This is the 14th year that the Pulp & Paper International Awards (PPI Awards), which are handed out by the “Fastmarkets Forest Products” information provider, have been presented. This year Fastmarkets invited the recipients to a gala dinner at the Marriott Hotel in Prague. With these awards, the information provider recognizes the special achievements of companies, mills and individuals in the pulp, packaging and paper industry. Awards are presented each year for outstanding leadership, visions, innovations that are put into practice, and strategic achievements. The important sustainability award went to Progroup. The company beat off competition from lots of major rivals in a strong international field.
“We have always pursued a consistent sustainability strategy. At all our sites, we constantly strive to manufacture our products in an even more efficient and environmentally friendly way. This is because as a family company we think very much about the future and have a responsibility to the generations to come – this idea is what drives us on,” says Maximilian Heindl, CEO of Progroup.
Fine example of the circular economy
The site in Eisenhüttenstadt in Germany offers a good example of how this is already done in practice: At this site, Progroup produces papers that are very lightweight and yet are still strong – based exclusively on recovered paper. Thanks to its innovative high-tech machines, the production is extremely efficient and eco-friendly. The clean energy required for this is supplied from the company's own waste-to-energy power plant. By thermally utilising what are known as rejects – waste materials from paper production and also from industry – it supplies the whole paper machine with all the hot steam it needs. The power plant also produces electricity, which significantly reduces Progroup’s use of fossil fuels.
In the next stage, the company turns these eco-friendly papers into sheets of corrugated board in one of its twelve manufacturing plants – this is done just as efficiently and using very few resources, as is demonstrated at the site in Stryków, Poland. This is where the state-of-the-art PW14 corrugated sheetfeeder plant started operating at the beginning of this year. It scores points for its perfectly optimised processes as well as its high level of connectivity, and once more sets new trends within the industry when it comes to productivity and sustainability.
After the paper or corrugated board have been used, they can be recycled and reused. “We have thus succeeded in creating a perfect zero-waste concept that we will continue to expand over time,” says Peter Resvanis, head of the Paper Growth Projects Competence Center, who accepted the award on behalf of Progroup. “This award is really special for us because it vindicates the work we are doing. It recognises our aspiration to lead the way when it comes to sustainability.”