I’ve always wanted to see a paper mill in action (which I could have seen in the UK), but lots of our paper is manufactured in Brazil by Suzano Paper & Pulp. Also, I was interested in hearing about what Suzano do in terms of sponsoring and supporting charities, as I’m chairman of Voice for Change (Vfc), a charity based in Curitiba which is committed to working with the poor and needy in Brazil. So a trip combining the two was a great opportunity.

 

They’re located in the city of Suzano, in the Sao Paulo region – the city was named after them as they were the largest employer. It’s about 40 mins drive from the Sao Paulo international airport. All the pulp is made from eucalyptus trees. Suzano have their own research programme, nurseries and forest plantations which supply all the wood they need for manufacturing paper.

 

They’re originally from Australia. But because the eucalyptus adapts easily to the most diverse soil and climate conditions and they’re fast growing, they make an ideal tree to use in planted forests. The average growth cycle is seven years before they’re harvested. Also these planted forests reduce the pressure on native rainforest.

 

Most of it. I watched a film on how the eucalyptus trees are farmed. Suzano are the largest pulp producer in the world. Their pulp producing technology is so ground-breaking, they keep it a secret. Essentially, the trees are shredded, then heated in a huge vat of water to make the pulp. The resin is siphoned off to generate all the power for the plant and all the water is recycled. I saw the process from where the pulp came in to the factory, at that point it’s 97% water and 3% wood chippings. It goes through a series of heated rollers to compress it and dry it out, becoming a massive roll of paper. These gigantic paper rolls are then cut to the sheet sizes we know, wrapped and packaged onto pallets and shipped to us in the UK. It’s an impressive setup. But added to that, all the paper manufactured there is FSC approved.

 

FSC stands for Forestry Stewardship Council. It’s one of the most highly regarded, non governmental, environmental certifications worldwide. The FSC stamp is an assurance to customers that the pulp used to manufacture paper comes from forests that were planted in a sustainable manner, based on practices that respect the surrounding environment and communities. So right from planting new eucalyptus trees to harvesting to producing paper pulp to manufacturing the paper, Suzano comply to these standards. You can see the FSC logo right here on our A4 copier paper, ‘Artwork’ and ‘Multitude’.

 

I hired the equivalent of a Vauxhall Corsa with a sat-nav so I wouldn’t get lost. I was driving to Curitiba, about 200 miles south of Sao Paulo. I did get a little concerned about the journey, when the Suzano employees had said “are you mad? That’s death valley!” The hotel staff spent an hour working out how to programme the sat-nav for me, as it was all in Brazilian Portuguese and then when I started my journey, the sat-nav only worked in the Sao Paulo area. Can you believe that! I had 7 hours of driving on pot-holed roads winding through the mountains, watching huge lorries (twice the size of the ones here) overtake on blind hairpin bends. Crazy, crazy drivers. It was well-named ‘death valley’.

 

I took Curtis (my Canadian friend and original founder of Vfc) to Curitiba to show him what had been happening in the 4 years, since he last visited. Some of our time was spent networking with other organisations that work with the poor in that area. We made some good contacts. There was a ‘Quick Hit’ team from the UK out there at the same time too. So we pitched in with them and helped with fixing up the outside of one of our houses, sanding, painting, rendering and the like.

 

As a charity, we’re focusing our attention on two main areas: buying small homes to house street children from the favela, where they can feel secure and be part of a family environment; and working with children directly in the favela where we have a purpose built community centre.

 

A Quick Hit team is made up of ordinary people like you and me giving up 2 weeks holiday and helping practically where they can. The team that was out there at the same time as us, also worked in the favela in connection with our Sponsor a Child scheme. They were updating photos and stories of the children there that are being sponsored by people in the UK. Click here for more information on Quick Hit Teams.

 

Interestingly, there is a connection between the favelas and Suzano Paper & Pulp. The poor in the favelas collect cardboard and paper off the streets and sell them to recycling stations within the favela. Suzano buy this paper and recycle it in their manufacturing plant.

 

Yes, I have. Suzano have set up community libraries over Brazil and I’m talking to them about setting one up in the favela in Curitiba. You know…. most Brazilians have never been in a favela in their lives and I’d like to talk to Suzano about how they can help with sponsoring Voice for Change, especially as they’ve demonstrated they care about people, and we buy our paper from them. It would be a good link-up, I think.

 

Sure. Almost everyone uses inkjet or toner cartridges in their printers. We’ll collect the empties from our customers (or they can drop them in to us), sell them to be recycled and all the money goes directly to Vfc.