• March 29, 2024

Iggesund invites its customers to adopt a tree

Iggesund Paperboard, which has been in the vanguard of sustainable industry, is offering people the chance to join in by adopting a tree.

“The forests are our planet’s lungs and a prerequisite for our long-term survival, said CEO Annica Bresky in describing the company’s Adopt a Tree venture. “Our well-managed forests transform carbon dioxide into life-giving oxygen and function as nature’s own carbon sink.”

Iggesund has been handing out ‘gift cards’ that, if activated by the recipient, cause the company to plant 10 trees in honor of that person. An area in Nianfors, in the Swedish province of Hälsingland, which has been reserved and made ready for planting, is said to have space for tree seedlings for up to 3,000 customers.

“We want to make it clear to all our customers that the price of Invercote or Incada includes replanting which will give us at least as much new forest as the amount we harvested,” Bresky said. “We’d like people to know that our paperboard material is one of only a few packaging materials that actually gives something back to nature.”

Iggesund is part of the Holmen Group, which is on the United Nations’ list of the world’s 100 most sustainable companies. The Group produces more than 30 million tree seedlings annually as a key part of its replanting strategy. Swedish law states that anyone who harvests forests is also responsible for replanting them. In practice this means that at least three seedlings must be planted for each tree that is felled.

Iggesund uses tree fibres and water in its production process. The fibres can be recycled several times before their biogenic energy is finally made use of through combustion. The water introduced into the process is purified in a two-stage process before use, and, after use, it is purified in three more stages and then returned to the sea.

“I’m proud to work in a company that places such a high priority on sustainability,” Bresky said. “We are a large process industry but our environmental impact is tiny compared with that of most other industries.”

Adopt a Tree is part of Iggesund’s broad-ranging service concept called Care by Iggesund. The concept includes everything that supports its products Invercote and Incada – from technical support in local markets to the paperboard expertise offered by the company in a variety of reference works.