The Swedish-owned company will spend the money installing technology enabling it to use biofuel at its flagship Iggesund, Sweden facility, as well as the Workington mill.

Director of sales to the graphic and packaging sector in Europe Guy Mallinson said: "We are increasing efficiency and ensuring our long-term energy supply. It is natural for us to move to bioenergy because there’s a risk that fossil fuels will become scarcer and more expensive in the future, not least due to political targets for lower fossil carbon emissions."

Mallinson claimed that the company would "almost certainly" have the two paperboard mills with the lowest fossil carbon emissions in the world.

However, he added that the focus on biofuel was future proofing, not aimed at customer preferences, which have not moved towards using biofuel.

He said: "We are not seeing that customers are choosing materials based on our environmental work or our low carbon emissions. However, major brand owners are insisting on getting information about our carbon footprint, even though they’re not yet communicating that information any further.

"But their interest does indicate that a good environmental record could become a stronger selection criterion in the future."

The Workington mill is used to produce Incada, a high-quality folding boxboard.