Sustainability across the operations
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We aim to have a culture of doing the right thing in our own operations and to also ensure the sustainability of our suppliers, customers and other partners.
Responsible procurement of other raw materials and services
The sustainability of Metsä Board’s business conduct is guided by applicable legislation as well as our values, Metsä Group’s Code of Conduct and various policies approved by Metsä Board’s Board of Directors. In the Code of Conduct we are committed to acting in compliance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and respecting internationally recognised human rights, as declared in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ILO Labour Standards. Our wood supply is ensured by Metsä Group’s Wood Supply and Forest Services. The procurement of other raw materials and services are centrally handled by Metsä Group’s Procurement and Logistics unit. These procurement processes seek to ensure that our partners operate sustainably to minimise any risks in the
supply chain related to matters such as the environment, health, corruption, the use of child labour and human rights violations.
Metsä Group, an external HSEQ cluster and another external party if required, conduct annually supplier audits focusing on ethics, environmental responsibility, occupational safety and quality. The supplier assessments and audits are used as the basis for making development proposals and monitoring any corrective action taken. Metsä Group’s target is to agree joint sustainability targets and measures and to achieve them with all its partner suppliers.
Metsä Board only selects suppliers that are committed to the Supplier Code of Conduct and pass our background checks. In the Know Your Business Partner process, we check the business partner’s background for any risks related to trade sanctions, corruption, money laundering, human rights violations and other misconduct before a binding agreement is concluded, as well as during the business relationship. More detailed supplier assessments focus on the core suppli- ers and on suppliers operating in industries with identified poten- tial risks related to human rights, corruption, or the environment. Suppliers’ sustainability and supplier-related risks are assessed with questionnaires, the Ecovadis tool and supplier audits.
Ensuring the sustainable origin of wood Our main raw material is wood from the Northern European forests. Wood and purchased pulp account for 93% of our raw material consumption. Metsä Group has wood supply organisations in Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Latvia, and works in close cooperation with local contract entrepreneurs in harvesting, transport and forestry work. All the countries from which wood is procured have issued legislation requiring forests to be renewed after regeneration felling.
Read more about these topics in the Sustainability Statement 2023.
PEFC/02–31–92 FSC®-C001580
All the wood fibre we use is traceable All parties involved in the processing of wood and pulp in our value chain comply with the requirements of the PEFC and FSC® chains of custody. The wood fibre we use is therefore fully traceable. In addition to sustainable forest sites, we choose our partners in the value chain responsibly. The wood procurement practices are annually assessed by Metsä Group’s internal and third-party audits. The audits focus on matters related to environmental and social responsibility in the operations of wood suppliers and harvesting contractors, as well as on the traceability of wood fibre.
Process for ensuring the sustainability of suppliers The process for suppliers of services and raw materials other than wood
Paperboard, pulp and high-yield pulp mills
Wood supply and forest services
Forest owners
Committing to sustainability
Supplier screening and risk analysis
Supplier assessment and audits
Customer
Forest certification and our Chain of Custody system give our customers the opportunity to tell their own clients about a product’s sustainability. Certification and traceability ensure that the wood used in a product comes from sustainably managed forests.
The pulp used in paperboard produc- tion is manufactured in Metsä Board’s own high-yield pulp and pulp mills or the associated company Metsä Fibre’s pulp mills. These mills purchase all their wood from Metsä Group’s wood supply. The mills record the volume, origin and certification of the wood they purchase, and ensure through calculations that the volume of certified products they sell corresponds with the volume of in- bound certified wood. The certification details are shown in the orders and the related documents.
All wood can be traced with the help of maps, the details entered in data systems, and various documents. Metsä Group’s wood supply calcu- lates the share of certified wood and sells a corresponding volume of certified wood to the mills. We also require a sustainable origin from non-certified wood, and the wood always meets at least the require- ments of PEFC Controlled Sources and FSC Controlled Wood.
Most of the wood we use comes from PEFC or FSC-certified Northern European forests. The forest owners have agreed to the requirements of forest certifica- tion. Metsä Group and external auditors also verify sustainable forest management by auditing harvesting sites, for example.
• Signing of Supplier Code of Conduct
• Know Your Business Partner Process • Country risk analysis • Industry specific risk analysis
• Further assessments and audits of core suppliers and risky suppliers
Cooperation, corrective actions and follow-up 2030 target: joint sustainability targets with nine partner suppliers
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METSÄ BOARD SUSTAINABILITY REVIEW 2023
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