When we unveiled our APRIL2030 commitments and targets in 2020, we highlighted that it was an opportunity to play our part in achieving a lower carbon economy and to make a positive impact on climate, nature and people by 2030.  

Five years on, we have delivered on what we said we would do, while demonstrating that business growth and sustainability transformation can go hand-in-hand as an effective business strategy. 

While our expanded production capacity has made meeting some of our original APRIL2030 targets more challenging, it has also demonstrated the ability of the private sector to stretch ambitions and adapt to changing economic or market conditions. 

Our growth has put us in position to support the decarbonisation of our operations, the extension of our investments in nature and biodiversity, and driven inclusivity and lifted-up local communities, while growing our business sustainably.

We started with the recognition of the global imperatives – to achieve the 2030 development agenda, meet climate targets of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees C, and support the call for greater protection for nature. These were the bases for the key commitment pillars: Climate Positive, Thriving Landscapes, Inclusive Progress, and Sustainable Growth.

We then reviewed industry benchmarks and also consulted closely with our leadership team so we could define the level of ambition for the targets. These targets needed to be on par with global and national ambitions, and challenging for our company, while also achievable. The draft targets were then presented to our operational management teams in an internal workshop for review and validation. 

Finally, we conferred with our advisors and key stakeholders for their inputs.

Once the targets were set, we then identified the key metrics and established the baselines using 2019 data for assurance by KPMG PRI. So all in all we have four commitment pillars, 18 targets and 35 indicators.

APRIL2030 aims to support the Indonesian government in achieving its climate, biodiversity conservation and development goals. Given our operational presence, our support is mainly through implementation on the ground at the district and village levels.

APRIL2030 supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals at the national level in Indonesia and more importantly at the village level in the province of Riau. In 2018, we worked with PwC Singapore on a process to identify our priority SDGs and have selected 4 as Core (SDGs 12, 13, 15 and 17) and three as Catalytic (SDGs 3, 4, 6) priorities. The alignment of our targets against relevant SDG targets are presented here.

APRIL2030 builds on our Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 and on the progress made in its implementation over the last five years. We will continue to adhere to these commitments, with our performance reviewed and reported on by the Stakeholder Advisory Committee and an independent assurance party.

For each of the 18 targets under the four commitment pillars, we defined performance indicators, resulting in 35 performance metrics for the whole of APRIL2030. In order to measure progress against the targets, we established the baseline for most of the indicators using 2019 data. These baselines were independently verified by KPMG PRI Canada as being fit for purpose and accurate.

APRIL2030 is owned at all levels of APRIL. The senior leadership team has been part of the process from the beginning, setting the levels of ambition, providing strategic guidance, and committing the necessary resources from the development phase in 2019 through to implementation by 2030.

Each commitment pillar has a Champion who is a senior member of management and each Champion has formed working groups for the key targets. These working groups develop action plans that are part of operational plans. In practice, APRIL2030 targets are embedded in individual KPIs and in the regular monitoring and reporting done within our company.

Reporting on the performance against the targets is part of ongoing operational monitoring and reporting, as well as progress reporting in our annual Sustainability Report. In addition, we published an interim progress report in 2025.

Achieving net zero emissions from land use and the 25% reduction in product emissions intensity is challenging but we are committed to meeting these targets.

We support science-based target setting and have been measuring our GHG emissions in our peatland plantations and, more recently, in our mineral soil plantations through the four GHG eddy covariance towers that we have installed. Using the primary data that we have generated and other inputs, we have measured our carbon footprint (scopes 1 and 3).

We continue to employ a range of emissions reduction and mitigation strategies both in our forestry and manufacturing operations to achieve our targets, including, for example, more continuous improvements in responsible peatland management, increased conservation and restoration initiatives, and shift to renewable energy sources.

We aim to reduce our product carbon emissions by using more biomass fuels and reducing energy consumption per tonne of product manufactured. We are targeting 90% of mill energy from renewables.

We will source 50% of our fibre operations energy needs from renewables and cleaner energy sources. We are already implementing B30 diesel which is 30% renewable biofuel, and we are converting some of our log transport trucks to natural gas engines as a test towards a lower emission future. Achieving our mill emission targets involves using a higher percentage of biomass and reducing the mill’s energy needs to become more efficient.

APRIL2030 covers our own operations and our supply partners. We are also engaging our value chain in support of our 2030 targets, and we hope to encourage and influence others to pursue the same level of ambition.

Fire prevention and management is already embedded in our operations. Our Fire Free Village Program has proven its effectiveness over the past five years and continues to be scaled through the Fire Free Alliance. With this operational infrastructure firmly in place, we can focus on other areas of importance through APRIL2030.

In 2021, we completed the construction of an Eco Camp for our Restorasi Ekosistem Riau programme which also serves as the Tropical Peatland Science Hub. We want to encourage and support tropical peatland science research by national and international scientists and academics. We also welcome stakeholders who wish to experience ecosystem restoration work on the ground.

This is part of our commitment to peatland conservation and advancing the scientific understanding of tropical peat-swamp forest landscapes. It builds on existing research infrastructure, including access to greenhouse gas towers and ongoing research on carbon dynamics, hydrology and subsidence. It also complements the work already being undertaken by our Independent Peat Expert Working Group.

In 2024, as part of our APRIL2030 commitments, we strengthened our ongoing partnerships and collaborations, participated in scientific conferences and dialogues, and published scientific papers that advanced tropical peatland science. As of December 2024, APRIL’s scientists have engaged in 242 collaborations, participated in 77 conferences, and contributed to 14 publications on peatland science.

A large proportion of our forestry plantation concessions are on peatland ecosystems and we have an obligation to manage this landscape responsibly. Evidence shows responsible management of peatland landscapes are crucial in preventing unmitigated emissions particularly from lack of proper water management, burning and continued encroachment of natural forests. 

Our experience also demonstrates that the key is in maintaining a balance between production, protection and social needs on the landscape. We have been investing heavily in science to guide our peatland management practices for both plantations and conservation/restoration areas.

We acknowledge that there are greenhouse gas emissions from peatland operations, so in recent years we have been generating primary data using the latest science to measure our emissions. This is helping to determine what levers we can pull to reduce our emissions. 

At a landscape level, we know that responsible peatland management is key to emissions mitigation. This means proactive fire prevention and best-in-class water management. These have resulted in our peatland landscape being one of the better, if not the best managed in the region. 

We also commit to mitigating any emissions through our conservation and restoration projects, starting with our Restorasi Ekosistem Riau project which restores more than 150,000 hectares of peatland forest on Riau’s Kampar Peninsula.