Narrator: These trees will be transformed
into giant reams of paper.
Navigator Company is Europe's largest manufacturer
of printing and writing paper.
It produces 1.6 million tonnes a year.
Most of the pulp comes from eucalyptus trees in Portugal.
But summer wildfires threaten the forest.
We visited a field,
a nursery,
and one of their paper mills
to see how Navigator is turning this
into this.
For the past 30 years, Navigator scientists
have been genetically enhancing a type of eucalyptus tree.
Narrator: They chose this species because it grows well
in a variety of temperatures.
Narrator: 12 million new plants a year are born
in Navigator's three nurseries.
The sprouts are cut and then brought to the biofactory,
where workers give the leaves a special cut
to prevent mold.
They're then placed in individual substrates
after a quick dip into a hormone solution
to help the plants grow strong roots.
After this, they're transferred to the shade room,
where they'll hang for a month,
getting constant baths until the roots are fully developed.
Narrator: Eventually, each sprout will be replanted
in fields like these.
After 10 to 12 years, the trees mature
and can be harvested.
Bobcats with chainsaws cut the trunk close to the ground
and then chop it into smaller pieces.
The pieces are collected and sent to the paper mill.
Every day, 200 trucks line up at this facility
to unload around 4,500 tonnes of wood.
The process starts by turning the eucalyptus trunks
into wood chips.
Narrator: The piece is then dried and bleached
to create the cellulose fibers used for making sheets.
It all happens inside this 200-meter machine,
which could fit four airbuses.
In the control room,
workers make sure everything goes smoothly.
Cameras inside show the cellulose fibers being
flattened together at a speed of 60 mph.
They come out rolled into reams
33 feet wide and almost 13 feet tall.
This facility can produce an average of 1,800 tonnes
of paper per day, which is over 4 million books.
Narrator: These 80-tonne jumbo reels are cut down
to become a recognizable stack of office paper.
Narrator: They're then boxed and shipped to 130 countries.
In order to create this much paper,
Navigator has to plant a lot of trees.
Man-made plantations like this one
have increased Europe's total forest area
by 17 million hectares in the last 30 years.
Narrator: Preventing these trees
from going up in flames is pretty important.
But Eucalyptus globulus is often seen
as a villain when it comes to wildfires,
since the species burns easily, which is why
Navigator spends over 4 million euros a year
in prevention.
Narrator: While the paper industry is more sustainable,
producing it does have an environmental impact.
But things in Europe are shifting.
Manufacturers are complying
with Europe's plan to become carbon-neutral by 2050,
and Navigator is ahead of this transition.
Today, 70% of the energy that powers its mills
comes from biomass made with discarded wood.