Sonae Arauco, one of the world's largest wood-based solutions company, has agreed to a Sustainability-Linked Loan worth 200 million euros. For this financing, the Sustainability Performance Targets (SPTs) defined until 2029 (1) include an increase of 9.3 p.p. in the share of recycled wood used and a 59% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) intensity, to which Sonae Arauco is committed.

Sustainability Linked Loans are loans in which the conditions are directly linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. The financing conditions are therefore adjusted based on the fulfilment of the sustainability goals defined in the contract.

The sustainable financing now announced reinforces Sonae Arauco's commitment to transitioning to a low-carbon economy. ‘The KPIs defined in the agreement reflect concrete and measurable targets in terms of sustainability and are fully aligned with the company's vision of fostering a circular economy and efficient management of natural resources, especially wood,’ explains Cristian Knollseisen, Sonae Arauco's Chief Financial Officer. He adds: ‘This positioning reaffirms the integration of environmental goals as an essential pillar of Sonae Arauco business model, and as a transversal element of all its operations, including financial management’.

CaixaBank acted as Sustainability Coordinator on the financing and the sustainability key performance indicators and targets were assessed by DNV, in line with the Sustainability Linked Loan Principles (2).

In 2024, Sonae Arauco incorporated around 32% of recycled wood in its production, and in some product lines, the integration of recycled wood is already above 70%. This figure is the result of a concerted effort by the company to address this strategic issue, through the development of new technologies and the continuous improvement of industrial processes, as well as an increase in the capacity to absorb end-of-life wood on the market through its recycling centres. In this context, the company is in the process of expanding its network of wood recycling centres with the planned opening of two new centres in Portugal, in Minho and North Lisbon, and is also analysing other opportunities in the short and medium term. The company currently has three recycling centres in the districts of Porto (Alfena - Valongo), Setúbal (Seixal) and Coimbra (Souselas), in addition to nine other centres in Spain.

As part of its commitment to reducing CO2 emissions, Sonae Arauco is implementing a plan to decarbonise its operations, based on the use of renewable energy, energy efficiency programmes and the electrification of its fleet. In the long term, the company aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 (Scopes 1 and 2) and is also working to decarbonise its logistics and the raw materials it purchases to reduce Scope 3 emissions. Considering that wood is a material that stores CO2, it should be noted that Sonae Arauco's products are responsible, on average, for an annual retention of 3 million tonnes of CO2.

(1) Detail on KPIs and baseline years. KPI 1: Recycled wood consumption in thousand dry tons / total wood consumption in thousand dry tons (%), baseline year: 2021. KPI 2: Scope 1+ Scope 2 emissions in CO2 tons / raw boards produced in thousand m3, baseline year: 2019.

(2) Sustainability Linked Loan Principles issued by the Asian Pacific Loan Market Association (APLMA), the Loan Markets Association (LMA) and the Loan Syndications & Trading Association (LSTA)