Iggesund Switching to 100% Bioenergy at Mills in Sweden, U.K.

Print this article | Send to Colleague

"We're increasing efficiency and ensuring our long-term energy supply," explains Guy Mallinson, director of sales to the graphic and packaging sector in Europe. "In this context, it's natural for us to move to bioenergy because there's a risk that fossil fuels will become scarcer and more expensive in the future, not least due to political targets for lower fossil carbon emissions."

When the investments are complete, Iggesund will likely have the two paperboard mills with the lowest fossil carbon emissions in the world. The company notes, however, that so far this biofuel focus has not overtly affected customers' commercial preferences. "We're not seeing that customers are choosing materials based on our environmental work or our low carbon emissions," Mallinson says. "However, major brand owners are insisting on getting information about our carbon footprint, even though they're not yet communicating that information any further. But their interest does indicate that a good environmental record could become a stronger selection criterion in the future."

Iggesund, which sells its flagship product Invercote in more than 100 countries, says it has noticed that the environmental debate differs around the world. "In Britain, people talk almost solely about carbon footprint, in the States the focus is on how much recycled content that companies can mix into their products, while in Asia, people are keen that the origins of raw materials are both documented and environmentally sound," Mallinson says. "But of course, we can't let the current debate in any particular part of the world govern our environmental efforts. We must take a comprehensive, broad-based environmental approach, regardless of what happens to be high profile news in the media yesterday, today, or tomorrow."