Portals Invests to Deliver Sustainability

Portals published its Sustainability Report on April’s Earth Day. With two UK paper mills, one at Overton making banknote paper based on cotton and one at Bathford making security papers based on wood pulp, sustainability is potentially a big issue for the company.

Like most modern manufacturing businesses, Portals is certified to the ISO14001 Environmental Management System but, as this report shows, its commitment to sustainability goes much further than that.

Energy

Paper mills use a lot of power. The £13 million upgrade investment at Overton has introduced more efficient machinery at the wet end of the machine, the press configurations, power circuits and boilers. This, along with better planning and resource management, has allowed Overton to reduce total site emissions and carbon footprint by 6.5% in the last reporting period. Overton has its own Combined Heat and Power plant generating 80% of its site requirements.