Renewable forest raw materials

Bio-based products from biological resources

Södra's products are bio-based, which means that they mainly consist of renewable biological resources – not fossil raw materials such as oil, coal or gas. The carbon in the products is biogenic and part of the natural carbon cycle. This distinguishes them from fossil-based products that add new carbon to the atmosphere.

Södra's total climate effect

Södra's total climate impact is calculated in a model with three input parameters:

• Net change in forest carbon stock
• Fossil greenhouse gas emissions in the value chain
• Substitution – potential for avoided fossil greenhouse gas emissions

Net change in forest carbon stock

The trees in the members' forests absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. As the forest grows, carbon dioxide is sequestered. According to the Swedish National Forest Inventory, forest growth is increasing and the growing stock in Sweden is now larger than ever before. The growing stock is the amount of biomass in the form of wood that is found in the forest. At the same time, the growth rate has begun to level off somewhat. The net storage of carbon dioxide is dependent on the balance between growth and harvesting. Variations between years are therefore affected by both the weather and demand for Södra's products.

Fossil GHG emissions in the value chain

Södra's emissions of fossil GHG in the value chain are divided into three parts.

• Direct emissions (scope 1) occur in operations where Södra has financial control, for example from boilers, forklifts and trucks.
• Indirect energy emissions (scope 2) are relatively limited because electricity and heat are largely produced in the company's own industry.
• Other indirect emissions (scope 3) include purchased goods and services, transport, waste, business travel, commuting, and further processing, use and disposal of sold products.

Södra's climate targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The goal is to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2030 compared to 2020. For further processing of sold products, there is also a commitment target: customers corresponding to 70 percent of the emissions will have set their own SBTi targets by 2027.

Substitution – potential for avoided fossil emissions

Products made from renewable forest raw materials can replace fossil-based alternatives in some applications – for example, wood instead of steel or concrete in buildings, and biofuels instead of fossil fuels. Potentially, a substitution effect is created when fossil emissions are avoided. The climate benefit depends on the product, use and which alternative that is compared.