Climate protection in focus: How Smurfit Westbrock reduces its CO2 footprint – another great example

Konrad Wolfenstein

1 week ago

Climate protection in focus: How Smurfit Westbrock reduces its CO2 footprint - another great example - symbolic image: Xpert.Digital

🌍📦 Smurfit Westrock: A global leader in sustainable packaging solutions

🌱✨ Smurfit Westrock, a global leader in sustainable paper and packaging solutions, has made significant progress in reducing its carbon footprint through various initiatives and innovations. The most important achievements are summarized below:

🌿 Achievements of Smurfit Kappa (before merger)

Reducing CO2 emissions: Smurfit Kappa has reduced CO2 emissions from its paper and board mills by 43.9% since 2005, and by 4% in 2022 alone. The company's goal is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Innovative projects: Key projects include the use of hydrogen at the Saillat paper mill in France and a multi-fuel boiler at the Zülpich mill in Germany, which reduced emissions at this site by 25%.
Focus on circular economy: Smurfit Kappa relies on circular principles by using renewable, recyclable and recycled materials and optimizing by-products for energy production.

🔄 WestRock initiatives (pre-merger)

Sustainability reports: WestRock has always placed a high value on transparency and set measurable sustainability goals, including reducing emissions across all areas of the company.
Collaboration: The company worked closely with its customers to develop innovative packaging solutions that reduce material consumption and transportation emissions.

⚙️ Measures after the merger to Smurfit Westrock

Technological improvements: The installation of Voith's HighPerformance Press at the Roermond paper mill resulted in annual savings of 7,500 tons of steam and 1,113 tons of CO2. This innovation also increased production efficiency.
Sustainable packaging solutions: The company introduced recyclable, paper-based packaging designs for major brands such as Nestlé, significantly reducing plastic consumption and associated carbon emissions.
Circular production processes: Smurfit Westrock continues to rely on closed-loop systems to minimize waste and maximize resource efficiency across all business areas.

🌟 Commitment to long-term goals

Smurfit Westrock remains committed to the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Strategies include the use of advanced technologies, investments in renewable energy projects and the promotion of the circular economy along the entire value chain. These actions are part of the company's overall mission to support a low-carbon economy and provide sustainable packaging solutions worldwide.

Smurfit Kappa merged with WestRock to create Smurfit Westrock, one of the world's largest providers of sustainable packaging solutions. The merger was announced in September 2023 and closed on July 5, 2024.

The merger was carried out to:

To create a global leader in sustainable packaging.
To combine the geographical and product-related diversity of both companies.
To exploit synergies and offer customers a more comprehensive range of packaging solutions.
To strengthen the position in growing markets and create long-term added value for shareholders.

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🌍🌿✨ Smurfit Westrock – a detailed look: The future of sustainable packaging solutions

🌱 The merger: A merger for a more sustainable future

“Smurfit Westrock” emerged from the merger of Smurfit Kappa and WestRock and today positions itself as one of the world's leading companies in the field of sustainable paper and packaging solutions. By bringing together two established industry players, a company has been created that can expand its global presence, innovative strength and ecological ambitions to a new extent. The resources, technologies and networks now combined offer a solid basis for providing global impetus for a sustainable packaging industry.

🌍 Sustainability at Smurfit Kappa and WestRock: similarities that connect

Even before the merger, both companies pursued a clear strategy to continuously reduce their carbon footprint and advance their sustainability goals. Smurfit Kappa had already managed to significantly reduce CO₂ emissions from its paper and cardboard factories since 2005. A further reduction of several percentage points was also achieved in 2022, underlining the ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The key projects included the integration of hydrogen into production processes - as happened in the paper factory in Saillat, France - or the use of innovative multi-fuel boilers in German locations such as Zülpich in order to further minimize emissions. These initiatives made it clear that sustainability was not just an empty phrase at Smurfit Kappa, but rather an integral part of the company's philosophy.

WestRock, on the other hand, was characterized by transparent sustainability reports and measurable goals. Through close collaboration with customers and partners, packaging solutions were developed that reduced both material consumption and transport emissions. This included, for example, optimizing corrugated cardboard packaging in terms of weight, minimizing the raw materials used and improving recyclability. The ability to realize innovative concepts on an industrial scale gave WestRock a pioneering role in the North and South American packaging industry. Both companies found a common denominator in their pursuit of greater ecological efficiency, resource conservation and circular economy, which ultimately paved the way for the merger.

🌟 Innovations at Smurfit Westrock: Advanced technology for efficiency and sustainability

The now created Smurfit Westrock combines these complementary strengths and, following the merger, is relying on comprehensive technological improvements to make the entire value chain even more sustainable and efficient. An outstanding example is the installation of the so-called HighPerformance Press in the Roermond paper mill, which led to significant savings. It was possible to save thousands of tons of steam and over a thousand tons of CO₂ every year, while production output continued to increase. Such improvements are evidence of how technological innovations can increase not only environmental performance but also economic profitability.

♻️ Circular economy in focus: Closed, responsible, innovative

In addition to technical solutions, a central concern of Smurfit Westrock is to promote the transition to a closed circulation system. This means that all materials used are designed and used in such a way that they can be recycled or recycled as completely as possible. In practice, this is reflected in the increased development of recyclable, paper-based packaging that replaces plastic without compromising on product quality or safety. Some major customers, including well-known consumer goods manufacturers, have already benefited from plastic-reduced packaging designs. By using recycled fibers, efficient material use and intelligent process control, Smurfit Westrock succeeds in reducing the proportion of virgin materials and thus contributing to a more sustainable circular economy.

🔋 Vision: Renewable energies and bio-based materials

However, this commitment to long-term goals does not stop at reducing CO₂ emissions. The company is investing specifically in renewable energy projects in order to supply its factories and production lines even more with green electricity in the future. Research into bio-based materials is also being intensively pursued in order to replace not only fossil fuels but also conventional, less sustainable materials in the long term. The vision is to create packaging that forms as close a circle as possible from production to disposal and thereby reduces the ecological footprint to a minimum.

🤝 Reasons for the merger: A global market leader is created

The reasons for the merger of Smurfit Kappa and WestRock were varied. One of the most important aspects was to create a true global leader in sustainable packaging. While Smurfit Kappa already had a strong footprint in Europe, WestRock was particularly successful in North and South America. The merger of both companies made it possible to combine geographical strengths and offer customers on almost all continents an even broader portfolio of solutions. The unification not only created a larger sales market, but also the opportunity to identify market trends more quickly and develop corresponding innovations more quickly. In addition, geographical diversity could be used to better compensate for market fluctuations and make business operations more stable in the long term.

🛠️ Synergies create innovation: research, development and customer orientation

Another driving factor was the desire to increase product diversity and make synergies tangible for customers. The merger of two research and development departments that previously worked in parallel on innovative solutions creates enormous potential for knowledge exchange. By bundling competencies, new materials, more efficient production processes, advanced automation solutions and improved logistics concepts can be implemented faster and with greater reach. At the same time, customers can benefit from a more comprehensive service portfolio that provides packaging for a variety of industries - from food and beverage to pharmaceutical products to consumer goods - from a single source.

🌈 Responsibility for the future: Together on the path to sustainability

Behind all of these developments is Smurfit Westrock's aim to establish itself as a reliable partner for sustainable packaging solutions worldwide. The path to net zero emissions is ambitious but realistic, provided all parts of the group work together consistently. The interlocking of technical innovations, improved supply chains, responsible raw material procurement and consistent circular strategies is intended to create an ecosystem in which sustainable business becomes the self-evident norm.

✨ A dynamic innovation environment for tomorrow

Smurfit Westrock as a merged company is far more than the sum of its parts. The combined competencies, the shared culture of innovation and the absolute will to advance the circular economy make this company a pioneering player in the global packaging industry. With a firm goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, Smurfit Westrock demonstrates that ambitious environmental goals and business success can go hand in hand.

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