Sustainability dimensions in customer solutions

Borregaard’s products solve different challenges for different customers.

Some of our customers buy our products for their low GHG footprint. Borregaard’s woodbased bioethanol is a good example of this. Compared with petrol, this advanced alternative has at least 85% lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Other customers, especially those who operate in consumer markets, prefer using natural ingredients or ingredients made from natural raw materials in their products. The market for biovanillin is growing. This trend is expected to continue and is likely to be reinforced in parallel with the world’s growing sustainability focus.

Health and safety aspects influence customers’ purchasing behaviour. Borregaard’s wood-based products represent a non-toxic substitute for chemicals with negative health exposure. Our biopolymers and cellulose fibrils are examples of products replacing harmful chemicals in applications such as coatings, agriculture and adhesives.

Borregaard produces sustainable crop solutions, including ingredients for plant nutrition. For instance, when used in the production of corn, vegetables and fruits, Borregaard’s lignin-based biopolymers improve fertiliser efficiency, increase the plants’ resistance to stress and enhance crop quality and yield.

Sustainable lignin-based biopolymers can play a key role in optimising the efficiency of water-intensive industries such as agriculture, oil production and mining. Borregaard is cooperating with customers and universities in a research project funded by the Research Council of Norway to find solutions within these industries.

For some applications, our products do not replace fossil-based alternatives as the alternative is bio-based. However, Borregaard’s products could have other important sustainability dimensions such as higher performance per kilo product, increased land use efficiency and reduced water usage during production.

Another important aspect for Borregaard is to be present in markets where we believe there will be a sustainability shift and thus future opportunities for our sustainable products.