SWM publishes its Sustainability Report 2025: Engineering for Transformation

A year of results, not intentions

Stakeholders no longer settle for commitments; they want evidence. This report provides it.

In spring 2026, the Science Based Targets initiative validated SWM’s 2033 decarbonization targets, formalizing our trajectory toward a 55% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions, a 33% reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2033, and a 90% reduction across all scopes by 2050. Because nearly 75% of our emissions arise in the value chain, we have moved from monitoring suppliers to co-creating reduction roadmaps with them.

On the ground, 2025 brought a €25 million biomass boiler at our Quimperlé production site in France, which will eliminate the site’s reliance on natural gas – replicating the success of Le Mans, where our first biomass installation has avoided around 20,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year since 2014. Global energy intensity is down 9% against the 2021 baseline, and water intensity is down 9% since 2023, on the way to our 25% target by 2030.

Safety results were equally concrete: a 33% reduction in the most serious incidents, a proactive safety assessment completion rate of 130%, and 1,000 consecutive days without a lost-time accident at Saint-Girons. Our EcoVadis Silver Medal places SWM in the top 15% of assessed companies globally.

Why it matters to our customers

Sustainability at SWM is designed to create value beyond our own gates. Our lifecycle assessment program – 77 product carbon footprint evaluations across seven production sites and four product lines in 2025 – gives customers the data they need for their own greenhouse gas reporting. Our ultra-lightweight papers cut the carbon footprint of packaging by up to 58% when grammage drops from 60 to 28 gsm, without compromising performance. And our digital traceability systems, aligned with the EU Deforestation Regulation, allow customers to demonstrate that the materials they source from us are not linked to deforestation.

Why it matters to all our stakeholders

For the first time, the report is built on a double materiality assessment, identifying the 18 material impacts, risks and opportunities that shape our strategy – a decisive step toward CSRD-aligned reporting in 2028. It reflects a cultural shift that CEO Katrin Hanske describes as the most significant she has witnessed at SWM: sustainability is no longer the domain of one team, but the organization’s shared language, with 24% of the workforce now trained in Climate Fresk climate awareness workshops.

The report is transparent about the road ahead, particularly on circularity and Scope 3. That honesty is deliberate: lasting progress is built on accountability, not selective reporting.

Read the report

The Sustainability Report 2025 is available for download on our website. We invite our customers, partners, employees and communities to explore how SWM is engineering the transition toward lighter, cleaner and more responsible materials – achieving more with less.