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Public affairs

UPM Public Affairs’ advocacy aims at ensuring our business success by anticipating societal and regulatory impacts on our operating environment through dialogue with relevant stakeholders. We promote regulatory environment that fosters investments in green transition and sufficient long-term predictability.

Transparency and integrity guide our advocacy work

UPM Public Affairs’ advocacy principles are transparency and integrity. We see influencing as a vital part of democracy, where policy makers and politicians are entitled to receive all relevant information and hear different views to be able to make balanced and well-informed decisions.

At its core, advocacy is about collecting and sharing information. It is important also for us to understand the decision-making processes that are going on and how different stakeholders see various issues and topics. We encourage dialogue between different stakeholders.

We do not financially support political parties or individual candidates. As per our Code of Conduct, our employees are also prohibited to make political contributions or otherwise support political candidates, parties, or groups on behalf of UPM. We strictly adhere to all anti-corruption laws and have clear compliance rules on giving, offering, or accepting anything of value to a government official.

Our agenda is based on UPM’s strategy

UPM Public Affairs priorities are based on our strategy. We invest in sustainable growth and innovate to renew the everyday. Our strategy is a response to some of the biggest challenges facing the world today, such as resource scarcity, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and depletion of clean water.

UPM Public Affairs is led by the Vice President, Public Affairs. He reports to the Executive Vice President of Marketing, Sustainability and Communications, who is a member of the Group Executive Team. We also have topic specific steering groups where our advocacy activities are steered, and these topics are reviewed in the Group Executive Team regularly.

Our Public Affairs’ team is a core team that actively leads and coordinates the activities. We also have employees who participate in influencing to some extent, such as heads of business areas and heads of marketing, sustainability and communications in different business areas and mill managers.

Versatile dialogue on various levels

Through advocacy, we aim to foster the necessary prerequisites for our operations, particularly in our main operating countries Finland, Uruguay, Germany, and China. Active influencing at the EU level is also important.

We are transparent in our dialogue and engagement with governments and regulators. Our identification number in the EU’s transparency register is 861194311863-31. We are registered at the German Lobbyregister and as of 2024, the new Finnish Transparency register.

We are a member of various joint industry, sustainability and trade associations and networks. This is one way of influencing and monitoring the policies for being aligned with our strategy and climate commitments. These memberships and active participation also allow for a versatile dialogue with stakeholders at national, EU, and international level.

Our memberships can be found under the Cooperation and memberships section.

Main topics of our advocacy

Sustainable use of forests is an asset for replacing fossil materials

In our view, wood-based products that replace fossil materials are one significant solution to mitigate climate change. We advocate sustainable forest management as a way to enhance biodiversity and grow carbon sinks and are committed to climate positive forestry. Reducing fossil consumption must remain key priority and forest carbon sinks should not compensate these emissions.

UPM strictly condemns deforestation. Our own forest management and additional wood sourcing do not cause deforestation anywhere in the world. Wood fibre, the key raw material for all UPM businesses, is renewable and comes from sustainably managed forests.

Regulation that promotes the use of renewable raw materials from sustainably managed sources is beneficial for all existing and future UPM businesses. While we advocate for increased use of renewables to defossilize our economy, we recognize the necessity to promote bioeconomy agenda within the boundaries of sustainably available feedstock.

Sustainable forest management and the ability to replace fossil consumption with domestic sustainable biomass should be built as one key cornerstone of EU’s strategic autonomy goals.

Renewable circularity is the foundation for a sustainable packaging sector

We produce sustainable packaging materials. We strongly believe in renewable circularity as the foundation for a sustainable packaging sector in the future. This is why we promote equal position in legislation to recycling with reuse. Also, innovation potential of sustainable packaging should not be hindered by defining solutions in regulation, that are too technical.

Forest industry plays a significant role in the defossilization of materials

The defossilization of the material sectors, such as chemicals and plastic, requires alternative feedstocks. Biorefineries play a significant role in this transformation. Our biorefineries in Lappeenranta, Finland, and Leuna, Germany, offer innovative, sustainable and competitive wood-based biochemicals for replacing fossil-based raw materials and improving the environmental performance in various applications.

Advanced biofuels play an important role in our strategy. For several years, we have been advocating for stringent rules to reduce transport emissions. Although recent revisions in the renewable fuel regulation have improved advanced biofuels’ situation on the markets, complexity of regulation has increased tremendously. Therefore, we call for technology neutrality and simplification of the regulatory framework.

Biorefineries are also an important part of the emerging hydrogen economy. We are exploring opportunities to utilize our know-how and assets to benefit from the growth of hydrogen-based products. We have access to emission-free electricity, our own biogenic CO₂ resources, and strong competences in existing hydrogen production.

Ensuring functioning energy markets is essential

The war in Ukraine intensified the energy transformation and volatility in prices and demand has increased in the energy sector. Market-based price signal is essential now, and in the future, to ensure an efficient electricity market, system balance and investments into new capacity.

Cost competitiveness of the European energy-intensive industries must be ensured. Sufficient investments in variable renewable, emission-free baseload (including nuclear), and balancing electricity capacity are prerequisites for future clean European industry.

Innovations need to be scaled into large-scale production

The objective of our R&D programs and business development is to create new technologies and products for UPM’s developing businesses and to provide support for its current businesses and ensure that they remain competitive.

We advocate for competitive operating environment, where innovations can be scaled up into industrial production. The willingness to invest in new production increases when operating environment has a predictable outlook, competitiveness is ensured, and licensing systems are agile.

Energy taxation and subsidies of industry must ensure a level playing field

Energy taxation is subject to detailed regulation at different country and EU levels. We advocate for a level playing field in each of our main operating areas. Most of our electricity production is nuclear power, hydropower, or combined heat and power (CHP) production at mill sites, where most of the fuels used are from renewable sources. The electricity we use is subject to electricity taxation, regardless of which sources are used.

In energy policy, market-based pricing is the best way to achieve a competitive electricity price level. Any measures to improve the security of electricity supply must be taken in such a way that they do not destroy the price signal of the market.

Energy taxation of industry and the use of energy subsidies must ensure a level playing field. When implementing international tax legislation, care must be taken to ensure that no additional measures are introduced in our operating areas that are not applied by competing countries.

Ensuring that Finland remains competitive

Finland is one of our most important operating areas and the home of our head office. We believe that the operating environment in Finland must guarantee our export industry a level playing field with our most important competitors. This requires comparable costs for energy, logistics chains, and raw materials. Logistics routes that are important for the national economy must be in good condition. This will ensure that both raw materials and products can move freely and generate important export revenues.

In labor policy, we promote local agreements as a means of increasing flexibility in order to adapt to changing circumstances.

UPM promotes free trade

Our products are exported to customers around the world. We promote free and rules-based trade. While free trade promotes prosperity, we recognize the need for rules to ensure fair trading conditions. This applies also to trading practices in green transition and environmental requirements. In recent times, we have seen significant increase in fraudulent trading practices also affecting sectors where we operate. As an example, the EU authorities have taken action against illegal Russian wood product imports arriving from third countries.

Successful, transparent and acceptable green transition must ensure that the same standards are being met in the EU and outside the EU.

UPM Code of Conduct

Contact us

We are here to discuss with you about topics related to public affairs and advocacy!

Stefan Sundman

VP, Public Affairs stefan.sundman@upm.com Tel. +358 2041 50559

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Giulia Cancian

Director, EU Affairs giulia.cancian@upm.com Tel. +32 491 594387

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Matthias Held

Director, Public Affairs, Germany matthias.held@upm.com Tel. +49 15164 181341

Sami Oksa

Director, Stakeholder Relations UPM Fibres Finland sami.oksa@upm.com Tel. +358 40 5603474

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Jukka-Pekka Rantakokko

Director, Public Affairs jukka-pekka.rantakokko@upm.com Tel. +358 2041 50793

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Elina Warsta

Senior Manager, Forest Affairs elina.warsta@upm.com Tel. +358 40 3542331

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