Local development
Commitment to local development
The value that Klabin delivers to society is represented in the Company's commitment to local development and to managing the influence of its operations in the communities where it has plants. The company acts to positively influence community dynamics – in the environmental, social, and economic spheres – while respecting the quality, way of life, and local relationships. In this sense, it seeks to boost the communities' planning and participative public management capabilities towards local development.
These are Klabin's proposals for the material topic Local development and impact on communities, to which it is committed through the KSDGs and with targets such as indices of acceptance by the communities and coverage in the municipalities of projects to encourage participative public management.
The impacts of industrial and forestry operations are managed before they even materialize. Their early identification aims to avoid or mitigate the negative effects and enhance the positive ones.
The social responsibility and community relations initiatives detailed in this section encompass education and training projects for the job market, family agriculture, solid waste management, and incentives for qualification in public management planning.
Community acceptance
One of the KSDGs is to achieve at least 80% positive perception in all the municipalities where the Company's units are located. This monitoring is done by means of a survey applied annually, whose 80% indicator is obtained by the average of eight dimensions: commitment, economic development, employment and income generation, perception of impacts, image, environmental preservation, social and business stimulus.
The survey's scope was expanded in 2021 beyond the company's largest operations in Paraná and Santa Catarina and now includes Paranaguá and Rio Negro (PR), Goiana (PE), and Angatuba (SP).
In Parana and Santa Catarina, the acceptance indices exceeded the target; in the new units surveyed, the results have not yet reached this level but are close to the desired 80%, demonstrating Klabin's positive reputation in the communities: 78.2% in Rio Negro; 78.4% in Paranaguá; 77.36% in Goiana and 74.3% in Angatuba.
80,3% and 81,7%
were the acceptance rates of the survey captured in Paraná and Santa Catarina, respectively.
New municipalities
Paranaguá and Rio Negro, in Paraná, Goiana (PE) and Angatuba (SP) were included in the survey.
Goals
for the variable compensation of the Executive Board will also be linked to Klabin's acceptance index in the communities (as of 2022).
Mitigation and engagement measures
One of the main issues raised by the communities, as a result of the Company's operations, is the dust generated by truck traffic in forest areas. The issue is monitored by the index of complaints per kilometer traveled, which has registered a reduction in recent years: 1.3 in 2021 versus 1.7 in 2020; in 2018, the indicator was 4.2.
This is an even more significant improvement when considering the expansion of the number of municipalities influenced by forestry activities as a result of the Company's growth: in 2018, there were 14 municipalities, representing 61.14 kilometers traveled within communities; in 2021, there were 39 municipalities and a total of 118 kilometers.
The results show that mitigation measures, such as wetting the roads, engaging with truck drivers who use the roads, and applying technologies for double surface treatment (TSD) of the soil, which leaves the road surface looking like an asphalt road, have been effective.
Solid foundation for expansion
The implementation of major projects is preceded by an assessment of the socioeconomic situation of the region, with mapping of positive and negative impacts. As such, data is obtained for the adoption of social, economic, and environmental projects.
In Parana, where Klabin concentrates significant operations, such as a maritime terminal in the Port of Paranaguá, the Puma and the Puma II expansion project, the efforts undertaken on this front create a solid base of knowledge about the territory and active social programs. Based on this, the socioeconomic programs can be expanded and adapted to the reality of the municipalities.
More than BRL 30 million in support of the fight against Covid-19
In 2021, Klabin continued to mobilize resources to help municipalities face the pandemic. The investments on this front covered infrastructure support, medical equipment, inputs for sanitization, and hiring health professionals to support the municipalities, among other actions. Between March 2020 and December 2021, the resources totaled BRL 30.99 million and were earmarked to help more than 30 municipalities, in ten states where Klabin is present. In the Campos Gerais region, in Paraná, the Company has maintained its participation as a representative of private entities in the Intersectorial Committee for Combating Covid-19, which brings together municipal and regional health departments, representatives of the municipal health council, and public and private hospitals.
See GRI indicators 203-2, 413-1, 413-2 and others related to the Local development and community impact material topic in the ESG Panel.
