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Sustainable supply chain

Metsä Group is committed to acting responsibly and we want to ensure sustainability in our supply chain. We want to buy services and products from suppliers that are ensured as responsible.

We require all of our suppliers to commit to the Metsä Group Code of Conduct for Suppliers. This includes our minimum requirements for respecting the environment, human rights and responsible business practices. In 2023, 98.7% of our procurement will come from suppliers committed to these principles.

We use supplier background checks, risk analyses, assessments and audits to help us in our procurement. We want our partners to act in accordance with our environmental, social and economic requirements.

Metsä Group's ethics channel is also used by our suppliers to report misconduct and concerns, and helps us identify risks in the supply chain.

Background check on suppliers

We check suppliers' backgrounds to identify risks related to trading requirements such as trade sanctions, money laundering and human rights violations before selecting a supplier. We only select suppliers who are committed to our Supplier Code of Conduct and who pass background checks.

Risk analyses

We use country and supplier-specific risk analyses to ensure the sustainability of the timber supply chain. We also assess sustainability risks associated with other procurement by rating suppliers on the basis of country risk (corruption perception index) and analysing risks related to human rights, environmental responsibility and financial responsibility.

Assessment and audits

We will focus our more detailed assessments on suppliers that are important for business continuity or whose operating region has potential sustainability risks.

Contracts often contain additional requirements, for example on safety  or product safety. We provide feedback based on our assessment and follow up on possible corrective actions. We have trained our auditors to recognise signs of forced labour and labour exploitation, for example.

We also monitor compliance with wood certification requirements through audits. This ensures that the wood supplied meets our environmental and sustainability requirements.

Our aim is to assess the accountability of all key suppliers, either through an audit or a broad questionnaire.

We are also developing sustainability in cooperation with our selected suppliers, with the aim of agreeing a shared sustainability target with them.

Traceable raw materials

In order to ensure the sustainability of our supply chain, we also want to ensure that we know the origin of our raw materials and packaging materials used in the production of products by Metsä Group.

Our main raw material is wood, which has full traceable and 93% obtained from certified sources. We ensure the controlled origin of the wood we use through PEFC (PEFC/02-31-03) and FSC® (FSC-C014476) Chain of Custody.

We know the origin of the pulp we purchase. Wood and pulp cover 96% of our raw material used. We have also improved the traceability of other raw materials, such as process, base and coating chemicals, recycled paper and packaging materials. 

The orgin of used materials information is gathered from suppliers with self-assessment sustainability questionnaires. We aim to use the collected traceability information in sustainability risk analyses, and target supplier background checks, assessments and audits to suppliers
in risk countries.

We collect data on the origin of materials from suppliers through self-assessment questionnaires, which must include the manufacturing locations of raw materials. Our aim is to make the country of production of raw materials an explicit part of our risk analyses, and to better target background checks and audits on supplies from high-risk countries.

At the moment, we are particularly focused on tracing the origin of the raw materials we buy, as not all suppliers provide this information in the product safety questionnaires. In 2023, we knew the origin of 94% of raw materials. 

Traceable raw material