Climate impact
Combatting global warming is the critical issue of our time. Billerud has an important role to play by working to reduce our climate footprint throughout our value chain and by offering sustainable packaging solutions that enable our customers to reduce their carbon footprint as well.
Science-based targets
Our ambitious climate targets and the development of high-performance, recyclable materials based on renewable virgin fiber, help us contribute to reducing global warming.
Billerud's efforts are mainly related to significantly cutting emissions from our own operations as well as indirect emissions from purchased energy and the purchase of goods and services. Billerud’s science-based targets (SBTs) guide us in our work and indicate that we are moving in the right direction.
Read about our sustainability targets and yearly results on this page.
Updating our Science-based targets
In 2023 Billerud set a new base year (2022) for scope 1-3 calculations with our new North American operations included. We are also developing new short-term and long-term (net zero) Science-Based Targets.
Roadmap towards fossil-free operations
Even though Billerud is largely fossil-free in our European operations, we continue with our efforts to eliminate the remaining fossil CO2 emissions. Billerud’s roadmap for scope 1 and 2* emissions from our European operations is part of the company’s strategy. It also includes an interim goal for the first mill to run on a fossil-free production process by 2026. Central to our work is to identify substitutes for fossil fuel oil and LPG and at the same time invest in process equipment to handle the different characteristics of bio-based alternatives. The dependence on fossil fuels such as oil and gas are considerably greater at our North American operations. However, our ambition for these operations is to become best in class in North America and eventually reach the same low levels of fossil fuel usage as we have in our European mills. We will thereby contribute to our ambitious climate targets and to enable customers to reduce their climate footprint to an even greater extent.
Supply chain collaboration
During 2022 our roadmap for scope 3** emissions from our European operations was adopted with a focus on transports and the use of chemicals. As these emissions are outside our direct control, they require extensive cooperation with suppliers and other partners. It will be important for the work going forward to urge our suppliers to reduce their emissions by setting ambitious emissions targets. It is also crucial to support them with basic knowledge on climate change mitigation as we have identified that while some suppliers are advanced in the work to reduce their CO2e emissions, others have just begun.
The climate impact of our products
Our customers require climate change leadership from us to be a long-term partner, and they ask for products with low CO2 footprint. Therefore, having a low climate impact is essential for Billerud to attract and retain customer, and are vital aspects to ensure profitability.
To make it easy for our customers to assess the environmental performance of our products, and compare with conventional alternatives, we are conducting life cycle assessments of our products.
Read more about our life cycle assessments and environmental product declarations here.
Carbon Capture and Storage
Regardless of where the carbon dioxide emissions come from, we will do everything we can to reduce them. We aim to develop solutions that reduce biogenic carbon dioxide emissions in addition to fossil carbon dioxide emissions. One promising technology is Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (Bio-CCS).
We are investigating the possibilities within the field of Bio-CCS and we hope to contribute to increased knowledge in general and our own expertise. Billerud has one ongoing project that involves using the residues that arise in our process to capture carbon dioxide from flue gas from the chimneys. After the capture of carbon, the storage possibilities for now are offshore. This project investigates the possibility to store the captured carbon in the rock. A suitable type of bed rock has been discovered directly beneath the site of Karlsborg mill. The same geographical circumstances occur at several pulp and paper sites in Sweden, so if this is a possible technical solution it would really make a difference.
Read more about how Bio-CCS works
*Scope 1 and 2: Direct emissions from own operations and indirect emissions from purchased energy.
**Scope 3: Indirect emissions from upstream transports, purchased chemicals, downstream transports.