Foreword: Growing a greener future
Although the title of Director of Sustainability is new, I was previously working as Södra’s Forestry Division Environmental Manager for several years, so issues such as the potential of the forest industry to mitigate climate change, the protection of biodiversity and resource efficiency are very familiar to me.
As is the instinct at Södra to set high targets. We aim to halve our carbon emissions by 2030 compared with 2020 and that’s no mean feat for a company with global sales. We are now looking at the longer-term goal of achieving net zero, backed up by the Science-Based Target initiative to which we are committed.
Part of my job is to lead and develop the Södra’s Group’s overall sustainability agenda for the future and here our focus will be on biodiversity, climate neutrality, resource efficiency and sustainable forestry. Increased energy efficiency and large-scale electrification are important parts of our transition.
Although I now have the broader perspective as a Group Director, my time at Södra’s Forestry Division, and before that at Sveaskog, the Swedish state-owned forestry sector, enabled me to focus on biodiversity and we aim to contribute to a strengthen biodiversity. The family foresters make an important contribution to the Swedish conservation work with their voluntary offsets, nature conservation management and the environmental considerations left at all forest operations.
Our family forestry model, where every member of Södra has an individual Green Forestry Management Plan to work out the best way to balance economics with sustainability, is key. Biodiversity is about variation, which is why the focus is on variety on our estates, from dead wood left on the forest floor to planting different species of climate-adapted trees, and caring for water reserves which are home to whole ecosystems in their own right. Many of our members have inherited their family estates and they have been caring for the forest all their lives. Still, we are keen to strengthen and deepen our knowledge of growing biodiversity on every plot. The majority set aside much more than the five percent minimum amount of land stipulated by certification systems, sometimes as much as 20 percent, and we reward those who go beyond with a Nature Conservation Premium.
Work goes on at every level internally as we develop new fossil-free solutions for the future. We want to be a driving force for the transition to a greener economy, but it is not an ambition that can be achieved in isolation. We need partners throughout the value chain to make a real difference. Our Conscious Delivery offer for fossil-free pulp deliveries is a great example of how we can work together with our customers to reduce our footprint for the benefit of all, most importantly, the planet. I’m excited to be part of the team.
Jessica Nordin, Director of Sustainability
Director of Sustainability Phone: +46 70 646 54 67
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Subjects: Pulp
