"At Metsä Board, innovation is strongly driven by environmental issues and the fight against climate change," highlights Christophe Baudry, the group’s Sales Director Beautycare & Healthcare.

Metsä Board was the first company to develop lightweight paperboards with a double goal: to reduce the environmental impact of their products and to address the needs of their customers in terms of cost and quality. A winning choice since the combination of lightweight and stiffness is a major stake in the packaging sector today, in particular due to the development of e-commerce.

Water, energy and eco-design

However, sustainability efforts are not limited to the eco-design of products! Through successive investment plans, production processes are regularly reviewed and modernized in order to reduce their impact on the environment.

Sustainability is part of the Metsä Group’s DNA. It is a strategic goal for the company: a way to save resources as well as an innovation driver.

For instance, Metsä Board mills use only surface water for its whole manufacturing process. "We are only borrowing the water, which returns to the natural streams at the end of the process and after purification," explains Christophe Baudry. But this does not prevent the company to implement water-saving measures. Since 2010, the amount of water required for each tonne produced decreased by 14%.

As far as energy is concerned, Metsä focuses on reducing its consumption of fossil fuels and on decreasing CO2 emissions. In 2016, 83% of the energy used by the company came from renewable-resources. Since 2009, CO2 emissions have been reduced by 45% for each tonne produced.

In the spring Metsä Board has achieved the Gold level rating by EcoVadis for its approach to sustainability. Overall Metsä Board was ranked in the top 1% of suppliers assessed by EcoVadis across all categories. The criteria assessed by EcoVadis include four themes: the environment, labour practices, sustainable procurement and fair business practices.

Metsä Board also achieved A List recognitions in CDP’s Water and Climate programmes as well as Leadership status in CDP’s 2016 Forest programme. It also participates in Supply Chain programme. Metsä Board was the only forest industry company globally on CDP Water A List.

"These are key indicators regarding the company’s long-term performance. From environment protection to efficient production, through employee well-being, sustainability is part of everything we do," concludes Christophe Baudry.