KwaZulu-Natal Business 2016-17 edition

INTERVIEW
Uncoated fine paper machine, Merebank.
increasing the rate of growth and yield. As a result
of our nursery modernisation investments, we have
reduced the time to market and delivered a 10-15%
improvement in our timber yield.
Another important area is the development of
our people. This is evident in the consistently high
level of training in our operations. A highlight in
2015 was that four of our employees received their
international Pulp and Paper Craftsman qualification
in Europe. By investing in our people, our operations
have become safer and our people are more
skilled, more effective and more productive. Our
productivity has improved by 90% over the last
three years.
What measures have you put in place to
ensure the sustainability of your plantations
as well as consideration for the
environment?
We are well aware of our responsibility to mitigate
the impact of our business on the environment,
including limiting our water consumption.
Water is crucial throughout the paper production
process, from growing trees to processing fibre into
products and for ‘non-contact’ purposes such as
cooling water in our production facilities. We have
invested around R5-million in projects to reduce
water consumption in our production processes at
the Richards Bay mill resulting in a 15% reduction in
water consumption in 2015. At our Merebank mill we
have replaced more than 90% of the potable water
use with second-class treated water and made further
investments to reduce the remaining potable
water, resulting in a 60% reduction in potable water
consumption since 2010.
“WE HAVE DEVELOPED AN
EXTENSIVE PROGRAMME OF
HIGH-QUALITY TRAINING TO
SUPPORT OUR EMPLOYEES
IN ACHIEVING THEIR FULL
POTENTIAL.” – RON TRAILL,
CEO, MONDI SA.
KWAZULU-NATAL BUSINESS 2016/17
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