Life cycle assessment and carbon footprint increase transparency Part 1.
The greatest impact of Honkajoki Oy’s business clearly extends to the environment. Environmental responsibility is one of the most important cornerstones of our business and an integral part of our core business. We always strive to be one step ahead in responsibility and set our goals accordingly. We receive by-products from slaughterhouses and strive to process them responsibly, in accordance with the principles of the circular economy, into high-quality products for use in various industries. In all our activities, our goal is to strive for carbon-neutral production and end products.
Emissions from companies and industry and the resulting carbon footprint have been the subject of public debate in recent years. In autumn 2019, we set a strategic goal for our responsibility work, the aim of which was to create a holistic view of the environmental impact of Honkajoki Oy’s production of end products. We agreed on milestones that, in the first phase, was to calculate the carbon footprint of our own production and identify the major emitters of our production. Energy consumption is the most significant source of greenhouse gas emissions in the Honkajoki Group’s production.
The first carbon footprint results in their entirety can be read in our 2019 Sustainability Report.
Most of the Honkajoki Group’s greenhouse gas emissions come from energy consumption, which covers almost 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions from production. Optimizing the energy consumption of the manufacturing process in order to reduce the environmental impact of products is extremely important, and we constantly work to e.g. to improve energy efficiency. Studies show that the choice of less energy-intensive and environmentally harmful raw materials significantly reduces the environmental impact. These options will be carefully discussed at the strategy level.
Emissions from transport are the second largest source of emissions in the Honkajoki Group’s operations. Emissions from the transport of materials are tied to the mass of the transported materials and the transport distance. The largest emissions arise from the transport of materials to the treatment site. The share of other materials needed in production is very small. Overall, the impact of transport is small compared to the whole impact.
Packaging materials account for the third largest share of biomass treatment in environmental emissions. Large sacks have the largest (75%) effect on packaging emissions. The share of other material flows seems to be small.
You can read more about greenhouse gas emissions from production in our responsibility report.
