Production process improvement
Norske Skog`s environmental policy commits us to continuous improvement in the environmental performance of our business units.
The wish to measure this continuous improvement in our mills and as a company over the short and long term led us to implement an environment index (E-index) several years ago. The E-index forms part of the regular reporting by the mills to corporate management and the board. In addition to being a performance reporting tool it allows us to:
- establish and review mill specific targets
- identify areas for additional investment
- demonstrate the environmental improvements following process changes or investments.
Mill performance is measured in the index against a standard which should be attainable with the use of Best Available Technology (BAT) or best practice, as described in the European Union IPPC reference document. An index value of 1.0 or less indicates that the mill has an environmental standard which satisfies the ambitious levels which can be attained with BAT or best practice. The BAT level of performance is mill specific and is a function of age, technology, investment history and operational performance.
The environmental index for the whole group is calculated as an average of each mill’s index score weighted by production volumes. The environmental index covers the following key areas : water consumption, total energy use, quality of treated effluent discharges, air emissions (NOx) and waste to landfill.
The EU Commission finalized the BAT conclusions under the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75EU in September 2014. Norske Skog has since 2015 used theses BAT-levels in the environmental index.