Paper and packaging producer Sappi will, as one of the founding partners of the Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme, fund research into artificial intelligence and bringing carbon emissions in the paper and pulp industry to net zero.
The three- to five-year fellowships, announced last week by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), will attract academics from around the world to identify breakthrough solutions to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
At launch, eight fellowships have been funded.
The Sappi-supported fellowship will focus on the goal of reshaping the future of the industry, which aims to build on Sappi’s current engagement with CISL by investigating how trends of innovation and sustainability will come together to reshape the future of the industry.
The Sappi fellowship will be looking at the paper and pulp industry as an initial example and examining drivers such as the rise of artificial intelligence and the need to bring carbon emissions to net zero.
CISL, a 30-year old institute with 80 staff and a network of 8 000 alumni and 250 companies, will host the fellowship programme alongside its existing industry collaborations and executive education programmes to foster an exchange of knowledge and ideas.
Speaking at the launch of the fellowship, CISL director Dame Polly Courtice said the Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme will create a rich intellectual space for collaboration between researchers and industry as it seeks breakthrough ideas and leadership actions towards meeting the UN SDGs.
Over and above Sappi’s topic of Industrial Transformation, the other confirmed research topics include social and environmental accounting; investing in sustainable communities; sustainable health; radical innovation and disruption; the role of responsible business in the community; inclusive growth; and pathways to a circular economy.