SCA's well-managed and growing forests bind carbon dioxide. Solid wood becomes products that in turn can replace fossil-based alternatives such as concrete, plastic and fossil fuels. The goal is for SCA's value chain to become fossil-free. Group target 2030: Increase SCA's climate benefit from 10 to 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
SCA is involved in limiting global warming and is actively working to increase the company’s climate benefit by using the forest as a base to reduce society’s dependence on fossil material and related energy types. This includes increasing its own forest’s uptake of CO₂ from the atmosphere, by developing and increasing production of renewable products that replace fossil alternatives and by reducing fossil emissions in the value chain from forest to customer.
SCA also enables the transition to fossil-free activities for others by providing renewable energy in various forms. SCA has developed a model to describe the total climate benefit contributed by the company’s activities, and has a Group target that calls for its climate benefit is to increase from 10 to 15 million tonnes of CO₂ between 2019 and 2030.
The company’s total climate benefit is calculated using the model published by SCA in 2019, see sca.com, and comprises three components:
Uptake in SCA’s own forest, where 1 m³fo in net growth corresponds to an uptake of 1.375 tonnes/m³fo CO₂ from the atmosphere. This is the same factor as used in Sweden’s national reports. Net forest growth is calculated by taking the forest’s annual growth and removing natural losses, pre-commercial thinning and the year’s harvest
Fossil-fuel emissions throughout the value chain, meaning from the forest operations to the customers’ gate. Emissions are calculated using the GHG protocol and encompass Scope 1, 2 and 3
The climate benefit that arises when SCA’s products replace fossil materials and the equivalent amount of fossil carbon remains in the ground, and is referred to as the substitution effect. The substitution factors used are presented on sca.com
Climate-positive operations
SCA is already a climate-positive company as its own forest absorbs several times more than the emissions from all of its own value chain in the form of greenhouse gases. In addition, there is also the substitution benefit from the company’s products. In 2022, SCA’s total climate benefit amounted to 10.1 (10.5) million tonnes CO₂. This represents a slight reduction compared with 2021 due to lower external deliveries of energy and containerboard and that publication paper volumes have still not been replaced by increased volumes of containerboard and pulp (CTMP), since these investments are still ramping-up. Fossil emissions in the value chain, Scope 1–3, increased slightly, 3% compared with 2021, but decreased by 18% compared with the base year of 2019.
The increase was primarily due to increased measures on forest roads and a slightly higher use of fossil fuels in industrial processes. Emissions from transportation continue to decline. The specific emissions calculated as tonnes of greenhouse gases per tonne kilometre transport performed decreased by 3% compared with 2021.
Emission of carbon dioxide
In 2021, emissions from transport decreased by approximately 25 percent, mainly as a result of a lower share of transport to other continents and lower volumes as a result of the phasing out of publication papers.
Fossil-free transportations
The larger part, approximately 75% of the emissions, come from the transportation of raw materials and finished products, despite our very efficient transportation system.
The marine transport accounts for more than 80% of SCA's total transport. Optimization work means that we ship larger freight volumes per journey, which reduces fuel consumption per ton of transported goods.
Timber transportation from the forest must always begin on trucks. By using 74 tonnes of timber trucks, we significantly reduce the carbon dioxide emissions per cubic meter of timber transport. For long-distance transportation, the timber is transferred to rail.
In 2022, SCA contributed a climate benefit of 10.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, 5.4 million tonnes of which arise from the fact that products with a fossil footprint can be exchanged for products made from or based on biomass from the forest.
SCA Group's sustainability targets will be achieved by 2030 with 2019 as the base year. The targets presented are those we consider to be most relevant for SCA’s business operations and stakeholders.
