2_1_ScanMag_80_Sep-Oct_2015_Q9_Scan Magazine 1 15/09/2015 16:54 Page 26
Scan Magazine | Feature | BillerudKorsnäs
Minister for Development Cooperation Isabella Lövin speaking at BillerudKorsnäs' sustainability conference.
Making sustainability its business With an innovative offering of renewable packaging solutions, 4,300 employees across ten countries, and a new collaboration with the French research platform Tara Expeditions, BillerudKorsnäs is hoping to contribute to a change in attitudes across the spectrum from the general public to key decision-makers – all in the name of a sustainable future. By Linnea Dunne | Photos: BillerudKorsnäs
Eight million tonnes of plastic are flushed into the sea every year. That is equivalent to 16 plastic bags per metre of the world’s coastal lines, but what happens to all this plastic and how it affects the marine ecosystem no one really knows, as research in this field is still insufficient. This is where Tara Expeditions comes into play. An organisation working to enable researchers to explore issues around the health of the sea, it wants to raise awareness around the change in behaviour that will be required to meet this challenge,
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and convince decision-makers to limit plastic littering. In BillerudKorsnäs, Tara Expeditions saw a perfect partner. Packaging for change “We challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future,” says Henrik Essén, communications and sustainability manager at BillerudKorsnäs. “As environmental awareness increases and more people realise that something has to change, our business grows stronger while contributing to increased sustainability for society,” he explains, adding:
“Of course, we’re not suggesting that it’s a simple solution, that we should replace all plastic packaging with paper packaging and start throwing the paper in the sea. This is where Tara Expeditions’ research is so useful: it can help us figure out alternative solutions to the problem.” BillerudKorsnäs’ sustainability work is an inward as well as an outward journey. The business is constantly working to improve internal practices and processes, doing everything to lower its negative impact on the environment and working hard to achieve its goal of becoming completely fossil-free. But the positive impact is crucial too: the fully renewable primary fibre products are being treated using industrial processes that help lower the resource use across the globe and have the possibility of changing the entire value chain, for instance through the use of