ARAUCO receives approval of Science Based Targets and commits to reducing its emissions by more than 1.5 million tons by 2030.

The company committed to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 40.6% and Scope 3 by 35.1%.

The renowned Science Based Targets (SBTi) initiative – which seeks to commit companies to reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and thus reducing their impact on the environment – analyzed and validated ARAUCO’s commitments to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5ºC.

Although the company has been certified as carbon neutral since 2020, being the first in its field globally to achieve this certification, today, it is taking its commitment one step further, committing to reducing its emissions by approximately 1.5 million tons of CO2 by 2030. This is equivalent to taking approximately 330,000 cars off the road or the annual emissions of 400,000 inhabitants.

“Specifically, ARAUCO commits to reduce Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 40.6% per dry ton of wood by 2030 compared to the base year 2019, equivalent to an absolute reduction of 40.4%. It also commits to reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions covering purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel and energy-related activities, upstream transportation and distribution, waste generated in operations, business travel, employee commuting, and end-of-life treatment of products sold by 35.1% per dry ton of wood within the same timeframe. In addition, ARAUCO is committed to achieving that 95.46% of its suppliers and customers for emissions covering investments will have science-based targets by 2027,” explained Soledad Vial, Sustainability and Impact Manager, who added that another of the company’s commitments is to reach net zero by 2050.

“Acting with a sense of urgency and climate ambition is an ethical imperative, considering the magnitude of the crisis we face as humanity. As companies, we must put our capacity for transformation to serve these collective objectives,” said Soledad Vial. “To achieve the goals we have set ourselves, we need to work at all levels: operational, energy efficiency, suppliers, innovation, and, of course, to promote a cultural change that will generate awareness in each of us,” she added.

What is Science-Based Targets (SBTi)?

The Science-Based Targets (SBTi) initiative drives ambitious corporate climate action by enabling companies to set science-based emissions reduction targets (SBTs) to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

This initiative is based on a partnership between CDP (originally the Carbon Disclosure Project), the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). As an independent body, the Science Based Targets initiative evaluates and approves the targets that companies set. 

SBT provides companies with a clearly defined pathway to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It helps companies determine how much and how fast to reduce their GHG emissions by identifying and promoting best practices for setting science-based corporate targets and helping to remove barriers to implementation.

In addition, they ensure that the companies’ targets align with what the latest climate science deems necessary to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and make efforts to restrict it to 1.5°C.