Award for services to pulp and paper industry
Kim McGrouther, Scion’s Research Group Leader for Chemistry and Physics, was acknowledged by the pulp and paper industry last week with the L.R. Benjamin Medal from the Appita Association. It is the association’s highest honour, recognising and celebrating Kim’s outstanding contributions to scientific research, sustainability and decades of service to New Zealand’s pulp and paper industry.
Kim’s career spans over 30 years, all spent at Scion, where we are incredibly proud of her experience leading innovative research and developing solutions to complex environmental challenges.
Kim started her career in pulp and paper through gaining a scholarship for the Pulp and Paper Diploma course run jointly by Auckland University and PAPRO (Pulp & Paper Research Organisation). This intensive three-month course covering forest growing, harvesting and wood processing set Kim up well for her career at Scion.
Her early research focused on oxidation chemistry and wastewater treatment, laying the groundwork for her significant contributions to industrial sustainability.
Also, a leader in Scion’s sustainability
As Scion's Sustainability Lead, Kim has driven corporate sustainability initiatives, most recently inspiring volunteers to clean up 12kg of small bits of plastic, 56 aluminium cans, and other miscellaneous rubbish along Puarenga Stream for Plastics NZ Operation Clean-up event in November.
Florian Graichen, Scion’s General Manager Forests to Biobased Products, says Kim’s recognition is well deserved. “Besides recognising Kim’s significant decade-long contributions to New Zealand’s pulp and paper industry, we consider this a tribute to her exemplary contributions to the sustainability aspirations of Scion and the wider sector.
“Kim is also our Sustainability Lead, with oversight of the Toitū enviromark and carbon footprint certification and wider environmental sustainability programme at Scion. Under her leadership, at Scion we have made significant progress in our aspirations to be more environmentally sustainable in everything we do. This includes reducing our plastic and energy footprints and co-ordinating crews for the Plastics New Zealand Operation Clean-up events – removing rubbish from our local streams and rivers.
Kim has made an enduring contribution to chemistry, environmental science, and sustainability.
The Appita awards dinner was part of the International Fibre Packaging Symposium – Recyclability and Beyond. Day one of the event included a day of insights and knowledge sharing from experts around the world, including Florian, Scion Bioproducts and Packagaing Portfolio Lead Alec Foster, and on topics of fibre recyclability, fibre-based packaging innovations, and panel discussion on the role of fibre-based packaging solutions in a bioeconomy. On the second day, the symposium headed to Scion for an exclusive tour around our world-leading research facilities. Visitors went behind the scenes of our pulp and paper testing, moulded fibre thermoformer, WHITE room, biodegradation laboratory, extrusion laboratory and more.
The Appita LR Benjamin Medal award was instituted in 1971 and honours the late Louis Reginald Benjamin (CBE), a pioneer and leader in the development of the pulp and paper industry.