Business News

Iggesund radically reduces its fossil fuel use

“Our goal is to be self-sufficient in electricity and independent of fossil fuel,” comments Klas Simes of Iggesund Paperboard. The company has just launched a programme to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil sources by an amount equal to that emitted by 20,000 cars in a year.

Thursday 03. January 2008 - Iggesund Paperboard is reducing its use of fossil fuel by three-quarters. The company will thereby cut its emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil sources by three-quarters at Iggesunds Bruk, where the company’s flagship product, Invercote, is made.

The radical reduction is the result of a detailed energy assessment plus investments totalling about 10.5 million euro, and corresponds to the emissions from 20,000 cars each driven 15,000 kilometres a year.
“But our goal is even higher than this,” says Klas Simes, energy coordinator at Iggesunds Bruk. “We plan a gradual changeover so that we will ultimately not use any fossil fuel at all, and will also be self-sufficient in electricity.”
The reduction in Iggesund Bruk’s carbon dioxide emissions will be implemented in 2009. It will come from a combination of energy savings plus investments in increased capacity for biofuel use. Klas explains that the measures are not primarily motivated by the current intense media discussion of carbon emissions:
“We can’t respond in a short-term, erratic way, like public opinion sometimes does. We have a long-term environmental programme, and environmental aspects are considered when making every investment decision. But our job – and there is no contradiction involved – is to deliver a first-class product at a competitive price. If we want to do this in the long term we have to act systematically and rationally.
“The huge rises in energy costs in recent years have focused attention on this area. We’ve worked hard to achieve an intelligent solution that ensures our competitiveness – and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is just one result of that.”
For decades now Iggesund has been implementing a long-term environmental programme encompassing the entire production process at Iggesunds Bruk. The company’s energy supply is based on heat from Iggesund’s own production process plus electricity, almost half of which is also produced by the company. Today over 90 percent of this electricity comes from biofuel. With regard to heat, Iggesunds Bruk produces a surplus. As well as being used in the production process, the heat is also used to dry timber in a nearby sawmill and to heat homes nearby.
“We could be self-sufficient in electricity and independent of fossil fuel within the fairly near future,” Klas Simes concludes.