Our two largest paper mills, at Kemsley in the UK and Kaysersberg in France, which account for approximately 65% of the Group's energy usage, have on-site CHP plants. These CHP facilities provide energy more efficiently, with lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and at significantly lower cost than if it were to be sourced from the external grid. In addition, Kemsley Mill recycles, in the form of energy recovery, a substantial proportion of the reject material, such as plastic and polystyrene, which enters its process mixed in with the waste paper and is separated out during paper manufacture; the mill's own waste-to-energy plant efficiently recovers the energy to produce steam for use in the mill's operations. We are investigating the potential for installing a sustainable energy plant at Kemsley Mill to reduce the mill's reliance on fossil fuels and applied for planning permission for this in April 2010. The proposed fuel for this plant is hard-to-recycle materials, sourced and pre-treated offsite, which might otherwise go to landfill.
DS Smith Packaging, which in 2008 became the first UK corrugated packaging producer to be accredited under the UK's Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme, lowered its energy usage per square metre by 1.4%. This was achieved through its division-wide energy management system and a wide range of energy reduction projects. Both DS Smith Packaging and DS Smith Kaysersberg have achieved substantial improvements in their energy efficiency through programmes of process improvements on their corrugator machines.