BillerudKorsnäs records climate change progress in annual sustainability report but challenges remain
09 Apr 2020 --- BillerudKorsnäs has published its seventh Annual and Sustainability report, publicizing its environmental statistics on material usage, wastage and energy consumption recorded throughout 2019. Boasting a corporate purpose to “challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future,” the report indicates that the Swedish pulp and paper manufacturer’s energy consumption continues to shift more toward self-generated biofuels. However, the company was forced to scale back its environmental targets for 2020 in terms of fossil fuel emissions and energy consumption as a consequence of not meeting its 2019 goals.
“The climate and other sustainability issues are high on the global agenda, generating plenty of green investment, development of green technology and political initiatives to contribute towards a sustainable transition. Many challenges still remain, not least mitigating climate change and fostering the transition to a circular economy based on renewable and recyclable raw materials,” the report reads.
"Many challenges still remain, not least mitigating climate change,” the report reads. To promote itself as an environmentally sustainable business, BillerudKorsnäs set certain targets for last year, building upon previous years. BillerudKorsnäs exceeded its goal to reduce the transport of wood raw material and finished products, as its target of 17.5 CO2 eq/ton km was smashed with 2019’s 12.2 CO2 eq/ton km. The company also met its goal to achieve 100 percent biodiversity index for nature conservation measures as well as to cultivate 191 group-certified forest owners in its group certificates for FSC and PEFC, with the original goal set at 180.
Although down 0.6 kg/ton product since 2018, BillerudKorsnäs emitted 37.5 kg/ton product of fossil CO2 in 2019. BillerudKorsnäs scaled back its 2020 target to reduce its fossil CO2 emission from 25 kg/ton product to 30 as the company did not achieve its goal to reduce said emissions to 30 kg/ton in 2019.
The company’s energy consumption reached 5.32 MWh/ton product, which is 0.06 MWh/ton product higher than 2018’s outcome and did not meet its annual goal to reduce its consumption to 5.2. Moreover, due to this setback, BillerudKorsnäs has set its 2020 target back to 5.2 MWh/ton product, as opposed to the previously set goal at 5.1.
An environmental eye
BillerudKorsnäs’ energy consumption and production is mostly facilitated by biofuels (89%) and 8 percent purchased net steam and electricity. In terms of electricity, the company’s additionally purchased power largely comes from renewable sources. “We transfer excess heat from production to surrounding communities to contribute as much as we can to contribute to a bio-based society. We produce enough energy to provide 47,000 households annually with heating,” Louise Wileen Bjarke, Head of Press at BillerudKorsnäs, told PackagingInsights in a previous interview.
BillerudKorsnäs exceeded its set goal to reduce the transport of wood raw material and finished products.
The remaining 3 percent is made up of purchased fossil fuels. According to the 2019 report, BillerudKorsnäs purchased 450 GWh of fossil fuels, which makes for a slight dip compared to its 464 figure from 2019. “[This is] a slight improvement compared to the previous year. However, energy intensity had a slight increase in 2019. Both the proportion of fossil fuels and energy intensity was negatively impacted by unforeseen events causing production disturbances, such as lightning strikes and leakages,” the report notes.
Leading packaging trends
Five key global factors driving the environmental sustainability trend as noted by BillerudKorsnäs are:
Demand for sustainable packaging is growing: As more goods are being packaged, packaging is increasingly sought to be durable and sustainable.
Sustainability requirements are becoming stricter: More solutions need to be renewable or circular to “fight climate change on every front.”
Digitalization is opening up opportunities: New business models, digital services and tools are making way for optimizing efficient and automated processes.
New ground rules as the value chain changes: E-commerce places new demands on the distribution chain while integration comes from both up- and downstream.
Growing interest in the forest as a source of raw material: The use of alternative fiber continues to increase.
BillerudKorsnäs states it will greatly prioritize the circularity of its solutions as well as monitoring its production’s impact on the climate.
Incidentally, the packaging supplier has also reported that, as a consequence of COVID-19, the planned maintenance shutdown at Gruvön, Sweden, which would have taken place in March, has been postponed until the third quarter of 2020. The postponement is expected to have a negative effect on earnings of around SEK 140-200 million (US$14-20 million) during the current year.
Edited by Anni Schleicher
