In recent years, paper marketing material has been in the focus for marketing managers and business owners looking to boost their green credentials. As a company, we also have a number of businesses that we work with that have real values around sustainability and paper is always a focus.

PEFC and FSC accreditations – whilst proving a chain of custody and show that the forest and production process follows the correct procedures are the gold stamp of approval for a lot of clients, some are looking for a lot more. With this in mind, we did some research into one of our main partners for paper supply and we’re really pleased to share what they do.

SCA Paper and Sustainability

The following information comes from the recent SCA sustainability report and we’ve added a few of our comments along the way. If you didn’t know, SCA is based in Sweden and one of the things they are blessed with is a lot of green space and forests, where SCA is one of the leading suppliers of forest-based products. The SCA forest, which is growing a result of the resource being managed for logging is almost the size of Belgium and absorbs a net 8% of Swedens CO2 emissions. SCA’s climate benefits amount to 8 million tonnes of CO2 per annum, which is more than the total emissions from all the truck traffic and domestic air travel in Sweden.

The land is also used for the production of energy via wind

Every year, 2.6 TWh of electricity is produced from wind power on SCA’s land, equivalent to 15% of total wind power production in Sweden. Within the next five years, production capacity on SCA’s land will triple.

Paper production does use energy, there is no getting away from it. However, energy used by SCA’s plants is almost exclusively from bioenergy. By-products are used to produce heat and electricity. SCA also produces energy for external customers – green electricity, district heating, unrefined and refined biofuels.

The forests are growing – 60% up on 1950!

Considering that SCA relies on trees for all of its products they still ensure that it’s growing year on year – by 3million cubic metres a year in terms of forest size. If we compared the size of the forest today with 1950, it’s now 60% bigger than it was then. And it’s still growing. We think this is an important point to make – producing paper pulp via managed sources is part of the solution on forests being removed in other parts of the world. It’s in the interests of businesses like SCA to make sure their business model is sustainable and paper production enables that to take place

The whole tree is used

Whilst we in the print and marketing industry might only consider what happens to the part of the tree used for pulp and paper production, it’s also important to consider that the rest of the tree is used. SCA takes care of that by making sure that the whole tree is used for either:

• Timber for building and windows
• Shelving
• Paper and Pulp Production
• Sawdust is retained and used for pellets for biofuel

We are very proud to announce that Trident has come 3rd place for Professional Service business in the National Family Business Awards at Wembley Stadium! What a great result for a small business from the Midlands to go to London and come away with this recognition! We are really pleased for the whole team, keep them coming!