Paper Excellence partners with Take a Hike for Giving Tuesday

January–September 2017 (1–9/2016) • Sales were EUR 3,712 million (3,483). • Operating result was EUR 397 million (333). Comparable operating result was EUR 381 million (332). • Result before tax was EUR 345 million (275). Comparable result before tax was EUR 330 million (275). • Comparable return on capital employed was 11.2 per cent (10.5). Comparable return on capital employed excluding investments related to the bioproduct mill was 14.0 per cent (11.9). • Cash flow from operations was EUR 611 million (298). July–September 2017 (7–9/2016) • Sales were EUR 1,260 million (1,143). • Operating result was EUR 143 million (107). Comparable operating result was EUR 134 million (103). • Result before tax was EUR 109 million (89). Comparable result before tax was EUR 100 million (85). • Comparable return on capital employed was 10.8 per cent (9.8). Comparable return on capital employed excluding investments related to the bioproduct mill was 13.7 per cent (11.1). • Cash flow from operations was EUR 420 million (177). Click Read More below for additional information.

The Koehler Group is to convert its power plant at the Koehler Paper site in Greiz from pulverized lignite to fine wood fraction fuel. The experts at Koehler Renewable Energy, a part of the Koehler Group, have succeeded in developing an innovative technique that will allow a type of biomass to be used as fuel in the existing coal‐fired power plant in a completely new way. It is an innovation on the market. The plant’s conversion from lignite to fine wood fraction as the fuel, is part of the Group’s climate strategy. It is an important contribution to keeping Koehler’s promise of producing more energy from renewable sources by 2030 than is required for its paper production operations. In total, the conversion will save 24,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions per year at the Greiz site. In addition, converting the fuel will also significantly reduce sulfurous emissions and pollutants compared with pulverized lignite.

The research, called Carbon Sinks+, aims to understand how commercial forests affect to climate change in ways other than as carbon sinks and stores. For example, forests also have an impact on the formation of aerosol particles and clouds, rainfall and the reflection of sunlight back into space, all of which affect to climate change. “It is not yet known which forest or ecosystem has the greatest overall cooling effect on the atmosphere and by which mechanisms. It is known that forests act as carbon sinks, but the SMEAR (station for measuring Earth surface-atmosphere relations) study aims to find out what else commercial forests do for the climate”, explains Markku Kulmala, Professor of Aerosol and Environmental Physics at the University of Helsinki, who is leading the study. The study will measure more than a thousand different variables, and the main measurement site will be the Hyytiälä forest station at the University of Helsinki, where measurements have been taken for decades.