Metsäliitto Group reducing the climate impact of its operations

 

Metsäliitto Group Press release 28.4.2008

 

Metsäliitto Group is actively working to mitigate climate change, primarily through the development of its own operations. Metsäliitto Group's Climate Programme was launched to spearhead the efforts.

The Climate Programme collects information about the climate impacts of the Group and its business areas and defines the goals and the ways to reduce these impacts. Shouldering responsibility in climate issues is important also in terms of Metsäliitto Group's competitiveness; many measures to mitigate climate change have a positive impact on profitability.

Metsäliitto Group aims to curb climate change by continuously improving its energy efficiency, by processing renewable wood raw material, by promoting the production and use of bioenergy, and by studying the possibilities to use solutions that mean lower emissions and more effective use of resources in its operations.

Metsäliitto Group started investing more systematically in boosting energy efficiency with the launch of the two-year Energy Efficiency Optimisation (EEO) project in 2006. Now the work will continue with the implementation of the Energy Efficiency System (EES). Additionally, the Group is investing in increasing the share of emissions-free energy in its total energy consumption, and in raising its energy self-sufficiency. The energy production capacity increases are targeting combined heat and power (CHP) plants, which have a high efficiency ratio.

Metsäliitto Group's most important raw material is renewable wood, which is used to process wood products, cardboard, paper and biofuels. Acquiring wood raw material is based on sustainable forestry. Sustainably managed forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The carbon absorbed in the wood material is also stored in wood-based products. Wood industry products with a long usable life are particularly important in terms of storing carbon. Wood raw material is used responsibly, and, by investing in materials efficiency, for example, the aim is for the most economical and sustainable production of end products as possible.

Wood raw material must be processed first

The forest industry's share of bioenergy production and use is already high. For example, bark and wood chips unsuitable for other production as well as black liquor, a by-product of the pulping process, are used in energy production.

Metsäliitto Group's view is that renewable wood raw material suitable for industrial use must first and foremost be processed into valuable forest industry products, and wood-based products should be used for energy production only after the products have been used and recycled. This way also the carbon captured in the wood is stored for a longer period of time.

On the other hand, Metsäliitto Group is striving to increase the harvesting of wood material not suitable for industrial use - such as small trees, logging residues and stumps - for use in energy production whenever sustainably feasible. Energy wood is procured for the Group's own industrial use and for other energy producers.

In addition to these measures, Metsäliitto Group is continuously mapping other measures and solutions, e.g. through product development, that it could employ to actively reduce the climate impact of its own operations.

Metsäliitto Group's Climate Programme:
Terhi Koipijärvi, Senior Vice President, Environmental Affairs and Corporate Responsibility, Metsäliitto Group, tel. +358 10 46 94857

Energy related issues:
Ilkka Latvala, Vice President, Energy, Corporate Energy, M-real Corporation, tel. +358 10 469 5218