CMPC, one of Latin America's largest pulp and paper companies, partners with CNI and SOSA to optimize its supply chain efficiency

The collaboration with CMPC in Brazil is facilitated through SOSA's partnership with the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI). Through the partnership, CMPC and SOSA will work to identify advanced tech solutions during a four-month innovation project.

NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2022  /PRNewswire/ -- CMPC, one of Latin America's largest pulp and paper companies, has announced a partnership with CNI and SOSA, the global open innovation company, to improve the efficiency and sustainability of CMPC's forestry supply chain in Brazil.

SOSA scouts and validates startups for corporations and governments, ensuring innovation teams find precisely the technologies they need to solve business problems, identify opportunities, and build new products.

CMPC Brazil aims to harness SOSA's open innovation capabilities to implement cutting-edge tech solutions that will optimize shipments and operational efficiency and ultimately contribute to reducing its carbon footprint even more.

Throughout the scouting and validation process, SOSA will consider the best-fit startup candidates to match CMPC's tech requirements, infrastructure, and local regulations.

The innovation project will consist of:

• Identifying and defining pressing company challenges alongside new opportunities.
• Gaining access to global advanced technology companies and systems.
• Building quality POC's with strategic collaborations for implementation.

The selected startups will be given the opportunity to conduct a proof-of-concept of their solutions on an industrial scale and potentially further support CMPC's efforts to have a more efficient and sustainable supply chain.

"This partnership is in line with our constant search for the evolution and improvement of our processes to reduce interference in the environment and become more sustainable. An example is the adoption of the waterway model for transport, which avoids more than 100 thousand truck trips per year, contributing to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. We believe that the projects presented by the startups participating in this initiative will allow us to increase our operational efficiency in forestry logistics in an even more innovative way", explains the general director of CMPC in Brazil, Mauricio Harger.

"The CNI and SOSA partnership reiterates our efforts to promote open innovation as a competitive strategy, opening a faster and more effective way for companies of all sizes and sectors to enter global value chains. We are sure that the open innovation process we are doing with CMPC will influence their culture of innovation and improve their results in sustainability", says Gianna Sagazio, Innovation Director of CNI.

"Addressing the supply chain given the numerous issues companies have faced in the past two years will enable companies such as CMPC to both improve their bottom line and operate more sustainably," says Uzi Scheffer, CEO of SOSA. "Our collaboration with CMPC through our partnership with CNI hopes to catalyze innovation and offer companies solutions that are both impactful and sustainable."

About CMPC Brazil

CMPC Brasil has its industrial unit located in Guaíba, in Rio Grande do Sul; it is part of the Chilean CMPC group and produces around 2 million tons of cellulose per year ? a biodegradable raw material used in the manufacture of personal hygiene products, tissue, packaging, and several other items present in people's daily lives. The largest industry in the state, according to the VPG (Pondered Value of Greatness) index, the company is responsible for creating 45,000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs in the state's economy, with 6,600 professionals working in its industrial, forestry, and port operations. Present in Brazil since 2009, the company is a representative of the bioeconomy, the production of renewable biological resources. Its operations are based on the circular economy concept, transforming 100% solid waste from the industrial process into 13 new products, from raw material for the production of cement and wood panels to soil pH correctors and organic fertilizers. The CMPC group completed 100 years of operations in 2020 and currently has more than 18 thousand employees in 48 industrial units in eight Latin American countries. More information is on the site.

ABOUT CNI

The Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI) represents Brazilian industry. As the highest body in the employers' union system of industry, it has defended the interests of the domestic industry since its founding in 1938. Since then, working in coordination with the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government and various entities and organizations in Brazil and abroad. CNI represents 27 federations of industries and 1,250 employer unions affiliated with almost 700,000 enterprises. It directly manages the Social Service of Industry (SESI), the National Services for Industrial Learning (SENAI), and the Euvaldo Lodi Institute (IEL). Together with CNI, these institutions form the Industry System, which also brings together state industry federations and employer unions. For more information, visit http://www.portaldaindustria.com.br/cni/en/

ABOUT SOSA

SOSA is a global open innovation company. We work with innovation teams and business units in corporations (like LG, HP, Schneider Electric, Natura, Klabin, Swiss Re) and governments (like Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Taiwan). We scout and validate startups and technologies to bring our clients the solutions they need to solve acute problems, identify opportunities, or build new products. Think noise-canceling headphones for the endless supply of startups.

SOURCE SOSA