Burgo’s Chiampo, Lugo and Carbonera Mills Obtain PEFC Certification

Metsä Board Corporation, part of Metsä Group, has published its 2021 Annual and Sustainability Report as a pdf file in Finnish and English. The combined Annual and Sustainability Report includes the Report of the Board of Directors, the Company's Financial statements and the Corporate governance statement for the financial period 1 January–31 December 2021. The combined Annual and Sustainability Report, published for the first time, responds to the growing demand for sustainability information and the increasing regulatory requirements for sustainability reporting. A broader sustainability section reports on how Metsä Board has progressed towards the ambitious 2030 sustainability targets and the measures taken to achieve them. The reporting entity includes disclosure of climate risks under the TCFD and SASB reporting for pulp and paper product industry.

In a time of renewed emphasis on reducing waste, paper recycling rates for products and packaging set the industry apart. Many states have introduced legislation, called extended producer responsibility bills, that target how consumer products are disposed after use. Several of these proposals aim to make producers responsible for managing the disposal of various goods in an effort to keep them out of landfills. Examples include mattresses, plastic packaging, chemicals, electronics and more. Paper-based packaging has been included in some proposals, but the good news is paper recycling rates are already high. Even during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which saw an increase in single-use everything, 65.7 percent of paper consumed in the United States was recycled, according to research by the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA).

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) conducts the Global Client Survey every two years to assess how our certificate holders and promotional licence holders perceive FSC. The learnings are vital to our continual improvement of the FSC certification system. This year 8,975 Chain of Custody and Forest Management Certificate Holders and 323 Promotional Licence Holders participated in the survey – the highest participation rate in recent years. Our sincere gratitude goes out to all respondents who filled out the survey and contributed to this outcome. The results of the 2022 FSC Global Client Survey show that about half of FM and CoC Certificate Holders surveyed perceive FSC certification as valuable for its role in protecting forest ecosystems and preventing deforestation and forest degradation, while others value improved market access and brand image, among other factors. Nearly 90 per cent of Promotional Licence Holders believe the FSC licence will help build their brand image and sustainability credentials. Most surveyed certificate and licence holders believe the importance of FSC certification will increase in the next two years.