Recycled paper manufacturer Saica has joined the SBTi and committed to long and short term carbon reduction targets.
The company is one of Europe’s largest manufactures of recycled paper for corrugated card with a production capacity of 3.3 million tonnes. It has over 10,000 employees and operations across Europe, the US and UK and is involved in recycled paper, waste management and environmental services and production of corrugated card for packaging.
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) aims to help companies set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets based on climate science in order to limit global warming, taking every opportunity to transition to a low-carbon economy.
Saica has a maximum of 24 months to define short- and long-term targets and submit them to SBTi for approval, in accordance with its rules. These targets are calculated on the basis of the gas emission reductions needed, according to existing models, to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5°C compared to industrial-era temperatures, in line with the COP21 agreements (Paris 2015).
The short term target, for which SBTi acts as an independent guarantor, should have a time horizon of five to 10 years. The initiative also encourages companies to set Net Zero targets in the longer term, a target that Saica Group has also joined for 2050.
In a first phase Saica will focus on finding solutions to decarbonise its production facilities, thus attacking Scope 1 and 2 emissions. In a second phase, Saica will involve the entire value chain to find solutions that minimise the impact of the supply chain; this means attacking Scope 3 emissions related to transport, extraction and production of raw materials or end of life of waste, amongst others.
The Group commits to define short- and long-term objectives, which contribute to keeping the earth’s temperature increase below 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. Likewise, adherence to the initiative requires the Saica Group to publish its carbon footprint annually, so that its stakeholders can monitor progress towards the final target.
“One of the priorities of the Saica 2025 Strategic Plan is orienting the business towards sustainable solutions that contribute to environmental protection and to the fight against climate change,” said Ramón Alejandro, chairman of the Saica Group. “This is why in 2021 we set up a Decarbonisation Working Group, whose main objective is to find technological solutions that allow us to cover the energy needs of the Group’s factories, achieving the decarbonisation objectives for these facilities.
“We are convinced that R&D&I has always been a competitive advantage, so we must continue with the necessary and sufficient efforts to achieve the objectives we have set ourselves.”
The company, whose biomass boiler plant is pictured above, this week received the ‘Aragón Circular’ seal as the best valued company among the 68 that have also obtained it. The seal is recognition of companies that implement the circular economy in their management thereby having an impact on their value chain.
