Iggesund’s paper mills receive EcoVadis Platinum medal

EcoVadis assesses companies' sustainability achievements and has performed more than 65,000 assessments in over 200 sectors in 160 countries. In 2020, EcoVadis introduced the Platinum medal designed specifically to reward the highest scoring companies.

The Platinum level, which the Workington Mill has reached, includes the top one percent of all rated companies. Earlier this summer, the company’s other mill in Iggesund is Sweden, was also awarded the Platinum level.

‘To us, this is a prestigious confirmation that both of our mills have a robust structure in our work with sustainability,’ said Johan Granås, head of sustainability at Iggesund Paperboard. ‘Even more important is what it means to our customers; apart from excellent product quality, they can rely on the fact that the products are surrounded by sustainability measures that match the product quality.’

The Workington Mill, which runs 90 percent on bioenergy, also delivers green electricity to the National Grid.

‘No matter how modern your machinery is, the final decisions are always made by people,’ commented Lorna Casson, environmental engineer at the Workington mill. ‘We have started to introduce environmentally motivated objectives for operators, which depend on working closely together as a team to understand the effects of their actions on the rest of the process.  As an example, we have been able to reduce the steam and electricity consumption per ton by 10 percent over the last years.’

‘I’m both impressed by, and proud of the innovative actions we have taken in both mills, motivated by the fight against climate change,’ added Granås.

Iggesund Paperboard is part of the Swedish forest industry group Holmen, a group that several times in the last decade has been listed as one of the world’s 100 most sustainable companies on different sustainability indices. All Holmen Mills have been awarded Platinum.