In 2023, Paper Excellence, under the strategic vision of founder and sole owner Jackson Wijaya, took focused steps towards building our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program. It has been a productive year of analysis and planning, reflecting Wijaya’s commitment to fostering a culture of inclusivity and respect.

In the second quarter of the 2023, we established our DEI Steering Committee and retained Therese Hagen with Two Eyed Seeing Consulting C3 Inc. (TESCI) to support the DEI project. TESCI helped us develop a three-year DEI integration plan broken down into four main phases: 1) Analyze and understand. 2) Attract and retain. 3) Embed DEI. 4) Create an inclusive culture and implement DEI policies and practices.

Last year we dived into understanding both the internal culture of the organization and Paper Excellence’s relationships with Indigenous communities within whose territories we operate. We also analyzed what competitors and other industries are doing in the DEI space.

Some of the achievements we accomplished include:

• Running and analyzing an internal DEI Maturity Survey
• Completing an external Indigenous Relations Analysis
• Completing an external Competitors’ Analysis
• Developing a DEI Wise Practices Report and a DEI 101 Corporate Training program.

The Maturity Survey results show us that employees recognize Paper Excellence’s DEI commitment, understand reporting procedures, recognize the company’s promotion of DEI and most facilities effectively demonstrate diversity commitment and enforce anti-discrimination policies.

We are proud of the DEI accomplishments in the year of 2023, and look forward to more successes in 2024.