Holmen’s Knowledge Forests largely comprise production forest, the aim being to produce as much eco-friendly material as possible through sustainable forestry. Production forests do feature slightly less biodiversity, but growing trees bind far more carbon dioxide than old ones, which grow more slowly. Overall, the forest we use produces more climate benefits than the forest we spare.
An eco-friendly raw material in production
Holmen manages the forest actively and sustainably with the aim of extracting as much climate-smart product as possible. The material is primarily refined into wood products for sustainable construction. This is why we like to say that we grow houses. Wooden constructions continue to store carbon dioxide long-term. Very thick wooden beams can store carbon dioxide for several hundred years.
Paper, paperboard and bioenergy
Trees are round, planks are rectangular – so of course we can’t use the entire tree to make planks and boards. We use the residual products from timber production to make world-leading paperboard, climate-smart paper, and bioenergy which replaces fossil alternatives.
Environmental consideration in forestry
Although for simplicity we distinguish between forests for production and forests for nature conservation, it’s important to stress that Holmen shows consideration for all forests. The Swedish Forestry Act puts wood production and care for the environment on an equal footing. Holmen strives to ensure that all species that live in the forest should be able to survive in Sweden’s forest landscape. A far-reaching web of measures are taken daily across all of Sweden’s forests. The environmental care we take today should not only preserve values in the existing forest, but should also evolve in future generations of forest.