The Greening of the Pulp and Paper Industry: Sweden in Comparative Perspective.

• Since the 1960s, the pulp and paper industry (PPI) has developed from being considered one of the greatest polluters of the twentieth century to an industry that is in the lead in the transition towards a more sustainable, bio-based economy. This chapter covers the environmentally driven transformation of the PPI by focusing on the transition in one country, namely Sweden, which has pioneered parts of this transition. The chapter illustrates that the overall transition towards cleaner and more energy efficient production technologies is the result of long-term and incremental processes, starting in the early twentieth century. The development gained momentum with the environmental awaking in the 1960s followed by stricter environmental regulations, while the oil crisis in the 1970s pushed for energy substitution of oil with biofuels. Unlike the PPI in countries like Finland and the US, the Swedish PPI aimed at in-plant process changes rather than end-of-pipe technologies to control pollution from the start. This strategy, along with extensive industry wide R&D collaborations, enabled Swedish firms to take the lead in developing elemental chlorine free (ECF) and total chlorine free (TCF) pulp from the late 1980s. Furthermore, from the mid-1980s green consumerism came to function as an additional driver, while the issue of climate change was an impetus to the development of cellulose based biofuels in the twenty-first century.

Nyckelord

Pollution control;l Environmental regulations; Energy efficiency; Sweden

ekonomisk historia

Economic History

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