|
 |
 |
 |
| Press room >Press releases | |
| Iberpapel Group plantations reach over 16 million trees |
The CO2 eliminated by Iberpapel’s forest plantations is equivalent to the carbon emissions generated annually by 235,000 people..
Around40% of Group investment in the last ten years as been earmarked to improving its environmental record. The environmental management work put in by Iberpapel has been acknowledged with the European Business Award for the Environment in the Management award for sustainable developmentcategory under the Basque award scheme.
Madrid, 12 April 2010
The number of trees planted across the Iberpapel Group’s various forest plantations has surpassed the 16 million mark, eliminating carbon emissions equivalent to those generated by cities of the size of Vitoria (with 235,000 inhabitants), Granada (234,000), Oviedo (224,000) or La Coruña (246,000).Iberpapel has forest plantations in Spain (6,117 hectares in the province of Huelva), Uruguay (10,551 hectares) and Argentina (8,537 hectares). The company works with the Eucalyptus Globulus species. Its forestry strategy is one of forest repopulation with a view to self supplying 30% of the primary raw material needed in its paper making facilities.
Environmental protection and sustainable development are built into the company’s everyday activities. The company’s Uruguayan initiative for the reforestation of degraded land with silvopastoral systems, being implemented by Group subsidiary Los Eucaliptus, enjoys the backing of Uruguay’s Department of Agriculture and Forestation, as is evidenced by the fact that the authorities presented the project before the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO) in Rome in March 2007.
According to Martín Arregui, who is in charge of the Group’s environmental management division, “At Iberpapel we are working hard to make our growth more sustainable. The integration of environmental indicators into our business management represents an opportunity to contribute to development by reducing our environmental fallout by promoting energy efficiency, using renewable energy sources or raising our capacity to capture CO2 through our forests”.
Values, milestones and challenges
Iberpapel’s environmental performance has been acknowledged internationally. Its environmental management approach translates into quantifiable milestones such as reduced power consumption, lower overall carbon emissions, reduced water consumption and lower waste generation. The company has devoted significan resources to this effort, specifically 40% of total investment during the last ten years.The main challenges successfully overcome by Iberpapel include the integration of its environmental management policy into its business strategy and management, facilitating the entire organisation with all the necessary tools to do so and encouraging a shift towards greater environmental transparency. Noteworthy Iberpapel achievements on this front include enhanced energy efficiency, greater use of renewable energy sources, capture and elimination of atmospheric CO2, application of the latest technologies and reduced consumption of natural resources.
Iberpapel’s environmental management accomplishments (per unit of product)
- Reduced energy consumption (3.7% cut in power consumption between 2006 and 2009)
- Lower water consumption (9.6% reduction in specific water consumption between 2006 and 2009)
- Reduced waste generation, 75% of which sent for recovery (19% drop in waste generation between 2006 and 2009)
- Use of green energy sources:power generation from high-performance cogeneration facilities and renewable fuels (installed cogeneration capacity at Papelera Guipuzcoana de Zicuñaga accounts for 16% of installed cogeneration capacity in the Basque region. PGZ produces 5% of the power generated in the Basque region from renewable sources and 18% of the electricity generated from biomass).
(Download pdf of the news)