By Mark Rushton, Editor, PPI magazine, RISI
BRUSSELS,
Nov. 30, 2008
(Viewpoint) -
Södra Cell’s Mönsterås pulp mill recently celebrated 50 years of operation by holding its biennial customer conference at the site near the town of Kalmar in the south east corner of Sweden. The mill can be considered to be a true giant among giants in the European pulp industry producing some 750,000 tonnes/yr of market pulp.
But for a change this was no ordinary pulp producer’s conference. There were no long sales presentations declaring the attributes of the company’s products, and no deeply technical presentations about what customers should be doing with it. Instead, the event had the theme, ‘‘Back to Basics’’, which dealt predominantly with the environmental issues concerning the industry and especially as regards carbon footprint, climate change and greenhouse gases. At the event, Södra executives took the opportunity to reveal the company’s own carbon footprint – 100 kgs of CO2 per tonne of pulp produced - information which its customers can then pass on to their end users. The figure was obtained by using the “ten toes of the carbon footprint” which have been devised by the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI).
Ten toes, one footprint
The ten toes system includes across the board monitoring and calculating of carbon dioxide emissions, storage and also the amount of the gas that is taken out of the atmosphere by forest growth.
Södra has spent a lot of time, effort and money in recent years on minimizing its environmental impact which is how it has achieved the 100 kgs of CO2 per tonne of pulp produced. The series of investments and efforts have concentrated on various parts of its pulp mill operations, from fuelling its lime kilns with biofuels, bark and biogas at both Mönsterås and Varo - another of its mills - to exporting energy which has resulted in a steady decline in the total of carbon dioxide emissions.
The company also took the opportunity at the Mönsterås event to launch its PulpServices Environment extranet portal, which enables customers to access key data relevant to the pulp they are buying, including the carbon footprint of each product. There are seven main areas that are covered in the portal, forestry, transport, environmental technology, energy, climate change and management systems. It also has an area for obtaining facts and figures which helps and enables customers to calculate their own carbon footprint when using any of Södra’s products.
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(Reported in tonnes of CO2 per tonne of air dried pulp)
1. Carbon sequestration in forests: -1.06
The amount of carbon dioxide that is taken up by the forest each year due to growth exceeding harvesting.
2. Carbon stored in forest products: -1.47
The amount of carbon dioxide that is equivalent to the carbon delivered in pulp.
3. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing fiber: 0.02
Carbon dioxide that is emitted by forwarders and harvesters in the forest, and emissions from nurseries where forest seedlings are produced.
4. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with purchased electricity, steam and cold and hot water: - 0.24
Emissions that arise during the production of purchased electricity. Energy deliveries based on biofuels have a negative value as they are not derived from fossil fuels.
5. Transport-related greenhouse gas emissions: 0.12
Carbon dioxide emitted during transportation of raw materials to the mill, as well as finished pulp to customers.
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A Man with a plan
Can pulp and paper makers help reverse climate change? Leif Brodén, CEO of Södra, is not backwards in coming forwards when it comes to expressing what needs to be done to reverse climate change, believing that it is up to the forest products industry to table important ideas and possible solutions with leading politicians. Brodén talked to PPI about his views.
PPI: So what can the forest products industry do to counteract the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change?
Brodén: The fact is, deforestation accounts for 20% of all the carbon dioxide emissions, which is even higher than the airline industry and all other commercial transport. So we have to stop deforestation right now! But there is a possibility that instead of forest products companies being part of the problem, we can all be part of the solution by engaging in the increased planting of trees, thereby soaking up CO2. We can, if there is a coordinated approach, actually very quickly reverse the greenhouse effect by stopping deforestation, and growing 0.8% more trees worldwide than we are growing now.
PPI: Sounds very simple, can you explain further?
Brodén: At the moment, on a worldwide basis, we are losing 0.2% of our forests per year. This is predominantly through deforestation in the southern hemisphere in continents and countries such as Africa and Indonesia, Asia and some parts of South America. This deforestation is a major cause of climate change. We can reverse that by stopping all deforestation worldwide, and instead grow 0.8% more trees. It is as simple as that, and we could reverse the climate change situation in as little as 30 years. But it is a case of following a very clear three step plan. Stop deforestation, grow more trees, use more wood to keep the cycle going.
PPI: Do you think it is possible to do?
Brodén: Very possible, we have been doing it in Sweden for the last 150 years. In fact, our forests in the whole of northern Europe could be described as carbon neutral as there has been a lot of forest management and planting programs going on over the years.
What has to happen is a lot of old growth has to be taken out, and new young trees planted in their place. The fact is, if it is done this way, then there will be no fight for land, as it is already forest land anyway.
PPI: Which way forward and how to get the message across?
Brodén: Well, this a real challenge, getting the message across that wood products should be taking over from other much more carbon producing products such as concrete for housing and plastics for packaging. We are already working hard at this, and we are close to the ministries and politicians in Sweden for instance. But we have to look closely at legislation from Brussels, and ultimately it is them we must convince that using forest products is not a burden to the world’s environmental problems, it is a solution.
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