Kruger Secures Ecovadis Gold Medal, Now Among World’s Top 5%

UPM Biofuels commissioned a study from leading international energy and climate consultancy Ecofys - A Navigant Company, entitled "Crude tall oil low ILUC risk assessment: comparing global supply and demand". The study looked into crude tall oil (CTO) availability, current usage, whether the feedstock creates an additional demand for land, and whether the use of CTO in advanced biofuels can cause distortive effects in the markets. The recently conducted Ecofys study concludes that "the CTO market is not overly tight and potential surplus of about 850,000 tonnes of CTO is still available that could be tapped into". The total potential CTO supply is around 2.6 million tonnes. Current actual CTO demand is approximately 1.75 million tonnes, of which about 1.4 million tonnes is used by distillers and roughly 230,000 tonnes for biofuels. Ecofys also concludes that "CTO use for biofuels did not cause displacement effects elsewhere, and hence CTO, a non-land using process residue, is a low ILUC (Indirect Land Use Change) risk material." UPM considered it necessary to investigate the impact of UPM Biofuels' market entry, and to verify whether UPM BioVerno production may have impacted negatively on the CTO market. The study brings necessary information into the debate concerning raw material availability for various end-uses such as advanced biofuels and biomaterials. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Fortum and Metsä Group join forces with Business Finland to create a world-class R&D programme with pulp fibre from renewable and sustainable sources as its node. The 4-year joint R&D programme, called ExpandFibre, aims to develop ground-breaking technologies and smart business concepts that are required to convert straw and wood pulp fibre into novel bioproducts, such as textile fibres. The R&D programme has been granted EUR 20 million from Business Finland. ExpandFibre will be part of a global innovation ecosystem. The ExpandFibre partners Fortum and Metsä Group want to encourage members of the ecosystem to significantly accelerate their efforts within the circular bioeconomy. Members of the ecosystem can apply for financing from Business Finland or from the EU.

One year into its five-year strategy to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, Crown Holdings, Inc. has already surpassed one of its stated goals. In 2016, the Company announced its plan to reduce energy consumption by 5% per billion standard units of production from 2015 levels by the end of 2020. As of December 31, 2016, Crown has reduced energy consumption by 5.3% per billion standard units. Absolute energy consumption has decreased by 1.3% while the Company increased production by over 4.2%. In addition, the Company is more than halfway towards its goal of reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 10% per billion standard units of production from 2015 levels. As of December 31, 2016, Crown has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 6.25% per billion standard units. Click Read More below for additional detail.