Sustainability success can be measured by the numbers: they tell of a smaller carbon footprint as well as enhanced profitability and greater community involvement.
Consider three recent milestones in our continuing efforts to balance the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability.
Adding Value to waste
At Georgia-Pacific, we work to increase production efficiency and thereby avoid the creation of waste. What waste there is, we add value to it through reuse, recycling, or energy recovery.
In 2010, our mills found higher value end-of-life alternatives for 95% of their waste they generate.
Here’s how they did it:
- Making urban furniture from plastic and aluminium beverage carton waste
- Transforming sludge into construction materials such as cement, stones, and building panels
- Applying paper sludge as a conditioner to certain crop fields in France and the UK
High quality standards
We strive to ensure high quality standards for water that is returned to rivers. Our key metric is the “Chemical Oxygen Demand” (COD) which represents the amount of oxygen needed to break down residual contamination.
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Our mills in Bridgend (UK) and Cuijk (Netherlands) not only reduced water consumption overall by 58 and 29 percent respectively, they also cut COD in waters returned to rivers by 49 and 26 percent.
- The Georgia-Pacific tissue mill in Cuijk (Netherlands) upgraded its wastewater treatment system to meet new environmental standards. With some smart planning, the mill improved the system’s efficiency while it also optimized the utilisation of biogas as an energy source for its steam boilers.
- The project produced both environmental and economic benefits. The facility’s wastewater is now more than 10 percent cleaner. In addition, sulfur dioxide emissions are down to almost zero and less natural gas is consumed. The mill now enjoys lower wastewater taxes and reduced energy costs.
As we continue to create value by providing products and services that customers prefer to available alternatives, Georgia-Pacific will remain a sustainable company into the future.
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