Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Koskisen has reached an important benchmark in its efforts to cut down on carbon emissions. Working closely with its long-term machine contracting partner, Adolf Lahti Yxpila Ab, Koskisen has successfully commissioned a fully electric wheel loader at its major Järvelä production facilities. This heavy-duty electric vehicle directly replaces a diesel-powered counterpart, marking a substantial reduction in the use of fossil fuels and a tangible step towards Koskisen’s ambitious sustainability programme goals.
The newly deployed electric wheel loader is expected to log approximately 3,000 hours of operation annually. This transition alone is projected to result in a reduction of approximately 40,000 litres of fuel oil consumption per year.
Pekka Pöllänen, CEO of Adolf Lahti Yxpila Ab, confirmed the machine’s robust capabilities: “During the demo tour, we gained a clear understanding of the machine’s performance and battery capacity. The wheel loader can also be used, where suitable, for log handling, in addition to its primary roles in site maintenance and handling essential wood by-products such as shavings.”
The environmental impact of this single machine replacement is profound for site-level emissions. The elimination of diesel consumption translates directly into a massive reduction in operational carbon footprint.
Mikko Kivimäki, Manager of Logistics, Safety, and Quality at Koskisen, highlighted the numerical significance: “The commissioning of a fully electric wheel loader by Adolf is estimated to reduce machine contracting emissions in the mill area by about 100 CO₂ (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) per year.”
This achievement is a powerful example of how industry leaders must address not only their direct emissions (Scope 1 and 2) but also their Scope 3 emissions—indirect emissions that occur throughout the entire value chain, which includes contractor services like machine handling and logistics. The partnership underscores the fact that achieving a fossil-free wood industry requires close, collaborative efforts with suppliers and partners.
The push for a lower-carbon value chain at Koskisen extends far beyond machinery electrification. The company’s sustainability programme focuses on systematic, large-scale changes to eliminate redundant processes and fossil fuel-dependent transport. The core objective, aligned with global climate mitigation efforts, is to reduce the climate impact across raw material production, logistics, product use, and end-of-life processing.
A flagship investment in this area is the new log sorter and integrated production layout at the Järvelä sawmill. This strategic development was explicitly designed to drastically streamline in-house material flow.
Prior to the investment, logs were transported between two separate mill sites in Järvelä—Mäntsäläntie and Tehdastie—a process that required a steady fleet of transfer trucks and constant loading/unloading operations.
The new system has eliminated the need for this external transfer entirely, leading to staggering annual savings in carbon emissions:
This single, system-level change to logistics optimization provides a six-fold greater reduction in CO₂ emissions than the electric wheel loader, illustrating the layered, comprehensive nature of Koskisen’s decarbonisation strategy. These simultaneous projects—the micro-level change of vehicle replacement and the macro-level change of site integration—are essential to achieving large-scale emission reduction targets.
Koskisen views its commitment to sustainability as a fundamental driver of its commercial strategy. Its products—long-lasting wood materials such as sawn timber and plywood—act as carbon sinks, storing atmospheric carbon for decades. This is often referred to as the carbon handprint, which is the positive climate impact a product provides by enabling a customer to reduce their own carbon footprint (e.g., by substituting fossil-intensive materials like concrete or steel with wood).
The company’s sustainability framework is guided by four main areas: Sustainable Resource Use and Biodiversity Promotion, Climate Change Mitigation, Investments in Circular Bioeconomy Solutions, and Enhancing Occupational Safety and Well-being. By focusing on reducing emissions across all scopes, Koskisen not only contributes to the global green transition but also enhances its long-term competitiveness in a market that increasingly values verified sustainable practices.
The successful implementation of the electric wheel loader by Adolf Lahti and the high-impact results of the Järvelä log sorter are compelling examples of how the Finnish wood industry is leading the charge in industrial decarbonisation, turning ambitious environmental goals into measurable, real-world reductions in carbon emissions and a more competitive, sustainable production model.
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Tags: Adolf Lahti, electric wheel loader, emissions reduction, fossil-free operations, logistics optimization, wood processing sustainability
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