Ukrainian ecology of the European model: examples of the leading companies
Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill
The global economy is declining, natural resource prices are rising, currencies are appreciating – the global community is witnessing irreversible economic change and, against this backdrop, there are increasing reservations that it forgets about the ecological 'agenda'. But is this the case?
Global eco-initiatives 2021/2022
Eurostat estimates that EU national expenditure on environmental protection totalled €292 billion in 2021. From 2006 to 2021, this figure increased by 54%, increasing by an average of more than 2.9% annually.
(Source: Eurostat)
Some €37 billion, 64% of the total investment in environmental protection, came from corporate environmental service providers (such as private waste collection, recycling, and wastewater treatment companies). This amount also includes receipts from companies purchasing technology and equipment that reduce the environmental damage caused by their production process – e.g. equipment that reduces their atmospheric emissions.
(Source: Eurostat)
An alternative economic model – the 'circular economy' – is also being actively implemented around the world. It is based on embodying closed loops in the processes of production, circulation, and consumption and rejecting the principle of 'take, use and throw away'.
It proposes, in turn, to produce goods that can be repaired, renovated, and reused, and encourages the offer of sharing, renting, or leasing of goods. By doing so, producers can gain additional sources of profit.
According to calculations by the DiXi Group think tank for 2020, the circular economy will help to increase the EU GDP by an additional 0.5% by 2030 and create 700,000 new jobs.
In 2021, for example, national expenditure on environmental protection as a % of the GDP in EU member states ranged from 0.6% in Ireland and 0.8% in Romania to 3.2% in Belgium and Austria. Ten EU member states exceed 2% of the EU GDP: Austria, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Croatia, Germany, Estonia, Sweden, and Slovenia.
The world now continues to worry about the environment and invest in protecting the environment. Since the beginning of 2022, environmental projects of various scales have been implemented around the world. In particular, these include projects in the field of alternative (renewable) energy, plantings conservation, and recycling.
For example, scientists at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg have created an energy system that captures and stores solar energy for 18 years, releasing it as heat when needed.
In Istanbul, they opened Europe's first carbon-negative biorefinery, turning algae into energy, fuel, and food fertilizer.
And Tilos, a small Greek island, was the first in the world to switch completely to 'green' energy.
What is the situation in Ukraine?
Ukraine was also implementing modern environmental developments and initiatives before the war. In particular, Ukrainians were engaged in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reforming environmental finance and eco-tax targeting, and improving environmental impact assessment legislation.
And the reform of state environmental control and industrial pollution control, state support for industrial eco-modernization projects, and the use of alternative fuels, including biomass, were also implemented.
But with the war outbreak, our country received a more serious environmental challenge in 2022.
The damage to Ukraine's environment from Russia's armed aggression has already reached UAH 395 billion in six months.
According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, over 2 thousand cases of damage to the environment were recorded during the six months of the war (losses due to air pollution amounted to UAH 176 billion, water resources – UAH 106.3 billion, soil – UAH 8.8 billion).
The numbers are staggering in their magnitude. How this can be compensated for is an international political question that is beyond the scope of this paper. At the same time, Ukrainian enterprises can do their part to minimize such harm and develop environmental initiatives further.
Successful cases of other states
There are many examples of a successful recovery in the world – Germany, Japan, and Israel. Yes, Japan's experience can be an example for Ukraine. Japan, like our state, has strong industrial potential (coal, ores, mining, and chemical raw materials) and heavy industry enterprises, which were major exporters, are now the hardest hit and need to be restored.
Thus, after the end of World War II, Japan's main goal was to rebuild its economy. They focused on creating an industrial base and developing infrastructure and quickly rose to the ranking of the world's largest economies. But along with economic growth, the Japanese were also concerned about environmental progress.
Another state that has been able to recover economically and ecologically after the war is Israel. There, some laws were passed to protect wildlife, national parks and nature reserves were established, smoking was banned in protected forests, etc. In addition, a moratorium on hunting was imposed in the first years after the war to bring the land back to balanced development. The country was also able to solve the environmental waste problem. In 1953, for example, the first fully mechanized composting complex with sorting lines appeared in Tel Aviv, enabling a third of the country's household waste to be recycled. Similar projects were implemented in cooperation with the authorities.
Environmental initiatives and perspectives in Ukraine
The state will now face many challenges, obligations, and costs. Environmental initiatives and developments will not all be able to be fully implemented further, for example, the production of rapeseed biodiesel and other agricultural crops (because this area depends on the agricultural sector, which lost 25% of its cultivated area due to the war).
Consequently, environmental initiatives for economic recovery will fall more heavily on large Ukrainian industrial enterprises.
Kyiv CPM as an example of an environmentally responsible business in Ukraine
In Ukraine, even in times of war, companies continue to operate in an environmentally responsible way. One of them is Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill.
Recycling as a company philosophy
The recycling approach makes it possible to reuse wastes to produce new products, reduces negative environmental impacts, and makes efficient use of limited natural resources. Today, the world's leading countries are actively building up their capacity in this area, and the circular economy will determine the countries’ competitiveness soon.
Since the 1970s – when the enterprise was designed and built – waste paper has been the basic raw material for the mill's operations. Note that the fact is remarkable not only for ecology but also for the circular economy: paper can be recycled up to seven times.
This means that the enterprise can process up to 1,500 tonnes of waste paper a day. And around 15,000 trees are preserved every day. This has enabled the mill to save more than 200 million trees over its 40 years of operation.
Environmental technology in Kyiv CPM production
The enterprise has long been using environmentally friendly technology in all its phases of production and continues to evolve in this respect. This includes both production processes and the responsible selection of raw materials, as well as investments in state-of-the-art equipment which meets all modern environmental requirements.
Overall, the company invested more than EUR 360 million in the development between 2000 and 2021, of which over EUR 103.5 million in the last five years alone.
Thus, 99% of the water used in production is carefully purified and returned to the Dnipro River (1% is circulated in closed loops). This volume is the equivalent of 3,200 Olympic swimming pools.
So, every year the enterprise reduces the volume of technical water intake. Last year alone, the volume of technical water withdrawn from the Dnipro and used for production was reduced from 2 to 6.3% compared with the same period of the previous year. It became possible due to modernization of production processes, implementation of closed water cycles, replacement and repair of pumping equipment and technical water pipelines.
The mill constantly modernizes and updates equipment to be more energy-efficient and modern.
Meeting international standards
Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill meets Ukrainian and international environmental regulations and standards. In particular, the enterprise has had an ISO 14001 environmental management system in place for many years, which helps to minimize its impact on the environment, meet applicable laws and other environmental requirements and improve upon them.
Kyiv CPM also implemented a management system following the requirements of the FSC supply chain standard. It ensures that products sold with an FSC claim come from responsibly managed forests.
FSC certificates show that producers, including KCPM, have a responsible attitude towards natural resources, as well as towards work organization and social norms at all stages of the supply chain.
In particular, the mill has also implemented a management system according to the international standard ISO 50001:2018 'Energy Management System'. The company regularly and successfully passes the relevant certification audits and confirms that its products and activities meet all requirements for the operation of such enterprises.
Against the backdrop of post-war environmental recovery, companies must meet global eco-standards and requirements. It will enable exports and cooperation with international producers to resume sooner. Such a responsible approach in the work of Ukrainian producers will not only protect the environment, and restore exports but also bring Ukraine on a par with economically successful and environmentally responsible global countries.