Polish consumer tissue producer Velvet Care has said it will halve the carbon footprint of its Klucze-based tissue factory after announcing plans for a PLN63m gas-fired combined heat and power plant (CHP).
The investment will save 69,000 tonnes of annual CO2 emissions, compared with 151,000 tonnes in Scope 1 + 2 emissions in 2022.
That figure includes both direct emissions and indirect emissions related to purchased energy.
Chief Executive Artur Pielak said: “This investment is an outstanding example of how we can improve our bottom line while also caring for the environment.
“The new installation will mean we buy significantly less electricity from outside, so we can make the same amount of tissue as we did last year while being responsible for just half the CO2 emissions.”
The company has already cut emissions and water usage per tonne of output by half since 2013, while increasing tissue production by four times.
Once up and running the power plant will generate 16.7 MW of electricity for the factory as well as 23.3 MW of heat for the tissue drying process.
Poland’s National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management will provide a subsidy of around 50% of the cogeneration unit’s project value.
The Velvet Care group is a leading Central European producer of consumer tissue products.
It has three paper machines, and the group operates a total of 18 converting lines, manufacturing toilet paper, kitchen towels and hygiene facial tissues for the Central European and other international markets.
Its investments have helped it increase sales fivefold from PLN260m in 2013, when the company was taken over through a management buyout from Kimberly-Clark.
