The year 2015 has every chance of becoming historically important in reducing global warming, thanks to the agreement reached in Paris at the end of the year. The forest industry plays a notable role by offering sustainable products and solutions to help with reaching the goals set. COP21 targets are also guiding Metsä Board’s operations.
Our strategy for combating climate change concentrates on three areas: increasing the use of bioenergy, improving energy efficiency and lightweighting our paperboards. By investing in bioenergy, as well as energy and material efficiency, Metsä Board’s CO2 emissions have decreased by 42% since 2009 and in 2015 more than 80% of the fuels we used were bio-based. We are continuously looking for new areas of energy efficiency at our manufacturing units. When calculating the return of an investment project we also use an internal carbon price.
The investments in a chemical recovery plant and a low-consistency refining at Metsä Board Kaskinen mill in 2015 are good examples of our efforts. These investments together with earlier ones have allowed the mill to reduce its electric energy consumption by 28% compared to 2009. Kaskinen mill produces high-yield pulp that plays an important role in the lightweighting of our paperboards.
Metsä Board’s lightweight and safe paperboards benefit the whole packaging value chain.