For more than two decades, the Voluntariar (Volunteer) Program has been promoting citizenship, encouraging and recognizing the social protagonism of Suzano's internal public, family members, and partners, and working collaboratively for education, sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Program uses the company's Culture Guidelines as a guide to define its actions.
We believe that everything begins when we choose a path to follow. At Suzano, we always follow what we believe in. Inspiring and transforming is in our essence and in our way of being.
People are our motivation, and we want to help develop them inside and outside the company. Together, connected and seeking social transformation, we want to renew our outlook and attitude, reinforcing our purpose of promoting positive societal change.
In 2024, we developed seven fronts of action:
- Formare;
- Suzano na Escola (Suzano at School);
- Contribuindo para o Futuro (Contributing to the Future);
- Voluntariar em Ação (Volunteering in Action);
- Mostre seu Amor pelo Rio Tocantins (Show your love for the Tocantins River);
- Faz Bem Race;
- Amigos da Vida Campaign – blood donation.
We engaged 2,018 volunteers, 54% men and 46% women, 56% black, brown, or Indigenous people, totaling 17,779 volunteer hours, in 32 business units in 11 states: Bahia, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Maranhão, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pará, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and the Federal District, benefiting around 11,000 people (directly and indirectly).
Find out more about the main initiatives of the Volunteer Program in 2024 below.
- Formare
Developed in 2005 in partnership with the Iochpe Foundation, Formare is a professional training program for young people in socially vulnerable situations in the communities surrounding Suzano's operations. After joining the company as apprentices, the young people are trained as production process operators at the plants in Aracruz (ES), Belém (PA), Imperatriz (MA), Mucuri (BA), Suzano (SP) and Três Lagoas (MS). In 2024, Suzano became the company with the largest number of Formare units in Brazil, certifying 84 young people with the support of 873 volunteer educators.
- Suzano at School - The Future of Work
Held in partnership with Junior Achievement, a social organization that encourages young people and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for three consecutive years. In 2024, the Volunteer Program, using the organization's methodology, enabled volunteers to exchange experiences with students aged 14 to 18 from the public school system, developing practical entrepreneurship and income generation projects - related to the creation of a startup project [students from São Paulo (SP)] and a mini-company [Aracruz (ES)].
- Contributing to the Future
Since 2021, the mentoring program Contributing to the Future carried out in partnership with the Joule Institute, aims to enhance the development of the leadership profile of Suzano's trainees - who act as volunteer mentors - while encouraging the construction of the trajectory and inclusion of future talents in the job market: university students from the initial years who identify themselves as black people, people with disabilities, women and/or belonging to the LGBTQIAPN+ community.
- Volunteering in Action
Launched in 2019, it is a collaborative and supportive movement that aims to strengthen the role of Suzano employees, collaborators, and partners in volunteer actions. Employees are encouraged to devise, co-create, and develop volunteer actions in line with Suzano's Sustainable Development Goals and Culture Drivers. In 2024, 21 initiatives were carried out, such as humanitarian assistance campaigns, urban clean-up efforts, educational gymkhanas in public schools, and welfare and bonding actions for children, teenagers, and elderly people living in shelters.
- Show Your Love for the Tocantins River
An event traditionally held by the Imperatriz Industrial Unit, it had its sixth edition in 2024. To this end, volunteer employees, unit leaders, the community, and municipal public bodies work as a network, bringing together people of all ages to take part in recreational activities to promote quality of life and, above all, to clean up the banks of the Tocantins River. More than 2 tons of urban waste was collected in the last edition.
- Faz Bem Race
In line with the actions aimed at male and female employees' well-being and quality of life, the Faz Bem Program holds annual races and cycling tours in the municipalities where Suzano is present. In this partnership with the Voluntariar Program, participants exchange their race kits for donations of food and/or hygiene and cleaning items, which are then donated to NGOs and social assistance agencies in the municipality where the race was held. In 2024, the initiative collected 13.7 tons of food and more than 19,000 hygiene and cleaning items sent to 11 social institutions.
- Amigos da Vida Campaign - blood donation
In response to a demand from the employees themselves, two editions of the campaign have been held every year since 2005, to encourage solidarity and citizenship among our employees, service providers, and their families by donating blood at the blood centers located near Suzano's industrial, forestry, logistics or commercial operations. The initiative is in partnership with the internal quality of life program Faz Bem. In 2024, 19 campaigns were held, and it is estimated that more than 1,800 people benefited from the blood donations made at the blood centers.
Suzano's data on volunteering, corporate citizenship and philanthropic contributions are compiled in the following tables:
- Volunteer initiatives;
- Volunteer hours;
- Total monetary value of the company's corporate citizenship and philanthropic contributions by type;
- Engaging male and female employees in volunteering activities.
Volunteer initiatives
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024¹ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| overall number | overall number | overall number | overall number | overall number | |
|
Total number of volunteer initiatives |
57 |
7 |
32 |
36 |
56 |
|
Total number of people impacted by the actions developed |
20,075 |
14,890 |
26,578 |
24,353 |
10,985 |
- In 2024, the method of accounting for beneficiaries and voluntary initiatives was revised, applying standard market rules for measuring these indicators. GRI 2-4.
Volunteer hours
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hours | hours | hours | hours | hours | |
|
Volunteer hours donated |
3,345.00 |
7,347.00 |
16,719.00 |
16,842.00 |
17,779.00 |
|
Volunteering hours during working hours |
886.00 |
3,506.00 |
9,710.00 |
9,692.00 |
16,852.00 |
|
Hours dedicated to training volunteers |
664.00 |
1,064.00 |
1,519.00 |
1,327.00 |
686.00 |
Total monetary value of the company's corporate citizenship and philanthropic contributions by type
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R$ | R$ | R$ | R$ | R$ | |
|
Cash contributions¹ |
84,511,063.95 |
65,469,303.30 |
52,235,538.60 |
58,047,789.19 |
75,954,308.44 |
|
Expenditure on employee volunteer time during paid working hours² |
284,726.69 |
628,104.78 |
1,519,076.95 |
1,630,880.00 |
1,920,447.00 |
|
Donations in cash: donations of products or services, projects/partnerships or similar |
1,840,121.29 |
4,339,482.48 |
2,833,786.76 |
2,327,493.63 |
5,244,861.04 |
|
Management expenses³ |
5,154,519.37 |
6,290,753.64 |
7,732,390.38 |
8,332,110.04 |
11,668,829.45 |
|
Total amount |
89,950,310.01 |
72,388,161.72 |
61,487,005.93 |
70,338,272.86 |
94,788,445.93 |
- The amount reported includes all types of action aimed at communities, whether through voluntary donations of money or directly invested resources. This includes, for example, resources provided to support community infrastructure projects and the direct cost of social programs through social investment. The sum of the resources invested (social investment projects, donations, and actions to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic) is considered to calculate the indicator. The pandemic ended in 2022, meaning no investment was made for this purpose in 2023. According to budget management, the SAP system is the primary source that feeds/generates the data. Sispart manages/operates the investments and actions carried out by the Corporate Relations area (whether in projects, programs, initiatives, donations, cooperation, etc.).
- Calculation memory: volunteer hours during working hours x (total spent on remuneration by the company / total working hours for the year).
- To calculate the indicator, we considered not only the management expenses of the Social Development area (with labor, benefits, and overtime) but also the expenses of the company's volunteer program, Voluntariar.
Engaging male and female employees in volunteering activities
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | % | |
|
Percentage of volunteers over total active employees |
6.00% |
10.00% |
15.00% |
16.00% |
9.00% |
|
Percentage of engaged leaders |
21.00% |
34.00% |
40.00% |
26.00% |
12.00% |
Additional information
About the volunteers:
- 2,018 people volunteering - 9.6% engagement based on headcount¹;
- 17,779 volunteer hours;
- 32 business units with active volunteers - distribution centers (DCs), industrial and forestry units and offices - based in 10 states and the Federal District.
On voluntary action:
- 56 initiatives: Formare (6), Suzano at School (2), Contributing to the Future (1); Volunteer in Action (21), Show your Love for the Tocantins River (1); Faz Bem Races (6) and the Amigos da Vida Campaign - blood donation (19).;
- 18.6 tons of food donated;
- 20,357 hygiene and cleaning items donated;
- 24 locations: Central-west: Ribas do Rio Pardo and Três Lagoas (MS); Northeast: Mucuri and Teixeira de Freitas (BA), Açailândia and Imperatriz (MA); North: Belém (PA); Southeast: Aracruz, Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Piúna, São Mateus and Vitória (ES), Sete Lagoas (MG), Americana, Itapetininga, Jacareí, Limeira, Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, São Bernardo do Campo, São José dos Campos, São Paulo and Suzano (SP); and South: Pinhais (PR);
- 43 social institutions served;
- 10,985 people benefited in 2024;
Note:
- The headcount used for voluntary work does not consider employees on leave and/or assigned to units abroad.