Iggesund Mill Gives Environmental Training to 900 Employees
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This autumn Iggesund Paperboard is providing environmental training for all of the nearly 900 employees at its Iggesund Mill in Sweden. Participants will receive a half-day orientation in current environmental issues.
The program is in response to requests from the relevant authorities and certification bodies but is also prompted by a desire to make employees even more aware of today's environmental issues as yet another way to reduce the company's environmental impact.
"We believe it's important that our employees know where the company stands, what historical environmental impact we have had, and, not least, where we are today," says Anna Mårtensson (photo), environment manager at Iggesund Mill, which produces the paperboard Invercote. "I want our employees to be aware of how they can actually influence our environment through their own behaviour at the workplace.
"A lot can be done - and has been done - in the form of large investments. But we also need the watchful eyes of each individual employee noticing, for example, that something's wrong with a flow or that a source of noise could be enclosed. We can only have this if our people know what demands are being made on us and why. That's why this training is important."
Iggesund Mill's emissions to air and water, energy issues, and the treatment of waste products are important aspects of the training being given to all employees. Another focus will be on the mill's extensive monitoring and control systems, which are considerably more comprehensive than the authorities' requirements. The training will not only occur in the classroom but also in the industrial setting, where participants can see what is being done and what the effects are.
For the first time, the environmental effects will also be presented for Iggesund Mill's new boiler, which cost some EUR 260 million and was commissioned in June 2012.
"Until now, we have talked mostly about the energy effects of the new boiler," Mårtensson says. "Now it's time to talk about what it means for the local environment. After completing the fine-tuning process, we can now see that the emissions of sulfur and particulates from the boiler have more than halved compared with those from its predecessor."
At Iggesund Mill, environmental issues have formed part of every investment decision for decades now. Over time, this means that a reduced environmental impact is built into the entire production process.
"A multi-year, long-term sustainability effort has laid the foundation for today's situation where we have a very low environmental impact. Creating an increased awareness among all of our employees is a logical additional step, which will certainly produce additional results," says Mårtensson, who is very satisfied with Iggesund's environmental training program.
