Essity’s use of wood fiber comprises both recovered fiber (collected recycled fiber) and fresh fiber. All fresh wood fiber in our products is to be FSC® or PEFC™ certified, or fulfill the FSC’s standard for controlled wood.

The Forest Stewardship Council, an independent, international certification organization, promotes the environmentally friendly, socially responsible and economically viable management of the world’s forests. Essity prioritizes the FSC® certification system, and encourages all suppliers to work toward certification. We view this as an important tool to spread sustainable forestry practices across the globe.

In 2016, 6.5 million tons of fresh fiber was delivered to Essity in the form of wood, pulp, packaging, mother reels and third-party supplied articles. 100% of the fiber was certified or controlled which means that our suppliers uphold and safeguard principles on biodiversity and forest conservation. Essity requires pulp suppliers to guarantee that they have robust systems and documented procedures in place to ensure traceability and compliance throughout the supply chain.

Discussions are currently ongoing in the FSC® organization to determine how Intact Forest Landscapes are to be included in the certification work. We fully support this work and look forward to the presentation of clear guidelines from the world’s most respected forest certification organization, the FSC®.

Essity is engaged in dialog with Greenpeace regarding developments of responsible forestry and the integration of Intact Forest Landscapes into the FSC®.

Commenting on the report, Kersti Strandqvist, SVP Group Function Sustainability, said: 

"We respect Greenpeace’s commitment to sustainable forestry. Essity places the highest priority on sourcing sustainable materials. Essity adheres to the FSC® standards - the highest and most respected in the world and we require that all our suppliers do the same. Recently Greenpeace have implied that FSC standards are not enough. Discussions are already ongoing within FSC®, involving stakeholders such as ourselves and Greenpeace, exploring areas of improvement. In the meantime, we will continue to follow FSC recommendations as the current gold standard".

*Article has been updated June 2018