Transparency in business operations means going beyond buzzwords and empty promises. It's about openly sharing and publishing data about products, processes, and practices. This level of openness allows our stakeholders to truly understand the efforts and challenges we may face while fostering trust in the credibility of our statements.
In the context of our team’s work, transparency means understanding and communicating the total climate impact of every product in our portfolio. Understanding the bigger picture is crucial, and embracing a life cycle approach is essential.
Life Cycle Thinking
The concept of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can help us achieve that, providing relevant data and insights about a product’s total environmental impact.
For instance, when considering packaging, it is not simply about the materials. Essential factors such as the weight, the type of energy used in the production process, transport, and how the product is used, recycled, and disposed of all need to be considered.
An LCA is guided by standards as well as product- or industry-specific system boundaries and rules. Our Metsä Board sustainability team follows EPD International’s product category rules for processed paper and paperboard. We’ve assessed the environmental impacts accordingly for all our paperboard products, and the data is used as a basis for the packaging carbon footprint comparisons our Sustainability Service provides to our customers. These insights can help our customers make more informed decisions about the environmental impact of their packaging.
Generating an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and having a credible life cycle assessment requires third-party verification. An EPD is the end result of a life cycle assessment that transparently provides high-quality and comparable data about a product’s environmental impact during its specified life cycle. We have published third-party verified EPDs on our website for both our MetsäBoard Pro FBB Bright and MetsäBoard Prime FBB EB products, and we aim to publish EPDs for the other paperboards in our product portfolio in the future as well.
At the end of the day, it’s not only about transparency, accountability, or even compliance. By providing transparent, detailed, and accessible data, companies have an opportunity to build credibility and brand equity. Businesses that understand the benefits of transparency and are serious about their commitment to sustainable practices have a golden opportunity to be benchmarks in their respective industries.
DID YOU KNOW?
Earlier this year, Metsä Board was recognized by CDP, a global environmental disclosure and reporting non-profit, for its leadership in corporate transparency and performance on climate change and water security. This is the eighth year that Metsä Board has been on the CDP Climate A list and the CDP Water A list.