UPM prepares its own PEFC certification group

Helsinki, 2014-03-12 15:02 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UPM is expanding its certification services in Finland and is preparing an application of its own PEFC group certificate in 2014. This gives UPM's forest owner customers a new opportunity to achieve a certificate for sustainable forestry as a member of UPM's certification group.

”For forest owners, joining UPM's PEFC certification group is easy, safe, cost-efficient and risk-free,” says Eija Kuusisto, Manager, Key Customer Relations at UPM. ”The administrative procedures related to the certification are managed by UPM on behalf of the forest owners. Members of the certification group will be informed of changes regarding the certification, and they can rest assured that forestry practices and harvesting are done according to PEFC requirements.

”The requirements of our end product customers, concerning the source of the wood, are continuously becoming more demanding. Therefore, it is important for us to be able to provide our customers with products made from certified wood,” says Pekka Rajala, Director Stakeholder Relations, North Europe Forest Issues at UPM. ”We aim to increase the use of certified wood in our end products and to promote and use all reliable forest certification schemes.”

The forest certification and chain of custody management system combined prove that wood used in products comes from sustainably managed forests. The adherence to this chain can be proven all the way down to customers who buy the end products.

”By applying our own PEFC sertification group we aim to be emphases the importance of forest certification and to increase the appreciation and use of PEFC through our own actions”, Pekka Rajala continues. “ it is important that PEFC certification is an essential part of Finnish forestry also in the future.

”The PEFC certification scheme has been widely used in Finland for over 15 years, and at almost 95% of our current managed forests are PEFC certified. UPM has been involved in the PEFC scheme from the beginning and is familiar with its requirements. Therefore, the threshold for implementing UPM's own group certification is low,” says Eija Kuusisto.

UPM monitors the origin of all the wood it acquires. The amount of certified fibre used in UPM's products was 80% globally in 2013, whereas in Finnish mills the figure was 83%. 

All of UPM's forests are certified. In Finland, all of them are PEFC certified and approximately half of them FSC®certified (FSC® C109750). In Minnesota, USA, all the forests are SFI certified, and in the United Kingdom and Uruguay the forests are both FSC and PEFC certified.

For further information, please contact:
Pekka Rajala, Director Stakeholder Relations, North Europe Forest Issues, tel. +358 400 269 533
Eija Kuusisto, Manager, Key Customer Relations, tel. +358 400 156 284
Sami Oksa, Environmental Manager Wood Sourcing and Forestry, tel. +358 040 560 3474

UPM leads the reformation of bio and forest industries. We are building a sustainable future in six business areas: UPM Biorefining, UPM Energy, UPM Raflatac, UPM Paper Asia, UPM Paper Europe and North America and UPM Plywood. Our products are made of renewable raw materials and are recyclable. We serve a global base of customers. We employ approximately 21 000 people and our annual sales are approximately €10 billion. UPM's shares are listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. UPM – The Biofore Company – www.upm.com

Wood Sourcing and Forestry is responsible for sourcing of wood raw material in Finland, Russia and the Baltic states. Most of the wood required by UPM's mills is purchased from Finnish private forest owners, to whom we also offer diverse forestry as well as legal and expert services. In addition, we are in charge of managing forests owned by both UPM and contractual partners. We also develop company forest property and sell lakeside plots and forest estates. www.metsämaailma.fi, www.bonvesta.fi