LCA as a Catalyst: Driving Resiliency Innovation and Strategy through the Pulp & Paper Industry, TAPPICon26

The WHY: In the pulp and paper industry, sustainability is no longer a peripheral concern; it is central to operational resilience, regulatory compliance, and market differentiation. To date, life cycle assessments (LCAs) have predominantly been used to generate Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). EPDs provide businesses with an industry standard for conveying independently verified data regarding environmental impacts of products and are generally renewed every 5 years. While valuable for disclosure and external communication, the effort and investment required to develop LCAs are often underutilized when results are applied only as static footprint metrics. With appropriate interpretation, these models can be leveraged to support ongoing analysis and mill‑level strategy development rather than reporting alone.

The WHAT: This paper explores the unique drivers for LCA within the pulp and paper sector, such as the demand for increased secondary fiber content in packaging materials, water reduction, and more comprehensive, accurate, and transparent accounting of biogenic carbon emissions and removals across the value chain. Using a representative containerboard case study, the paper demonstrates how a dynamic LCA model can be applied to evaluate the environmental implications of specific operational and sourcing changes, including energy system configuration, recycled fiber utilization, transportation logistics, and water‑energy tradeoffs.

The HOW: The paper presents a practical workflow that applies contribution analysis and marginal‑change scenario modeling to translate LCA results into actionable insight. By focusing on controllable operating parameters, this approach enables identification of environmental hotspots, evaluation of realistic improvement options, and comparison of tradeoffs across energy, water, and material systems. The examples illustrate how mill‑specific LCA interpretation can support operational planning, decarbonization strategy development, and investment prioritization while remaining grounded in facility‑level constraints.

TAPPI conference proceedings and presentations, technical papers, and publication articles provide technical and management data and solutions on topics covering the Pulp, Paper, Tissue, Corrugated Packaging, Flexible Packaging, Nanotechnology and Converting Industries.

Simply select the quantity, add to your cart and your conference paper, presentation or article will be available for immediate download.