Operations with clear targets

With the strong commitment to our new strategic sustainability 2030 objectives we
are building a path to a climate
neutral society.

We bring the forest to you

Increasing the amount of carbon stored in forests by 30% (in hectares) from the 2018 level

We promote sustainable forest management, which is a key to increasing the carbon storage of forests
Forests store carbon while growing. With the sustainable forest management and e.g. thinnings the trees get more light and space that supports the strong growth and accelerates carbon storing. Fertilising the forests can also be used to support the growth.

Increasing the amount of carbon stored in products by 30% (in tonnes) from the 2018 level

Metsä Group aims to increase the amount of carbon stored in products with a long life span. Those products have a clear role in mitigating the climate change. As an example, in buildings wood products store carbon for a long time. In the future, the portfolio may include for example textile fibres.

Safeguarding biodiversity of forests: We leave high biodiversity stumps in 90% of thinnings and leave retention trees in all the regeneration cuttings

79% of forest owners choose to leave high biodiversity stumps in line with harvesting operations.
Safeguarding biodiversity is part of our daily actions. For different species, standing and fallen decayed wood is a key habitat. For that, we aim to leave biodiversity stumps and retentions trees in harvesting.

We work for a better climate and environment

Currently 90% of the fuels used in production are bio-based, and mostly of production side streams. Roundwood is not directed to energy production.
We produce over 15% of the renewable energy in Finland. In 2019 we produced renewable, side streams based fuels equivalent to 28 TWh.

Resource efficient production. All the production side streams will be fully utilised by 2030.

92% of the production side streams are utilised as materials or energy.
Resource efficiency is a key in our operations. Renewable wood is our main raw material. Each part of that is utilised to the highest added-value products. We use raw material, water and energy efficiently and always aim to continuous development and improvement.

The use of process water has been decreased by 21% since 2010. The work continues.
In areas where we operate, water is mostly an abundant resource. Still, we put effort to continuously decrease the use of process water. 99% of the water we use is surface water. We don’t weaken any other party’s access to water.

Our main raw material is wood, which is a renewable raw material originating from sustainably managed forests. Currently most of our raw materials are already from renewable sources and our target in our contribution towards a low carbon society is that by 2030 we will not be using any fossil oil-based raw materials.

We are committed to acting responsibly and expect the same from our partners operating within our supply chain. We expect all of our suppliers to commit to the Metsä Group Code of Conduct for Suppliers. We will develop our supplier sustainability practices further to be able to verify that all our suppliers act according to our environmental, social and economical responsibility requirements.

Our main raw material, wood is 100% traceable. We will work towards ensuring that we know
the origin of all our raw materials.

Metsä Group renewed its Code of Conduct (ethical guidance to the personnel) in spring 2019. Our aim is that all our personnel will act according to Metsä Group’s ethical principles
The Ethics barometer will be developed during year 2020 with the aim to provide us insight on how our personnel perceive ethics at workplace and to improve our understanding on compliance and ethics related risks. The results will be utilised in developing our compliance and ethics program.

We aim to have an accident free work environment and our target for LTA1 is zero.
In 2019 we did not succeed in our safety work adequately, as one very unfortunate fatal occupational accident took place in Metsä Group's production unit. In 2019, the LTA1 rate was 5.9 (6.4), which is 8% less than in 2018.