Metsä Board Sustainability Review 2023

Advancing employee engagement

We are committed to developing a diverse, equal and inclusive culture – Metsä for all.

Metsä Board is committed to respecting human rights and developing a responsible corporate culture in which everyone has the opportunity to be accepted and succeed.

Metsä Board’s social responsibility is guided by Metsä Group’s Code of Conduct, Human Resources and Equality policies, and Metsä for all vision. We require our suppliers to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct. Advancing diversity, equality and inclusion Metsä Board wants to ensure that personal characteristics – such as gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, ethnic background and nationality – have no impact on an individual’s opportunity to succeed at work. The Metsä for all vision sums up our commitment to developing a responsible corporate culture in which diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) are realised. We have changed our job titles to gender-neutral and adopted anonymous recruiting as our main recruitment method. A sepa- rate module on DEI is included in all supervisor and leadership training. With the aid of our equality targets, we strive to increase the proportion of women in top management, rectify unjustified differences in pay and promote equality. To increase awareness of the Metsä for all vision and strengthen its implementation, a workshop-based programme has been launched for local management. In the workshops,

development measures are defined based on the results of the DEI surveys carried out among local employees. Key areas of development identified in the DEI surveys carried out by the end of 2023 include distribution of the workload, equal treatment of employees and work-life balance. The workshops will continue in the first half of 2024.

Ensuring a skilled workforce with anonymous recruitment

Encouraging employees’ competence, development and motivation

Breaking the forest sector’s traditional male dominance has been identified as a key theme in Metsä Board’s social responsibility. In addition to the company’s strategic target (>30% of women in management positions), efforts are made to increase the proportion of women at all organisational levels. The proportion of female applicants among those applying for jobs in mills is still relatively low, which is why it was pleasing to see that 14 out of 31 summer workers at Metsä Board Tako board mill in 2023 were women. “In the forest industry, professions are not gender specific. Our goal is to encourage more women to apply for jobs at the mill, and that’s why it’s great to share these good examples,” says Jaakko Ikonen , VP of the Tako board mill. Almost half of summer workers at Tako board mill were women

As part of Metsä Group’s equality programme and the implemen- tation of the Metsä for all vision, we have adopted anonymous recruitment as our main recruitment method in order to offer all job applicants equal opportunity. Anonymous recruitment reduces the influence of unconscious bias on the recruitment decision and supports workforce diversity. In anonymous recruitment, information about the personal characteristics of applicants is hidden during the application screening phase. The anonymised review of applications sup- ports the recruiting manager and HR to base selection on criteria relevant to the position. It also directs the applicant to bring out the skills they have that are essential for the task.

Metsä Board’s success in implementing the strategy depends on our personnel’s competence and motivation. Under the Motivated people strategic programme, we develop competencies, ensure resourcing and strengthen good leadership. We offer flexible working hours and remote working whenever a job function allows it. We enable a long career by offering various solutions such as job rotation. At the end of 2023, we introduced a year-long trial period of the individual working time model for shift work, which supports employees’ work ability at Metsä Board’s production units in Finland by improving opportunities to influence their working hours. Metsä Group’s mentoring programme offers our personnel an opportunity to develop their competencies through discussion with a colleague. The mentor pairs discuss pre-agreed topics in a goal-oriented way. Mentoring supports professional growth and responds, among other things, to development needs identified in PDA discussions. The mentoring discussions are confidential and help the mentor and mentee develop and learn. The Future Leaders Programme supports participants to achieve their personal leadership development targets through mentoring. The programme is based on mentoring and facilitated group discussions about leadership and DEI topics. The program- me’s target is to support DEI in Metsä Group’s leadership culture. Metsä Group Academies provide long-term and continuous development of our critical skills. Academies are built according to a common framework and cover our core processes. Currently, there are five academies: Finance, Leadership, Procurement, Sales and Sustainability.

D Diversity

E Equal opportunities and gender equality

I Inclusion and cultural change

• Recruitment practices that promote diversity, e.g. anonymous recruitment • Ensuring international talent in the organisation

• Increasing the number of women at different organisational levels • Ensuring pay equality • Introducing gender-neutral job titles

• Increasing the competence and awareness of personnel • Supporting cultural change via communication • Promoting work-life balance

Read more about these topics in the Sustainability Statement 2023.

METSÄ BOARD SUSTAINABILITY REVIEW 2023