The Sustainability Steering Committee, led by Bracell’s president, Praveen Singhavi, is responsible for strategic decision-making concerning key sustainability matters. The committee oversees and validates the management of environmental, social and governance risks and impacts, ensuring that sustainability is aligned with long-term business planning.

Among its responsibilities, the committee is also in charge of validating Bracell’s materiality matrix, ensuring that priority is given to the most important issues for stakeholders and company strategy.

Critical and emerging concerns are communicated to the Sustainability Steering Committee by means of:

• Periodic reports from the Executive Board
• Internal and external audit reports
• Risk and compliance reports

This continuous flow of information ensures a transparent and accurate evaluation of sustainability governance, enabling us to anticipate challenges and deliver on our commitment to corporate responsibility.

In 2024, for example, 76 crucial concerns were reported, relating to environmental, social, human rights and governance issues.

Crisis Committee

Bracell has a Crisis Committee  composed of permanent members who are convened whenever necessary to address crisis and emergency situations potentially affecting our stakeholders, operations, or reputation. This committee is composed of the senior management of the departments concerned, ensuring an agile, coordinated response to mitigate risks and minimize impacts.

The committee’s activities follow the guidelines of Bracell’s Crisis Prevention and Management Manual, a document that establishes protocols and best practices to ensure efficient incident management and operational continuity.

Sustainability Department

Bracell’s Sustainability Department is corporate and its head, the Sustainability Vice President, reports directly to the President and the Sustainability Steering Committee.

On a quarterly basis, the Vice President of Sustainability presents to the committee the progress made on the Bracell 2030 targets and commitments and sustainability projects across the pillars of Climate Action, Sustainable Landscapes and Biodiversity, Driving Sustainable Growth and Empowering Lives (see more in Bracell 2030).

Institutional Relations Department

Bracell also has an Institutional Relations, Community Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility Department. Its responsibility is to lead actions and relations with external stakeholders, like local communities, government and civil society organizations. The department’s work includes: addressing the concerns of underrepresented social groups, preserving our social license to operate, and implementing Bracell Social projects (see more in GRI 203-1).

Risk Management Program

Bracell’s approach to managing corporate risk aims to identify, evaluate and mitigate threats that could impact business goals. We use structured methodologies and continuous monitoring tools, fostering an organizational culture geared to risk prevention and mitigation.

The management process involves an integrated assessment of internal and external factors, covering operational, social, environmental and governance risk and ensuring strategic decisions are based on a broad, sustainable vision.

Bracell’s risk management practices follow the guidelines set out as part of our Risk Management Program (RMP), based on international methodologies. The RMP sets out guidelines and processes for:

• Management of information and continuous monitoring
• Role-specific training
• Use of technologies to mitigate risk
• Emergency response protocols

Through this structure, we ensure that our operations are prepared to anticipate challenges, minimize impacts and strengthen organizational resilience, in line with global sustainability best practices.

The RMP maps out the key impacts, risks and opportunities relating to our activities. Based on this data, we continually monitor potential risks to our operations, neighboring communities, and the environment. The Program also includes proactive plans for mitigating impacts—either neutralizing or minimizing them to the extent possible.

Processes that comprise the Risk Management Program

• Regularly updating identified aspects and impacts, in an exercise involving all operations, in order to identify, prevent and mitigate any and all negative impacts
• Conducting assessments to identify and map out social and environmental risks before initiating any operation
• Assessing products on health, safety and environmental risks
• Regularly monitoring impacts from operations and activities
• Implementing immediate mitigation measures focused on minimizing impacts

Risk management and due diligence governance

Bracell’s risk management practices are organized via committees at different levels of the organization, which convene recurrently:

• Departmental committees: responsible for identifying and managing operational risks specific to each department, promoting awareness and application of best mitigation practices.
• Business unit executive committees: these ensure that strategic and operational risks are managed in an integrated way, in line with each unit’s goals.
• Corporate Steering Committee: supervises and directs risk management at the corporate level, ensuring strategic decision-making that considers a broad view of business risks and opportunities.

Risk management at Bracell is structured in compliance with the law and with the requirements of technical and certification standards and international sustainability protocols (see more in ESG certifications and badges). All corporate policies and operational procedures cover internal standards governing our operations. These policies and procedures include management practices concerning environmental, social and governance issues and are incorporated in Bracell’s Integrated Management System (IMS). They are mandatory for all direct employees, contractors and suppliers.

To ensure compliance with procedures and policies, Bracell has a training schedule and monitors and evaluates compliance with legal requirements, technical and certification standards, and international sustainability protocols. Examples include mandatory technical and operational training for compliance with legal and regulatory standards (see more in GRI 404-1); annual training centered on ethics, integrity, bribery and corruption; continuous improvement program training; training to promote organizational culture; training centered on strategic issues for people management; and leadership development training (see more in GRI 404-2).

In 2024, we upgraded our SoftExpert certification management system, supporting greater efficiency and agility. We also reinforced the Elo program, which trains a team of employees to liaise with the relevant departments. This team is strategic to the ongoing monitoring of operations, providing real-time information for forestry and industrial certification purposes. A total of over 40 staff work on this team.

Reporting Channels

Bracell has two formal channels for receiving complaints, reports and concerns, available to all internal and external stakeholders.

Contato Seguro

Open to all Bracell stakeholders, Bracell Escuta is a platform for reporting misconduct and non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations, our Code of Conduct, or other company policies.

Reports are handled confidentially and whistleblowers are kept anonymous. Reports are investigated by an internal audit team, which reports directly to senior management at Bracell and the RGE Group.

Contact details:
denuncias.bracell@contatoseguro.com.br

www.contatoseguro.com.br/bracell

0800 810 8546

 

Contact Us

This channel is open to all stakeholders. It responds to queries, compliments and complaints from the community. Cases are directed to the relevant departments depending on the nature of the issue.

Contact details:
Bahia:
0800-284-4747
faleconosco@bracell.com

São Paulo:
0800-709-1490
faleconoscosp@bracell.com

Bracell systematically monitors all actual impacts. In our forestry and mill operations, the most significant potential impacts include odor emissions, noise, dust from truck traffic, machinery, and equipment, road degradation, as well as health risks from the use of crop protection products (pesticide drift).

 

 Mill (São Paulo)

Complaints 2022		Complaints 2023		Complaints 2024
Odor	1	Odor	1	Odor	0
Piping maintenance	1	Traffic accident risk	1	Traffic accident risk	0
Speeding	0	Speeding	0	Speeding	0
Road damage	0	Road damage	0	Road damage	1
Total for mill	2	Total for mill	2	Total for mill	1

 

Forestry (São Paulo)

Complaints 2022		Complaints 2023		Complaints 2024
Maintenance of roads, bridges and culverts	36	Road maintenance	63	Road maintenance	113
Damage to third-party property	33	Damage to third-party property	41	Damage to third-party property	88
Airborne dust caused by trucks or machinery	51	Airborne dust caused by trucks and machinery	37	Airborne dust caused by trucks and machinery	101
Fence maintenance	–	Fence maintenance	27	Fence maintenance	6
Speeding	19	Speeding	–	Speeding	26
Road damage	–	Road damage	–	Road damage	28
Total for forestry	139	Total for forestry	168	Total for forestry	362
Total	141	Total	170	Total	363

 

  Mill and forestry operations (Bahia)

Complaints 2022		Complaints 2023		Complaints 2024
Property damage	8	Property damage	12	Property damage	14
Roads	8	Roads	14	Roads	6
Dust (forestry operations only)	12	Dust (forestry operations only)	8	Dust (forestry operations only)	2
Contractors	11	Contractors	14	Contractors	18
Dangerous driving	12	Dangerous driving	11	Dangerous driving	9
Noise	1	Noise	2	Noise	0
Other	6	Other	16	Other	11
Total	58	Total	77	Total	60

Bracell’s Internal Audit department is responsible for continuously reviewing processes, in line with Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). It assesses compliance with internal policies, procedures, applicable laws and regulations, regulatory standards, certification requirements, and international protocols.

Based on these assessments, all processes are mapped out and the department draws up a risk and control matrix (risk assessment process), which informs the auditing processes. For critical risks, action plans are drawn up and followed up on monthly until their completion.

The Internal Audit risk assessment report is submitted to Bracell’s senior management and RGE Group’s Executive Board (see more about the approach to remediating negative impacts under GRI 2-25).