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.

Bathford has reduced its energy consumption by 20% over the last five years. It has achieved this by being more efficient and focusing on the simple things, such as lighting and the type of light bulb used.

Water

It takes a lot of water to make paper and this water has to be returned to the environment clean and safe for wildlife and people.

This is particularly the case for Portals, given that its mill is located next to the River Test, a chalk stream renowned worldwide for its trout fishing and a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The Overton mill has its own dedicated filtration and reclamation plant, and Portals has invested in the latest fibre recovery technology to keep this area up to date. This highly efficient process has reduced water usage by 32% and Overton has plans to do better.

Bathford has been working to improve further its performance, for example improving the seals and locks in the paper machine, and has achieved additional reductions of over 7% in the last five years.

Sustainable sourcing

The number of cotton suppliers able to supply the required volume of sustainable cotton comber that has the properties needed for banknote production is limited. Consequently, papermakers are having to reconsider the characteristics required, such as fibre length, in order to be able to buy sufficient cotton.

As a result, Overton has had to invest in advanced energy efficient stock preparation and refining processes to be able to continue to produce the finest paper meeting customer specifications. The company has put in place a continuous stock preparation process requiring half the number of machines previously required. This has required new software, a Distributed Control System, to manage the whole stock preparation process. The result has been a 4% reduction in carbon emissions.

Bathford uses wood pulp as its primary raw material. Bathford has Chain of Custody certification issued by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, the world’s largest forest certification system, that promotes sustainable forest management.

At the other end of the process, Bathford has not sent any waste to landfill for four years running.