Iggesund Paperboard, part of the Holmen Group, has been awarded the highest rating for sustainability in an evaluation by rating firm EcoVadis, a leading system in rating the suppliers of global companies.

The Iggesund Mill operates in Sweden and at its sister site in Workington, England.

EcoVadis has conducted 45,000 evaluations in 150 countries and companies that use EcoVadis include Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, L’Oréal and Heineken.

“This is one of many confirmations that Iggesund Paperboard and its parent company, the Holmen Group, have a very strong sustainability programme,” Johan Granås, sustainability communications manager at Iggesund, says.

“The issues have shifted over time from being purely environmental ones to now encompassing the entire field of sustainability.”

The award of the highest rating at both the Iggesund and Workington mills means the company is among the top one per cent of all the companies assessed by EcoVadis and among the two top per cent of companies assessed in the paper industry, Granås says.

Granås says over the last ten years the Holmen Group has appeared on indexes of the world’s 100 most sustainable companies, drawn up by both the UN’s Global Compact and the Corporate Knights. The Group has also been repeatedly named by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) as a leader in the work against climate change.

“It’s becoming more and more important to be able to document your sustainability work so that customers know where we stand in this regard,” Granås said.

“That’s where EcoVadis and similar systems come in. They are a major advance in simplifying the exchange of information between customers and suppliers.”

Granås said Iggesund’s sustainability position has often been a decisive factor when it comes to business deals.

First-class sustainability work is an important prerequisite for being able to do business with major brand owners, who today are often leading the shift towards a more sustainable society.

“We believe that our customers, the brand owners and we ourselves are all winners in this trend towards greater openness,” Granås said.

“And, of course, it’s very gratifying to see that we’re already ranked so highly today.”

Granås  says Iggesund’s sustainability also covers how paperboard material is used, adding the types of paperboard made at the mill have a very low environmental impact, and if they are used to replace plastic packaging, the climate effects are even greater.

“When this type of material replacement is added to the equation, companies can achieve a dramatic reduction of their climate impact by using our material. These effects are not included in the EcoVadis assessments but they are also an important part of the battle against the greenhouse effect,” Granås said.

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