METSÄ BOARD OYJ Metsä Board
Sustainability Review 2023
Together with our customers we develop fossil free and circular packaging solutions.
Contents
This is Metsä Board 2
CEO's foreword 3
Our sustainability highlights in 2023 4
How we support the circular economy 6
Our 2030 sustainability targets 8
Our commitment and progress 10
E - Environment
Biodiversity and regenerative forestry 12
Climate and energy 16
Resource efficiency 18
Environmental impact of products 24
S - Social responsibility
People and equal opportunities 26
Safety at work 30
Product safety 31
G - Sustainability governance
Responsible operations 32
Advocacy and regulation 36
Sustainability reporting in 2023
This Sustainabiity Review summarises
Metsä Board's key sustainability topics
and achievements in 2023.
Metsä Board's full Sustainability Statement
is available as part of the Report of
the Board of Directors. GRI and SASB
Content Index and Climate-related financial
disclosures (TCFD) are available on Metsä
Board's website.
METSÄ BOARD SUSTAINABILITY REVIEW 2023 1
This is Metsä Board Forerunner in premium lightweight paperboards Metsä Board is a leading European producer of premium lightweight paperboards. Our product range covers lightweight folding boxboards, food service boards and white kraftliners. Used in consumer and retail packaging, our paperboards are made from fully traceable fresh wood fibre coming from responsibly managed forests that are either certified or meet the criteria of controlled origin. The Metsä Board portfolio offers solutions for demanding packaging end uses, such as food and beverages, food service, consumer electronics, beautycare, healthcare and graphic applications. As part of Metsä Group, a Finnish forest industry group, we benefit from a unique value chain from pure Northern European wood fibre to high-quality end products. We help our customers reduce their carbon footprint through resource-efficient materials and packaging solutions that are easy to recycle and promote the circular economy. | |
We work to mitigate climate change By the end of 2030 our mills will have zero fossil-based CO2 emissions and our products will be made entirely from fossil free materials. | No 1
2,300 1.9 EUR bn. employees Sales in 2023 2.3 Mt Annual paperboard production capacity 1.7 Mt Annual production capacity of high-yield (BCTMP) and chemical pulp |
Our operations Our highly efficient production units in Finland and Sweden are located close to the forests that are the source of our most impor-tant raw material: high-quality wood fibres. 100 We deliver to approximately 100 countries on all continents. |
The resources on our planet are finite. As urbanisation and population growth continue to boost the need for packaging, we all need to think about how to make things smarter and in line with the circular economy.
Mitigating climate change, promoting biodiversity, using resources efficiently, and developing a responsible corporate culture and supply chain are at the core of our sustainability efforts.
To achieve results that make a difference, sustainability targets must be ambitious. At Metsä Board, we aim to achieve fossil free production and products by the end of 2030. Currently, 90% of the energy and 99% of the raw materials used at our mills are fossil free.
To save valuable resources, we continuously invest in the most efficient production processes. We have detailed roadmaps for the climate and water measures we're taking to achieve our 2030 sustainability targets. These roadmaps describe the completed and planned investments, and their impact on reducing our fossil-based CO2 emissions and process water use.
Resource efficiency is at the core of our product development work. Based on lifecycle assessments, our paperboards have a lower carbon footprint compared to many corresponding packaging materials. This also helps our customers to reduce their carbon footprint.
When talking about sustainability, just aiming at minimising the negative impacts on the environment is not enough. We need to take things further and aim higher.
To take our efforts to the next level, the entire Metsä Group adopted regenerative forestry principles in spring 2023. The goal is to ensure forests are transferred from one generation to the next in a vibrant, diverse and climate-resilient condition, and to verify positive impacts on forest biodiversity by 2030 at the latest.
In promoting social responsibility, our core areas of focus are ethical corporate culture, employee wellbeing and safety at work. We advance diversity, equality and inclusion with the Metsä for all vision, and measure our progress through the targets set. For example, we've adopted anonymous recruitment as our main recruitment method, in order to offer all job applicants equal opportunities.
Transparency is the cornerstone of all sustainability work. That is why we've prepared this Sustainability Review. It covers the most relevant information on environmental, social, and governance issues and summarises our key sustainability topics and their progress in 2023.
We also provide a comprehensive Sustainability Statement as part of the Report of the Board of Directors 2023 as preparation for the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
These reports are available for anyone interested in under-standing our journey and goals towards a sustainable future. I hope they will provide you with useful and relevant information and show that we are on the common road towards a positive change.
Mika Joukio CEO
Our sustainability highlights 2023
From new packaging design innovations open to all, to fine-tuning sustainable solutions together with our customers. From calculating the environmental impact reduction possibilities of packaging, to improving the energy efficiency of our own mills. 2023 was full of great steps toward a more circular future.
Here are a few examples of our sustainability highlights:
An ultralight innovation for pizza deliveries
We collaborated with the best professionals in the industry to design a pizza box that is, possibly, the lightest in the world. Compared to traditional solutions, this corrugated e-flute box, designed to require less material and less ink, is up to 38% lighter and has a carbon footprint up to 50% lower than pizza boxes made with conventional paperboards. The concept was awarded in 2024 WorldStar packaging competition.
Kemi mill reduces its energy and water use
The development programme at our Kemi board mill was completed in the autumn 2023 in parallel with the startup of Metsä Fibre's new bioproduct mill. In addition to increasing the board mill's capacity, the upgrade will reduce the mill's energy consumption by 5% and water use by around 40% per tonne produced.
Innovating for circularity
Altogether 46 co-creation workshops were held in 2023 at Metsä Board's state-of-the-art Excellence Centre, to help inno-vate new packaging solutions with customers and partners. As an example, our 360 Services team combined forces with the Nordic cosmetics brand Lumene and the folding carton converter VG Kadra Pak, member of the Van Genechten Packaging Group, to create a lightweight and easily recyclable advent calendar.
Share of fossil free energy at Metsä Board
90%
Share of certified wood fibre at Metsä Board
91%
Husum board mill got an upgrade, improving efficiency
The capacity expansion project at our Husum mill was completed in November, making the folding boxboard machine BM1 the largest and most modern in Europe. It also has excellent sustainability credentials, currently run with approximately 98% of renewable energy and aiming at 100%.
Recognitions for systematic work for sustainability
Reducing carbon footprint in pharmaceutical packaging
We achieved excellent scores in several ESG ratings, including CDP A List in Climate change and Water security and A- in Forests; the highest Platinum level and high scores in each of the four themes assessed by Ecovadis; and an
A- rating in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's Circulytics® cir-cular economy assessment. These and other ratings provide important information to our stakeholders of Metsä Board's sustainability ambition and help us to further improve our operations (page 10).
We conducted several lifecycle calculations of the climate impact of different paperboard grades. For example, based on the assessments, switching from conventionally used grades to fresh fibre paperboard can cut the carbon footprint of a phar-maceutical packaging by up to 60%. With our products and services we support our customers in their sustainability actions (pages 24-25).
A LIST 2023
CLIMATE WATER
Up to 60%
lower carbon footprint
Fresh fibre paperboards support the circular economy
Metsä Board follows the principles of circular economy by using renewable resources, ensuring efficient and fossil free operations and keeping materials in use and in circulation for as long as possible.
Fresh fibres help maintain the recycling loop
Pure and strong fresh wood fibres improve
the quality of fibres in circulation and they
can be recycled multiple times. This makes
fresh fibre paperboards an excellent material
for the circular economy. In addition, they
compensate for the materials not returned to
circulation.
All our paperboards are recyclable, depending on the local recycling systems. All Metsä Board paperboards except for the PE coated grades are also certified as industrially compostable in accordance with the DIN EN 13432 and/or ASTM D6400 standards and home compostable in accordance with the NF T 51-800 standard. By joint design guidelines and cross-industry collab-oration, such as 4evergreen alliance, we support the recyclability or compostability of our products after use.
Designed to be recycled
Sustainable solutions by cooperation
Metsä Board 360 Services help our customers to improve the functionality and recyclability of their packaging, decrease the use of plastics, and reduce raw material use and the environmental impact of the packaging solution. The Excellence Centre in our Äänekoski site provides an inspira-tional co-creation platform for our customers and partners worldwide.
With a recycling rate of over 80%, paper and paperboard packaging is the most recycled packaging material in the EU and the US
(Source: Eurostat, EPA)
We are committed to regenerative forestry that enhances biodiversity and strengthens the state of nature. We use only traceable wood of certified or controlled origin. We also ensure that forests grow more than is harvested so that the forests can continue to act as a carbon sink. Forestry operations do not cause deforestation in our wood supply area.
Diverse and vibrant forests
Alternatives to plastics
Renewable fresh fibre is our main raw material, and we have a systematic development programme for replacing the remaining fossil-oil-based raw materials still used. Our paperboards, such as the dispersion coated barrier paperboard, help our customers reduce the use of plastics in packaging.
Minimising environmental impact
We continue to focus on the efficient use of raw materials, water and energy. We follow the environmental impact of all our paperboards with life cycle assessments based on the requirements set out in the ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044 standards. The light weight of our paperboards and the high share of fossil free energy used reduce the environmental impact of our paperboards.
As part of Metsä Group, we use 100% of the sourced wood raw material, and nothing goes to waste. We are also seeking new ways to reuse our production side streams. For example, Soilfood, a Finnish circular economy company, produces wood-based soil improvement fibres from frac-tions produced as side streams at Metsä Board's board mills.
Materials are used in the best possible way
Sustainability targets for 2030
Our targets highlight our commitment to safeguarding natural biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, healthy workplace communities and ethical operations.
E Environment
We safeguard | We mitigate | We use raw materials |
biodiversity. | climate change. | efficiently. |
We decrease | We decrease the | |
emissions. | amount of waste. |
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Metsä Board Oyj published this content on 25 March 2024 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 25 March 2024 08:50:07 UTC.
