As part of Sappi Europe’s large-scale decarbonization roadmap the Gratkorn plant in Austria is expanding the share of biomass to be used as an energy source, further pushing away from fossil fuels as part of the plant’s contribution to the European roadmap. The project follows the power plant’s recent boiler upgrade, which allowed it to switch from coal to a combined biomass and natural gas approach.
The site is now taking the next step, improving its infrastructure and thus capacity in order to handle the delivery, sorting, and processing of higher levels of biomass.
«With our longtime wood procurement partner Papierholz Austria, we will continue our journey to move away from fossil fuels at the Gratkorn plant and work toward a climate-neutral future,» says Peter Putz, managing director of Sappi Austria.
For the short term, Sappi’s decarbonization roadmap includes nearly 80 projects underway at its European plants by 2025.
«Our 2025 roadmap identifies the path we have taken toward a carbon neutral future,» explains Sarah Price, director sustainability at Sappi Europe. The goal is to reduce specific greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent (Scope 1 and 2) and increase the share of renewable energy in Europe to 50 percent by 2025 (compared to 2019). In addition, Sappi’s scientific target for 2030 is to reduce carbon emissions by 41.5 percent per ton of product. «We are already making good progress toward these goals, with a large number of projects already well underway or completed.»