Commitment
Sonae and Sonae Capital as supporters of the Paris Agreement and the EU Green Deal, aspire to achieve climate neutrality of operations (scope 1+2) by 2040 (excluding the energy business under Sonae Capital). Sonae Indústria is working towards reaching climate neutrality.
Lighthouse initiative
In 2020, Sonae Capital (CapWatt), in a partnership with Sonae Arauco, built a biomass-powered production facility to support businesses decarbonisation. The €50M investment leverages the best available technologies to generate renewable energy from biomass and power Sonae Arauco’s sustainable wood-based panel production processes. Half of the biomass comes from unavoidable waste from the production of wood panels, while the remainder is sourced from forest residue unsuitable for other wood uses and crucial for forest management improvement and forest fire risk reduction.
This facility consumes 300K tons of biomass annually, enough to satisfy 100% of the thermal energy needs of the plant and generate an additional 83 GWh/year of decentralized renewable energy. As a result, almost 90% of all energy consumption at the facility is generated from renewable sources.
This partnership, with the integration of renewable energy and sustainable production, is a clear example of how circular bioeconomy can boost climate change mitigation by increasing carbon storage, reducing landfill and facilitating fossil energy replacement.
