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Craig Liska
VP of Sustainability
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Accountability and transparency aren’t just sustainability goals; they are among Verso’s founding principles
and are at the core of all that we do. That’s why we created a sustainability management structure that is
fully integrated into our corporate governance. Our Corporate Sustainability Committee includes all members
of Verso Paper’s senior management team. This committee develops corporate policy and meets regularly to
direct strategy in all areas of corporate sustainability, from fiber procurement and product development to
environmental, health and safety matters and social responsibility.
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Our vice president for sustainability is responsible for overseeing sustainability performance across the
company, as well as for communicating with stakeholders (including customers, government and non-governmental
organizations) and for reporting sustainability progress. Our operational management is responsible for
day-to-day sustainability performance and compliance at the mill level. We also have cross-functional
employee sustainability teams in the areas of EHS, fiber procurement, product stewardship, social
responsibility and accountability/transparency that review and make recommendations for improvement on
sustainability policies and objectives and track performance in their respective areas.
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We use a variety of checks and balances to hold ourselves accountable and identify areas for continuous safety
and environmental performance improvement, including annual self-audits and management reviews of our safety
and environmental management systems. These are augmented by comprehensive, independently managed
environmental compliance audits that help us assure our compliance with all applicable federal, state and
local environmental regulatory requirements, permits and compliance plans. We conduct environmental compliance
audits every three years for our pulp and paper mills and every four years for other non-administrative
operations, including warehouse operations, woodyard facilities and our fiber farm. Our audit process places
special focus on selected programs that have been identified as high risk, and at each individual facility we
identify one or more programs for more in-depth evaluation. This helps us target special attention in areas
where it’s most needed.
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As a requirement of our membership in the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) Voluntary
Protection Program, OSHA officials generally visit our participating mills every three years to audit compliance
with regulatory requirements, as well as the performance of our management systems to prevent injuries. These
are augmented by annual Key Element Surveys in which mill personnel review safety compliance and management
system performance.
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Being Transparent to Our Stakeholders
Verso is committed to being accountable and transparent in all that we do. This means regularly evaluating
and reporting progress toward our sustainability goals. We use five key tools to help us do this:
- Annual sustainability report. In our annual sustainability reports we provide an overview of our sustainability progress for the previous year. Information includes our sustainability commitments and policies, our progress toward specific goals and features on projects and programs that best represent our areas of focus for the year.
- Sustainability Web site. This, our corporate Web site, allows us to communicate new information about our sustainability efforts in a timely manner. We publish breaking news as well as information about our sustainability policies and programs and our most recent Sustainability Report.
- EPAT® (Environmental Paper Assessment Tool). EPAT is an online tool (www.epat.org) that enables paper companies and paper buyers to share and compare a variety of data on the environmental and social impacts of papermaking.
- Stakeholder dialogue. We facilitate sustainability communications and education with our customers directly through our Sales team, and through a variety of other communications vehicles we have open dialogues with other stakeholders – employees, government, non-governmental organizations, industry associations, suppliers and others – to assure all understand Verso’s sustainability commitments and are aware of our progress toward meeting them.
- Media. Verso uses the trade media – both editorial and paid advertising -- extensively to share our sustainability commitment and progress.
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