A new way of calculating climate benefit
For Holmen, the standard provides new opportunities to highlight the value of our renewable products and the role they play in the climate transition.
Until now, climate reporting has mainly focused on the forest's ability to sequester and store carbon. However, the positive impact of replacing fossil materials with wood, for example in buildings, packaging or energy, has been reported separately, often in the sector where the product is used. This means that the climate benefit of wood-based solutions are often reported in the construction or industrial sector, rather than in the forest sector that supplied the raw material. This has made the full climate benefit of the forest invisible. With ISO 13391, that changes. The new standard weighs two important elements together:
- How much carbon dioxide is stored in forests and wood products.
- How much emissions are avoided by replacing more climate-damaging materials.
The result is a more accurate and holistic climate calculation, something that has long been requested by the Swedish forest industry.
"For Holmen, which is one of Sweden's largest forest owners and producers of wood-based products, the new standard is important. We have already worked in line with similar methodologies and will now be able to report our climate benefits with even greater precision, for example in annual reports or in dialogue with investors and decision-makers," says Isabelle Rydelius, Sustainability Controller, Holmen.
The standard has several advantages:
- Thanks to a common methodology, it is now possible to show how forest products contribute to reduced emissions, even when they are used in other industries such as construction or energy.
- Better decision-making basis for investments and product development.
- A clearer picture of which products have the greatest climate benefit.
A Swedish contribution to a global standard
Behind the work on ISO 13391 are experts from 14 countries, but Sweden has played a particularly active role. For example, several Swedish companies, such as Holmen and SCA, have developed their own methods for calculating the total climate benefit from their products for several years. That experience has now helped shape an international standard.
The standard series consists of three parts and was officially published on April 29, 2025. To facilitate the use of the standard in practice, special guidelines, so-called technical reports, are also produced to support the implementation.
Read more: Holmen's reporting of climate benefits