CEPI to Cut P&P Industry Carbon Dioxide Emissions 80% by 2050
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The Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI), Brussels, Belgium, will launch a new method for developing incipient ideas into breakthrough technologies. CEPI's goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions of pulp and paper production by no less than 80% from the 1990 level by the year 2050, according to a news release this week by the Finnish Forest Industries Federation.
It is not possible to achieve this goal without new technologies, CEPI noted, estimating that known technologies can only achieve a 50%-60% reduction by 2050. Another aim is to generate substantial new added value for the products and production processes of the sector.
CEPI's model places two teams in competition with each other to discover creative and viable ideas and innovations that could, for example, help reduce the energy consumption of paper manufacturing. The teams consist of corporate experts, researchers, goods suppliers, and other paper and pulp industry players. In addition, they will include representatives of other sectors, as activities will be based on open innovation and the sharing of research findings, with the hope that this will lead to better utilization of research knowledge across different sectors of industry.
"The forest industry is going through a major structural transition and this calls for fresh approaches to the development of operations. Open innovation has produced good results in the ICT sector and now we will see how well it works for the forest industry," said Director Antro Säilä, who heads the Business Environment and Innovation unit of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation.
"Paper engineers have traditionally been good at squeezing more performance out of machines and improving productivity through this avenue. In addition to this, we need a new type of approach that looks beyond internal limitations and does not hesitate to take on competent people regardless of whether or not they have a background in the traditional paper industry," Säilä added.
The two competing teams will convene in Helsinki this week to work on ideas and hear about the opportunities of the Finnish bioeconomy. The best breakthrough technology will be published in Brussels as part of the European Paper Week event this November.
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