On the way to climate neutrality

100% recovered paper. Not a single new tree has to be felled to produce our papers. We do not regard old paper as waste, but as a valuable raw material that is at the beginning of our cycle. By consistently using 100% waste paper recovered from households, we protect forests as vital carbon sinks and preserve biodiversity.

Closed-circuit systems. We use surface water from the Elbe several times in our internal treatment cycles. This drastically reduces water consumption and conserves valuable groundwater reserves. All residual process water is purified in our own fully biological treatment plant before it is discharged back into the Elbe.

Sustainable and highly efficient in-house energy. Our heat and electricity requirements are fully covered by our own group of companies. Our combined heat and power plant in Glückstadt, which produces most of the energy needed, takes processed waste products from municipal and commercial waste sites – which can no longer be recycled – and converts them into energy in a highly efficient manner, along with waste products from the paper production process, creating another intelligent recyclable material cycle.

Transparent CO₂e footprint. A simple CO₂e reference value is not enough – because it depends on many external factors such as the national electricity mix or the calculation method used.
That is why we are taking a different approach: we work out our company’s precise, absolute CO₂e footprint in accordance with the internationally recognised GHG protocol (incl. Scope 3). This data is the honest and reliable basis for our shared journey TOWARDS ZERO.

How everything keeps flowing at our company. For us, sustainability is not some abstract concept, but a reality that we embrace in our production processes. We think and act in four intelligent, interdependent cycles to ensure that we use resources as efficiently as possible and consistently avoid waste.

Imagine a future in which high-quality paper is produced with no negative impact on the climate. A future in which industrial production and environmental responsibility are no longer incompatible, but instead form a unit. This is the future that we are shaping at Steinbeis Papier.

The journey towards climate neutrality is based on four strategic pillars. 

• Efficiency is an ongoing task: We are continuously increasing our energy efficiency because every kilowatt-hour saved has a direct and positive impact on our carbon footprint.
• Green electricity offensive: Fully switching to green electricity is the main way of decarbonising our production processes.
• Involving our suppliers (Scope 3): We take our responsibility for the entire value chain seriously and actively involve our partners so that we can reduce emissions in areas within our control.
• Investment in future technologies: We plan to make specific investments in technologies such as CCS and green hydrogen in order to eliminate the emissions that are difficult to avoid and also become carbon-negative.