeed. At APRIL, we have an open-door policy, where supporters and critics alike are welcome to visit our operations to better understand our business and offer their ideas on how we can improve further.

Success at APRIL is measured by how we foster bilateral and mutually beneficial partnerships with the surrounding communities. We invest in every community where we operate, and across Indonesia and China, we provide sustainable livelihoods for more than 250,000 people in and around our operations.

We also forge multi-stakeholder partnerships with governments, academics, non-governmental organisations and local communities to harness their valuable perspectives and competencies to effectively combat multi-faceted issues such as illegal logging and haze.

Manage from the inside out

As companies begin taking a closer look at their 'triple bottom line', the first step should be to get their own house in order. Companies must identify the issues that need to be managed and begin addressing them internally. This may be to drive down water use or energy consumption at the operational level, for example. In a world where natural resources are under increasing pressure and commodity prices on the rise, this 'get lean' approach makes good business sense.

Top down and bottom up

From an organisational perspective, sustainability needs to be embraced by and driven from both the top down and the bottom up. A company's management must demonstrate its commitment to sustainable business practices, if it is to internalise and integrate this holistic approach within the company's values. Employees are a company's greatest ambassadors and care deeply about the social and environmental issues that affect their families and communities. Therefore, with some direction coming from the top, it will be your staff who make these values come to life.

This article was first published in The Business Times.