The forest has the greatest climate benefit when wood-based products replace fossil materials. In 2021, Holmen’s operations helped to cut the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 6.9 million tonnes. This is equivalent to 15 per cent of Sweden’s emissions.
We are helping the world to transition
In the drive to become less dependent on fossil raw materials, forest products have a key role to play and demand for them will increase over time. To invest in Holmen is to invest in a sustainable future.
Increased production and processing of wood products
Holmen’s manufacture of wood products has become an increasingly important part of our business. The construction of Braviken Sawmill in 2010 and the acquisition of Martinsons in 2020 have prompted strong growth in our wood products business. We are now investing in Iggesunds Sawmill to increase production by another 20 percent. At the same time, we are also broadening our range of products.
With five sawmills strategically located near our forest holdings, we are maximising the value of our forest and securing the raw material supply to all of our industrial sites.
Population growth and urbanization together with increasing ambitions for sustainable construction drive the wood products market.
Through Martinsons, we offer wood products to the modern construction market. We are a leader in the design and construction of complete frames of KL wood and glulam for, among other things, office buildings, sports halls, schools and apartment buildings.
Increased production of renewable energy from wind power
We are Sweden's sixth largest producer of hydropower and are now investing in further developing the energy business through wind power. As a large landowner, we have a unique opportunity to build wind power on our own land.
Harvesting the wind that blows over our treetops increases the added value of our forest ownership and strengthens Holmen's cash flow.
In recent years we have conducted surveys and wind analyses on the Group’s land to identify favourable sites for future wind power development.
Holmen opened Uppland’s first wind farm, Varsvik, back in 2014, and now in 2021 Blåbergsliden Wind Farm has just been completed outside Skellefteå. With 26 turbines, the wind farm will boost our annual production of renewable energy by 30 per cent, taking it up to 1.7 TWh.
In addition to Blåbergsliden, a permit application for another wind farm in Västerbotten has been submitted, and in 2021 we also applied for environmental permits for wind power in Östergötland.
Reduced fossil emissions and SBT-approved targets
Holmen's new emission targets are approved by SBTi (Science Based Target initiative), which certifies that Holmen is in line with the Paris Agreement.
We began planning for the transition from fossil energy use at our industrial sites in the early 2000s. Since then we have switched to primarily using fossilfree electricity and renewable energy from biofuel. Combined with energy efficiencies, emissions of fossil carbon dioxide from our production facilities have thus been cut significantly.
Since 2005, the use of fossil fuels in our production has fallen by 85 per cent. In contrast to many of our competitors on the continent, much of our manufacturing is practically fossil-free, and production at Hallsta Paper Mill is entirely fossil-free.
Today the majority of our fossil emissions are generated from purchases of input products, along with transport to and from Holmen’s industrial sites. Therefore, we are now focusing on cutting emissions in these areas in our new SBT-approved emission targets.
