Features Environment & Sustainability
Sofidel reduces CO2 emissions by 20%

June 19, 2018 – Sofidel, the second largest company in Europe in the tissue category, has reduced its direct emissions of carbon dioxide by 20.6 per cent. The company is a leader in sustainability, practising it as a fundamental consituent in its value creation process.

Sofidel continues to have a positive impact on the environment through development and innovation for its hygienic and domestic tissue products. It has reduced direct emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by investing in energy efficiency including the use of cogeneration plants and renewable energy sources and sourcing pulp certified by independent third parties with forest certification schemes (FSC®, FSC Controlled Wood, SFI®, PEFC™) which has reached a level of 100 per cent. Sofidel operates to safeguard water resources, limiting consumption inside their production processes – an essential feature of their environmental sustainability strategy. The average amount of water now used in the production of tissue paper is distinctly lower than the industry benchmark (7.1 l/kg vs. 15-25 l/kg).

The objective is to create products which contain lower levels of natural capital to have an ever-more reduced environmental impact and at the same time create products with an increasingly high level of efficiency.

The Intertissue mill in Baglan, Wales, where a system for recovering rainwater has been activated, employs an area of 82,000 square metres and allows a reduction in water consumption of more than 47,000 cubic metres per year. Sofidel continues to achieve reduced water use through the philosophy of “Less is more,” an orientation which characterises all of the group’s activity, and which translates into three fundamental precepts:

• Keep environmental impact to a minimum on all levels, from sourcing, to production, to logistics, to office life
• Reduce waste
• Promote responsible consumption

Innovation as a strategic leverage
Through innovation in production processes including an automated finished product warehouse, a frontier in innovation for Sofidel in Kisa, Sweden, the group uses less amounts of natural resources to allow it to meet the growing demand for efficiency, functionality and sustainability from clients, consumers and society, contributing to “building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for people and planet,” in accordance with the definition by the UN of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

More generally, within the sphere of its activities, Sofidel follows a policy of responsible development, which is founded on five key points:

• Process/product innovation oriented towards economic, social and environmental sustainability
• Involvement and transparency in relations with business stakeholders (managers, employees, consumers and voluntary associations)
• Respect and appreciation of people both within and external to the company
• Protection of the consumer
• Attention to local communities

In its business activity, Sofidel believes that companies have the responsibility of playing a fundamental role not only in terms of the production and distribution of goods and services, but also in the guaranteeing of long-term social and environmental advantages for stakeholders at all stages of the value chain.

Sofidel has been the first tissue paper organisation in the world to join the WWF Climate Savers project, the WWF international initiative dedicated to companies that prioritise the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by developing innovative strategies and technologies.