Wood is the main raw material for all of our products. Metsä Forest is responsible for wood supply for the Group, and wood supply is its core business operation. We cooperate closely with wood suppliers and harvesting contractors and promote sustainable forestry through training and cooperation with stakeholders.
In addition to wood, we purchase fibre, chemicals and other materials, as well as machinery, equipment and services, in a centralised manner. Metsä Group’s external purchases total nearly EUR 3 billion annually. We aim to use local suppliers if possible. In 2018, 85% of our purchases came from countries where we have production sites. 97% of our purchases, excluding wood, came from Europe.
Responsible value chain
We cooperate with suppliers that meet our requirements in terms of reliable operations, ethical and environmental principles, quality and pricing. Our suppliers must comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct and Metsä Group’s sustainability principles. This serves to ensure that there are no risks related to corruption or child labour or other violations of human rights. We further develop cooperation with selected key suppliers and seek to concentrate our purchases with them. Each new subcontractor, goods supplier and service provider must sign our Supplier Code of Conduct. By the end of 2018, 92% of our total spend was covered by the Metsä Group Code of Conduct for Suppliers. During the year we continued performing audits based on category plans and the sustainability criteria were included in 64 audits.
Auditing key raw-material suppliers with a risk rating
In 2013, Metsä set a Group-wide target to audit all of its risk-rated raw material key vendors against sustainability criteria by the end of 2015. These risk assessments examine the operations of the suppliers from various perspectives, such as responsibility, commitment to sustainability principles, the environment and ethical working conditions. Risks related to the locations of their production units and the countries of origin of their raw materials are among the risks considered.