Swedish forestry replants more forest than is harvested, and stocks of standing forest in Sweden have never been larger. Billerud’s total consumption of wood grows over just three summer days in Sweden.
Strict rules for purchasing wood
The dominant raw material in Billerud’s processes is wood. Billerud owns no forest land of its own but buys in wood via its wholly-owned subsidiary Billerud Skog.
The total volume purchased is approximately 5 400 000 m3 sub a year, about 75% of which is felled in Sweden and 5% each in Norway and in Finland. The remaining proportion, approximately 15% is imported
from the Baltic.
Goal: increase the amount of certified wood
Billerud’s aim is to constantly increase the amount of certified wood. Billerud Skog currently buys in as much certified wood raw material as is available on the market. However, it takes time for private forest owners to become certified. This is why Billerud has started work aiming to help small private forest owners to gain FSC certification in a process known as umbrella certification.
Billerud has FSC and PEFC traceability certificates covering Gruvön, Skärblacka, Karlsborg and Billerud Skog. Billerud applies strict guidelines on environmental considerations when purchasing wood to ensure that the wood does not come from controversial sources. Approximately 42% of the total volume purchased comes from FSC and PEFC-certified suppliers. The remainder meets the criteria for FSC Controlled Wood.
Billerud Skog is working actively to gradually increase purchasing of traceability-certified raw materials.