Climate benefit in our value chain
In 2022 we contributed a climate benefit totalling 7.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent to 15 per cent of total emissions within Sweden’s borders. [1]
[1] Sveriges utsläpp av växthusgaser (naturvardsverket.se)
Holmen’s operations are already benefitting the climate today. The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is lower thanks to the work we do.
The forest delivers the most benefit when it is put to use. This is the heart of Holmen’s sustainable business. Our aim is to increase the climate benefit in our value chain, mainly by increasing the positive impact on the climate that our business has, but also by reducing our negative footprint.
Forest carbon uptake
Young trees have the greatest capacity to bind carbon dioxide. When the trees get old or are damaged and die, they rot and the stored carbon dioxide returns to the atmosphere. Active and sustainable forestry, in which the trees are harvested when growth declines and the land is then reforested, sees us increasing forest growth and uptake capacity over time. In 2022 it is calculated that the increase in the volume of standing timber in Holmen’s forests has absorbed and stored a net 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Storage in our products
After harvest, the raw material from the forests continues to bind carbon dioxide even in its processed form. In products with a long lifetime such as wood products, the carbon is stored for a long time once the products have been turned into buildings and homes, while the short-lived products paperboard and paper store carbon over a shorter period of time.
Holmen’s production of wood products increased global storage of carbon dioxide by just over 0.5 million tonnes and our paperboard and paper products contributed storage equivalent to just under 0.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Replacing fossil products
The greatest climate benefit is created when our customers choose wood-based products and renewable energy instead of fossil-based options with a higher carbon footprint. It is here too that Holmen’s climate benefit becomes the most tangible – when our products reduce the need for fossil materials and raw materials, which means that finite raw materials such as carbon, oil and gas can stay in the ground.
The wood products we produced during the year replaced construction materials and fossil energy that would have generated 2.6 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. When the paperboard and paper we have produced can no longer be recycled, it continues to provide a benefit as bioenergy, so replacing fossil energy equivalent to 1.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Renewable energy production
Our sales of our own renewable electricity from hydro power, wind power and biomass replace carbon and gas power equivalent to 1.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. On top of this, our sales of bioenergy based on residual products from the forest and our facilities replace 0.6 million tonnes of emissions.
Lower emissions
Energy-efficiency measures and investments in renewable energy at our production facilities have led to a sharp drop in fossil emissions from our own operations. Since 2005, emissions from fossil fuels in our production has fallen by 90 per cent and today the majority of our emissions are generated from purchases of input products and from transport to and from Holmen’s industrial sites. Therefore, we are now focusing on cutting emissions in these areas.
Read more about Holmen’s climate and emission targets here.
Actively managing the forest enables us to benefit the climate by storing carbon dioxide both in the forest and in our products, and by forest-based products and renewable energy replacing fossil alternatives. Total climate benefit from Holmen’s value chains in 2022 is calculated in line with the methodology used by the Swedish Forest Industries Federation, CEPI and a number of other forest companies. To ensure that Holmen’s reporting is based on the same methodology, Holmen had the calculation methodology produced by Peter Holmgren of Futurevistas AB in 2020.