16 minute read
Sustainable products
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS
The sustainability of packaging is the sum of many things. This is why we invest in traceable, fossil free raw materials, a sustainable supply chain, and the holistic assessment of the environmental impact our paperboards.
Our 2030 target:
WE ARE KEEPING AN INCREASINGLY CLOSE EYE ON THE SUSTAINABILITY OF OUR SUPPLIERS
%
A SIZEABLE SHARE OF OUR RAW MATERIALS ARE ALREADY TRACEABLE AND FOSSIL FREE
%
100
80
60
40
20
0
19 20 21 TARGET
Suppliers’ commitment to the Supplier Code of Conduct, % 19 20 21 TARGET
Supplier background check passed, % 19 20 21 TARGET
Supplier sustainability assessment passed, % 100
90
80
70
19 20 21 TARGET
Traceability of raw materials, share of total purchases (in euros).,% 19 20 21 TARGET
Fossil free raw materials and packaging materials in dry tonnes, %
* The calculation method has been changed and the figures have been corrected retrospectively. Percentages now include purchases where suppliers have passed a background check or sustainability assessment. Previously, we reported the proportion of all purchases for which suppliers have been made a background check or sustainability assessment.
It is important for us that our customers, suppliers and other partners also operate sustainably. In ensuring sustainability, we follow due diligence as part of the Know Your Business Partner process. The background checks included in the process provide us with a better understanding of who we are working with and thereby allow us to reduce the risk of participating in illegal activities. The checks cover the background of a customer, supplier, or other partner in terms of trade sanctions, money laundering, corruption, human rights violations, and other key risks.
We use local suppliers whenever possible. In 2021, 78% of all our purchases (2020: 75%) originated from Finland or Sweden, in which our production units are located.
Our sourcing process includes a number of risk management tools:
• The minimum requirements for our suppliers are detailed in our Supplier Code of Conduct. They constitute a part of our purchasing agreements, and our target is for all our suppliers to commit to the Supplier Code of Conduct. The agreements may furthermore contain other sustainability requirements. • In our supplier selection process, we assess the sustainability risks of all our suppliers with the help of country risk classifications. We also analyse category-specific risks. • The majority of our suppliers are subject to the Know Your
Business Partner background check, in addition to which key suppliers and potentially risky suppliers are subject to a separate sustainability assessment. • Metsä Group or an external party audits some of the suppliers. • We investigate the origin of our raw materials and packaging materials with product safety questionnaires. • We monitor the development of sustainability in terms of the suppliers for whom we have recommended development measures.
Theme-related UN goals
We measure the sustainability of our supply chain
The sustainability of our supply chain is ensured with respect to wood and fibre (pp. 38–43) as well as other raw materials and services. The sustainability of suppliers supplying something other than wood or fibre is ensured in the context of Metsä Group’s centralised purchasing process. These include the suppliers of chemicals, machines, equipment, transport, and other services.
In 2021, suppliers commited to the Supplier Code of Conduct covered 98% (96) of our total purchases. Suppliers that have passed the Know Your Business Partner background checks accounted for 92% (84) of our total purchases. In terms of the separate sustainability assessment concerning our key suppliers and potentially risky suppliers, our requirements are met by 54% (53) of our suppliers, calculated according to our total purchases.
We supplement the monitoring of our suppliers’ sustainability with audits conducted at their premises. These audits include questions related to environmental and social responsibility. In 2020–2021, we conducted fewer of these audits than usual, due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, an external party audited 17 of our suppliers, and in 2020, Metsä Group and an external party audited a total of 21 suppliers.
Guylian’s chocolate packaging awarded a certification logo
Choosing sustainably produced packaging materials and communicating about packaging sustainability to consumers is increasingly important for our customers. Metsä Board’s sustainability services provide reliable fact-based information to support decision making.
Our team of experts worked in close cooperation with the Belgian chocolatier Guylian to help them understand the forest certification process and define the matters that the use of PEFC certification logo on packaging requires. Guylian is continuously pursuing means by which to make its business and products more sustainable, and sustainable packaging materials are an important part of this development.
In our Science Based Targets, we are committed to 70% of our non-fibre suppliers and of the logistics operators related to our customer deliveries, measured as a share of our total purchases, setting themselves targets in accordance with the SBTi by 2024. We have supported the achievement of this target by our company’s internal training, supplier-specific meetings, and by serving as a partner in the Climate Ambition Accelerator programme of the UN Global Compact Finland network. By the end of 2021, 16% (5) of our suppliers belonging to the target group had set targets in accordance with the SBTi.
We also require our suppliers to meet our requirements with regard to the purity and safety of products. Read more about product safety (pp. 50–51).
We trace the origin of raw materials
We continue to improve the traceability of chemicals, other raw materials, and our products’ packaging materials. Because if this, we ask our suppliers to indicate the manufacturing location of the raw materials we purchase in our product safety questionnaires.
We aim to know the country in which every raw material and packaging material we use is made by the end of 2030, and in terms of some raw materials, we try to trace the details on origin even further back. In 2021, we knew the origin – at least the country of manufacture – with regard to 98% (97) of the total purchases of raw materials and packaging materials.
99% of our raw materials are fossil free
Our products are already made primarily from a renewable raw material. Our main raw material, wood fibre, accounts for 93% of all our raw materials. In addition, the production of our paperboards relies on raw materials based on natural minerals, such as kaolin, and fossil oil-based materials, including latex, and PE coating, particularly in food service packaging. We are looking for alternatives to fossil-based raw materials, and our aim is to use solely fossil free raw materials and packaging materials by the end of 2030. In 2021, 99% (99) of our raw materials and products’ packaging materials per dry tonne were fossil free.
Consumers use around 160 million packages made from Metsä Board’s folding boxboard every day. By reducing the weight of paperboard by 1%, you can achieve material savings equal to approximately 1.6 million packages a day.
We improve the efficiency of our transports
Given that the majority of our products are sold to somewhere else than Finland or Sweden, the transport distances are often long. We minimise the environmental impact of logistics with careful route planning and by developing more efficient operating methods.
As far as possible, we favour the alternatives that generate the least amount of emissions, such as marine and rail transports instead of road transports. In 2021, 39% (38) of our transports conducted as sea transports, 38% (36) on road, and 6% (7) on rail, while 17% (19) related to port and warehouse operations, measured by logistics costs. As of 2021, we have been shifting from road to maritime transport by starting direct shipping routes from the Kemi industrial area to Central Europe, near our customers. As of 2022, some of the maritime transport departing from Kemi will be carried out with low-emission LNG vessels. We will also be re-routing our transport headed to the Iberian Peninsula as of 2022. This will reduce the average transport journey on this route by roughly 7% per tonne of paperboard.
Life cycle assessments help our customers in the selection of packaging materials
The environmental impact of our products arises over a product’s entire life cycle: from the sourcing of the raw materials, production, transports as well as from the product’s further processing and its disposal after use. Our lightweight paperboards, made resource-efficiently and primarily from a renewable raw material, respond well to the needs of the circular economy. All our paperboards are recyclable, and with good packaging design and by participating in initiatives supporting recycling, we aim for our products to be recycled after use (p. 49).
The life cycle assessments of our products produce vital information for our customers, who want their material selections to reduce the environmental impact of their packaging. At the same
Recognition for skills in the circular economy
Metsä Board won the Finnish Circular Economy Award and the Finnish Quality Award in the evaluation of Laatukeskus Excellence Finland. The awards are based on the international model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). According to the external panel of judges, clarity in defining a direction, strategy implementation as well as in performance monitoring and reporting strengthens the company’s competitiveness from the perspective of the circular economy. The circular economy evaluation carried out by Laatukeskus Excellence Finland included interviews with approximately 70 Metsä Board employees from across the organisation and a thorough review of Metsä Board’s processes and operating methods. “The circular economy is at the core of our operations, and I was delighted to notice how visible it really is at every level of our organisation,” says Anne Uusitalo, Metsä Board’s Product Safety and Sustainability Director.
In the Circulytics assessment, Metsä Board achieved the general grade of B (on a scale from E to A). The assessment, provided by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, supports businesses in their transition towards a circular economy. According to the assessment, the circular economy is clearly visible in our strategy and the skills level of our personnel, as well as in our sustainable use of water. By further increasing the share of certified wood in our wood use, we will be even better prepared to meet the challenges of the circular economy.
time, the life cycle assessments help us to further improve our products’ environmental performance.
We always carry out our products’ life cycle assessments and the comparisons between different materials in accordance with the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. Our calculations account for the environmental impact attributable to the production of raw materials and energy, sourcing and transports as well as our own production. The aspects most relevant in terms of paperboard packaging are the energy used in its production and the light weight of the paperboard itself. As we shift to the use of 100% fossil free energy in our production, the carbon footprint of our products will become even smaller. At its best, the carbon footprint of packaging made from our fresh fibre paperboard is more than 50% smaller than that of recycled fibre or solid bleached board packaging of equivalent stiffness (Ecoinvent database). Fresh fibre paperboard also offers significant climate benefits compared to plastic. For example, according to an independent study, the climate impact of a paperboard box for cherry tomatoes is 83% smaller than the impact of a box made from recycled plastic (Natural Resources Institute Finland). Read more about our product development and services (pp. 18–19).
The entire life cycle of fresh fibre supports the circular economy
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS
In accordance with the principles of a circular economy, we invest continuously in the viability of forests and the resource efficiency of our processes, and in generating as little waste and emissions as possible, and keeping materials in circulation for extended periods of time.
Our main raw material is renewable and traceable wood
• We always ensure that the wood fibre we use meets the requirements of the PEFC and FSC® Chain of Custody systems and that it comes from certified or controlled forests, in which the biodiversity and regeneration after harvesting are ensured.
Our production is resource efficient
• We utilise more than 99% of our production side streams. • We circulate water at our paperboard mills an average of 12–14 times and at our BCTMP mills, up to 30 times.
We continue to increase the efficiency of our water use. • Three of our mills already make use of artificial intelligence, which enables us to increase the consistency of our paperboard quality and reduce the consumption of energy and raw materials.
99% of our raw materials are fossil free
• Wood 8.3 million m3 • Process chemicals 8,646 dry tonnes • Coatings, binders and pigments 314,727 dry tonnes • Packaging materials 35,738 dry tonnes
85% of the energy we use is fossil free
From our energy consumption calculated as primary energy:
• Self-generated energy 5.4 TWh • Purchased energy 6.4 TWh
100% surface water
• Surface water 115 million m3 • We do not operate in high water risk areas.
Read more about mill-specific information and capacities on page 60.
We aim to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions to zero
Bio-based CO2 1,712,639 tonnes Fossil-based CO2 (Scope 1+2) 428,838 tonnes Fossil-based CO2 (Scope 3) 1,854,840 tonnes Sulphur and nitrogen compounds and particles
Products
• Paperboard, 1,920,000 tonnes • Pulp and BCTM, 1,362,000 tonnes • Bioenergy • Bioproducts, such as tall oil
We reduce the environmental impact of packaging
• At its best, the carbon footprint of packaging made from our fresh fibre paperboard is more than 50% smaller than that of recycled fibre or solid bleached board packaging of equivalent stiffness (Ecoinvent database). • The optimal use of materials, and designing a package fit for purpose and to be recycled to reduce the overall environmental impact.
More than 80% of paper and paperboard packaging is recycled*
• All our paperboards are recyclable and/or compostable, depending on the local recycling systems. • We further the recyclability of our products through active participation in organisations such as 4evergreen and in the European Paper Packaging Alliance.
Approximately 99% of the water is returned to waterbodies
• 58.7 million cubic metres of treated wastewater • Emissions: COD, BOD, nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, solids,
AOX compounds • Cooling water
*) Collected for recycling in Europe and the United States (Sources: Eurostat and the EPA)
Side streams and waste mainly to reuse
• Utilised by-products 49,603 • Waste to materials use 46,250 tonnes • Waste to energy 60,423 tonnes • Landfill waste 337 tonnes • Hazardous waste 1,558 tonnes
Fresh fibre paperboard is a safe and sustainable choice
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS
Safety is one of the key properties for food contact materials. With comprehensive product safety work Metsä Board wants to make sure that consumers can enjoy safe groceries packed in our materials.
All Metsä Board paperboards are produced from renewable fresh fibres, which are naturally pure, traceable and recyclable. Fresh fibre paperboards do not alter odour or taint properties of the packed products, and they are the safest choice for wood-based food packaging and other sensitive packaging end uses.
We know our raw materials
The whole production chain from the forest to the board mill is coved by Metsä Group’s business model. Controlled production chain ensures that we know exactly the origin of our paperboards’ raw materials.
In our paperboard production processes only carefully selected chemicals are being used. Each chemical goes through a very detailed inspection: chemicals must meet the requirements of relevant legislations, e. g. food contact material regulations. Every chemical used at a mill has passed comprehensive occupational safety and environmental assessments. Our fresh fibre products do not contain unknown chemicals, such as printing ink traces, which can cause problems when using recycled fibre based materials.
Safe paperboard is produced in clean production environment
Since our paperboards are part of the food supply chain, our product safety practice criteria are equally high compared to the food industry. Our mills follow good manufacturing practices (GMP), which are required for all food contact materials. Additionally, all Metsä Board mills have certified ISO 22000 food safety management systems in place. Mills producing food contact materials have also been certified according to the requirements of FSSC 22000 food safety management system.
In addition to the product safety requirements for our own production, we also require our suppliers and subcontractors to meet equal standards. This way we can ensure the cleanliness and safety of the products in all stages of the supply chain. With regular product safety questionnaires, audits and follow-up we make sure that the risks are controlled through the whole production and supply chain.
Safe product fulfills the requirements
Direct food contact materials are regulated strictly all over the world. Metsä Board confirms the product safety properties by ensuring compliance with relevant regulations affecting on its
Product safety related risks are managed through the whole production and supply chain
Raw materials
All wood raw material used in our production comes from controlled or certified forests and is traceable. The chemicals we use are carefully chosen and safe for use. Chemical suppliers are required to answer to Metsä Group product safety questionnaire annually.
Production
Our mills work according to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and certified food safety management systems ISO/FSSC 22000 are in place. Their status is verified annually during internal and external audits.
Product safety
The products are tested regularly for quality and product safety properties in internal and external laboratories. Different end uses are taken into account, especially food packaging.
market areas: Europe, Americas and Asia. Our global team of product safety experts continuously follows the development of relevant regulations and requirements. The competence of our personnel is maintained with regular trainings.
Our products are tested regularly in accredited laboratories to meet quality and product safety standards. Laboratory analyses together with detailed internal risk analyses form the basis for our Product Safety Statement, which includes product specific information covering the product safety and compliance properties of our products.
On an EU level, food contact material risks and recalls are monitored and reported through RASFF notifications. There were no product safety related RASFF notifications or recalls regarding Metsä Board products during 2021.
Our paperboard protects COVID-19 vaccines
The coronavirus pandemic has increased the need for packaging solutions that are sustainable, safe and clean, and that meet the criteria for good manufacturing practices. In demanding medical applications, such as vaccine packaging, the paperboard packaging must also withstand extreme temperatures as low as -70 degrees and protect the injection bottles throughout transportation and storage.
The Chinese pharmaceutical companies Sinovac (Beijing) and Sinopharm (Wuhan) approved MetsäBoard Pro FBB Bright paperboard as the material of choice for their COVID-19 vaccine packaging. Thanks to their good cleanliness and strength properties, Metsä Board’s paperboards are perfectly suited for vaccine packaging. “It’s an honour for Metsä Board to be actively contributing its share to combating the pandemic”, commented Andy Zhong, Metsä Board’s local sales manager.
Transportation
By careful packaging, supply chain control and regular auditing we ensure that our products stay safe and clean during transportation and storage.
Converting
High quality paperboards guarantee high performance in converting. Trouble-free production diminishes product safety risks during different stages of converting.
Consumer safety
The most important function of food packaging material is to ensure, that packed food stays safe for consumers’ use. Laboratory testing together with detailed internal risk analyses form the basis for our Product Safety Statement.
