Sustainable supply chain in focus

Metsä Group purchases raw materials, products, equipment and services annually from around 13,000 companies. We can influence the sustainability of our supply chain through our choices.

What does a fully sustainable supply chain mean in practice?

“We are committed to operating sustainably and expect the same from our partners. We want to ensure that our suppliers are committed to our Supplier Code of Conduct, and if required, we encourage them to develop their operations in a more sustainable direction,” says Helena Hartiala, VP, Quality and Operational Excellence from Metsä Group Sourcing & Logistics.

How do we assess the sustainability of our supply chain?

“As a minimum, we require suppliers to commit to our Code of Conduct. We assess and audit their practices from an environmental, social and economic perspective. In our assessments, we focus on suppliers that are important to business continuity or who operate in an industry or geographical region which involves potential risks concerning sustainability,” says Hartiala.

We are also continuing our efforts to ensure we know the origin of all the raw material and packaging material used to produce Metsä Group’s products.

How are these efforts carried out in practice?

Our suppliers agree to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct whenever they sign or renew agreements with us. If a supplier has a similar code of conduct, we consider it adequate proof of the company’s commitment to sustainable business.

We also use assessment questionnaires and audits to assess our suppliers’ sustainability. In our audits, we focus on how suppliers handle environmental matters and ensure quality and safety at work in their operations. Our auditors detect risks related to forced labour and labour exploitation, for example.

If there is room for improvement in suppliers’ practices, we give them recommendations and monitor that they improve their practices.

“We also set common sustainability objectives with chosen suppliers. The goal is to define concrete sustainability targets that we promote together,” says Hartiala.

Our suppliers can use Metsä Group’s Compliance and Ethics channel to report ethical concerns.

*********************

Metsä Group’s strategic 2030 sustainability objectives create a path to a sustainable climate-neutral future. This series of articles, called Choosing Sustainability, introduces our objectives and describes how we promote them in our daily work.