Chips from the Amazon heats up housing in Stockholm
This loads the huge bulkfartyget of tons of wood chips from the Amazon to warm up the apartments.
The brazilian company, which manufactures and sells the wood chips is certified – but is accused at the same time for markstölder and illegal logging.
“Our suppliers must be able to demonstrate that their activities are not in conflict with our environmental objectives,” says Ulf Wikström, sustainability manager at the Stockholm exergy.
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil is escalating and is expected to become even worse with the newly elected president Jair Bolsonaro who want to tear up the obstacles for a faster harvesting.
One of the ports for the shipping of timber from the Amazon is Santana at the Amazon’s estuary.
Where the loaded wood chips on large ships for transport to, inter alia, Värtahamnen in Stockholm.
On the afternoon of the 13 november, the 200 metres long bulkfartyget ”Phoenix Rising” from the port of Santana – with destination Stockholm, and the new bio-power plant KVV8 owned by Fortum and the city of Stockholm.
Accused of illegal logging
The brazilian plant is owned by the company ”Amapá Florestal e Celulose” which, according to a new report from the ngo Amazonwatch accused of markstölder and illegal logging in order to be able to grow eucalyptus, which can then be ground down to wood chips.
According to Amazonwatch the federal prosecutors initiated thirteen investigations against the company, despite several eco-labels which the company presents on its website.
The report shows that the resort’s holding company Amcel has close business links with Fortum, who buys big quantities of wood chips, also to similar facilities in France and Germany in addition to Sweden.
Hållbarhetschefen in Stockholm exergy, half owned by Fortum, says that it is the company Amcel who sold and produced fliset transported to Stockholm.
– the bio-fuel comes from a eucalyptus plantation in Brazil, which is certified under the Forest Stewardship Council, FSC. It is an international membership organisation that works to the world’s forests are to be managed responsibly. This means, among other things, the production may not lead to the destruction of the forests, ” says hållbarhetschefen Ulf Wikström.
In the presentations of the newly built bio-heating plant KVV8 in Stockholm, stressed that the bio-fuel mainly come from flishamnar around the Baltic sea which means the travel time on any day.
Energy efficiency transportation
For the ”Phoenix Rising”, which transported the wood chips from Brazil to Stockholm, it became instead a voyage across the Atlantic, which took more than three weeks, according to the openly available fartygsdata.
– You can marvel at how it can make sense to transport the biofuel so far away, but large ships are quite energy efficient and it will be at least as good as a local transport can be, ” says Ulf Wikström Stockholm exergy.
– We are such a big player that our biobränsleförsörjning need to have a bigger geography, otherwise we would have to vacuum the whole of Sweden on biofuels.
In the present case, he says that it is about 40 000 tons of wood chips which makes you 10 times more than in the case of supplies from the baltic states.
to Stockholm exergy deals with Brazil, whose rainforest is hard-pressed right now, ” says Ulf Wikström:
– We follow it very carefully, and have right now a discussion about this result in any increased efforts and if we are to tighten control.
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