Stora Enso aims to become net positive contributor
Paper manufacturing giant Stora Enso has published its new sustainability targets, highlighting its ambition to offer 100 per cent regenerative products and solutions by 2050. It is also also investing nearly €100m to further expand its packaging board production capabilities.
Stora Enso is also committing to new 2030 targets for its sustainability priorities – climate change, biodiversity and circularity.
The €100m expansion follows a feasibility study that began at the end of last year. It will involve ‘de-bottlenecking’ one of its existing production lines, and will increase its packaging board production by around 100,000 tonnes – taking total capacity to over 900,000.
Stora Enso plans to shift its sustainability goals from minimising negative environmental impact to becoming a net positive contributor within the defined focus of climate, circularity and biodiversity by 2050.
“As a renewable materials company, our core business is about offering solutions to sustainability challenges,” said Annica Bresky, Stora Enso’ president and CEO.
“To balance staying within planetary boundaries and securing economic and social progress, the world needs a transformation away from fossil dependency and a linear economy. With this commitment, Stora Enso aims to be a leading actor in driving the transformation towards a bio-based circular economy.
“We will be transparent with our progress, taking a science-based approach, to offer regenerative solutions that not only mitigate environmental impact, but restore and rebuild.”
Stora Enso is also committing to new 2030 targets for its sustainability priorities – climate change, biodiversity and circularity.
With its updated science-based targets, Stora Enso commits to reducing absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG from operations by 50 per cent by 2030 (from the 2019 base-year), aligned with the 1.5 degree scenario. It has also committed to an ambitious target to reduce scope 3 GHG emissions by 50 per cent by 2030.
It also commits to achieving a net-positive impact on biodiversity in its own forests and plantations by 2050 through active biodiversity management.
The science-based targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, a partnership between CDP, the UN Global Compact, the World Resource Institute, and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
“Stora Enso uses its own forest in Sweden as a development platform for enhancing biodiversity,” explained Jari Suominen, executive vice-president, Forest Division at Stora Enso.
“We will, for example, increase the share of broad-leaved trees and the amount of dead wood. Continuous cover forestry will be tested to evaluate its impact on biodiversity and forest growth in areas suitable for this method.
“Furthermore, Stora Enso will unify and expand performance evaluations that assess the quality of our work in Finland, Sweden, Russia and the Baltics in order to enhance biodiversity.”
Stora Enso has also begun a pre-feasibility project to convert the second, currently idle, paper machine at its Oulu mill in Finland into another packaging board line to add even more capacity.