Sappi Makes a Difference in Communities Through Its 2022 Employee Ideas That Matter Grant Program

Sakheni Francois, a Fulbright scholar who holds an MBA, joined Sappi in 2020 as a Market Analyst. She has worked in corporate, nonprofit and rural development settings in Eswatini and the United States. She is also the producer of an animated documentary, Liyana, which has won over 35 awards at international festivals.

Sakheni used her 2022 Employee Ideas that Matter grant to help fund the renovations of the Boston Building Resources (BBR) Reuse Center, an organization that provides affordable building materials to low- and moderate-income homeowners and nonprofit organizations—materials that would otherwise be headed for the landfill.

“BBR is addressing homeownership issues and primarily targeting historically disadvantaged groups to equip them with tools and materials to rehab and renovate their homes,” Sakheni says.

The renovations allow more efficient use of the space, which had been limited by size and configuration, and is now designed to produce all the energy it consumes on an annual basis through 114 rooftop solar panels, a carbon-free renewable source.

“In the short term, BBR is reducing building-material waste that enters the waste stream, and homeowners can use the materials to renovate and maintain their homes,” Sakheni says. “The long-term impact is that homeowners are more likely to create generational homeownership and generational wealth. This stabilizes our communities and addresses one piece of social and economic justice issues.”

Since 1993, the Reuse Center at BBR has diverted reusable materials, such as cabinet sets, doors, windows, appliances and other donated materials from local landfills, giving them a second life and improving the homes of local neighborhoods.

“The EITM grant and BBR’s mission will have far-reaching impacts in historically disadvantaged communities, which makes me even more proud to work at Sappi,” Sakheni says.