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Wi nter 2011 | p2p Magaz i ne | 07
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ADVERTORIAL
The Big Question
With Portucel Soporcel
Pen To Paper magazine Investigates the
environmental impact of the paper industry with
Portucel Soporcel which produces some of the
most recognisable offce paper brands.
The Big Question:
The paper production industry
has an extremely large effect on
the environment and uses a lot of
resources.What's your main approach
to reducing the impact that your
products have on the environment?
optimising the use of renewable energy
from biomass. A signifcant reduction in
CO2 fossil emissions has been achieved
in recent years. In the decade up to 2010,
the Group recorded a 46% reduction in
carbon dioxide fossil emissions per ton of
product manufactured (pulp + paper). By
2010, 65% of the total energy produced
by the Group was obtained from biomass,
a renewable resource.
Our paper is made from sustainably
managed forests, predominantly of
Eucalyptus globulus, a very effcient
paper tree species. Its thick leaves, which
hang vertically, lose less water through
transpiration and effciently direct
precipitation to the soil. Using this tree
species, our paper is produced using a
smaller volume of timber (up to 46%
less wood when compared with certain
conifers such cypress or pine), and after
use it is also a highly valuable resource
for recycling, due to its high virgin fbre
content and the thicker fbre cell wall of
Eucalyptus globulus.
The Portucel Soporcel group
also regards forest certifcation as a
very important issue. In addition to
certifcation of its own forests (FSC and
PEFC), the company is making every
effort to increase the area of certifed
forests in Portugal, and has pioneered the
paying of a premium price for purchases
of FSC and PEFC certifed wood for
its mills, a fact recognised by the UN
report “Forest Products Annual Market
Review 2007-2008” published by FAO/
UNECE. The Company’s mills only use
certifed and controlled wood and they
are certifed under ISO 14001, OHSAS
18001 and ISO 9001. The Portucel
Soporcel group manages more than
95% of all Portuguese woodlands with
FSC certifcation and 59% with PEFC
certifcation
and has built
biodiversity
conservation
into its forest
management
model.
Biodiversity
conservation is
a central feature
The way the question is worded
suggests that, in general, paper
production has negative effects on
the environment when in fact it is the
other way around.
Paper is by nature one of the
greenest products in the world, although
sometimes it is not perceived as such. As
a product made from renewable resources
it has a positive impact on the planet by
not making direct use of fossil resources.
Over the last century, consumption of
paper has accounted for the growth in the
total area of woodlands in regions such
as Iberia, Scandinavia, France and Canada.
The production of paper in Europe is a
sustainable industry based on renewable
forests. During the last 20 years, European
forests have grown at an annual rate of
1.5 million football felds. During the
last years the Portucel Soporcel group’s
nurseries produced some 8 million
plants of various species annually, set to
grow into the future trees of the Iberian
woodlands and from next year onwards
they will produce an expected total of 12
million plants per year.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
represents a commitment to
sustainability and to avoiding climate
change. Portucel Soporcel has also
implemented several projects designed
to improve the effciency of its mills and
their production processes, by optimising
the use of natural resources, and has
invested in infrastructure and facilities for
of the Group's development strategy
and a key component of its forest
management model. Proud to belong
to an industry that plants more trees in
Portugal than anyone else, the Portucel
Soporcel Group is of course celebrating
in 2011 the International Year of Forests
declared by the United Nations.
The company has also assigned top
priority to minimizing its environmental
impact in the production of pulp and
paper. Since the year 2000, the Portucel
Soporcel Group has invested around
200 million euros in environmental
projects at its industrial sites, and
has recently been licensed to use the
European Union Ecolabel on the paper
it manufactures and markets. The
EU Ecolabel promotes products and
services that meet strict standards of
environmental performance, which have
for several years been incorporated into
the management model adopted by the
Company.
Over the years, the Portucel
Soporcel Group has deployed an
extremely successful strategy focused
on innovation and development of mill
brands. Our range of premium products
is headlined by Navigator, the global
best seller in the Premium offce paper
segment, and other brands such as
Soporset, Pioneer, Inacopia, Discovery,
Explorer, Target and Inaset. Following
all the stages in the product’s chain of
responsibility, from the raw material to
the production and selling of paper, the
Portucel Soporcel group manufactures
paper from raw materials sourced
from forests specifcally planted for
the purpose and sustainably managed.
The paper produced is truly ecological,
biodegradable and recyclable and
when consumers print on our paper
they are also contributing towards the
sustainability of the forests from which
the original wood is obtained.