Sustainability Agenda

Sustainability is at the core of our strategy and business. Our vision is to be the frontrunner in nonwovens innovation and sustainability. Sustainability is an integral part of all our operations.

Sustainability Agenda 2020–2025

Suominen’s sustainability agenda crystallizes the sustainability themes and targets for the strategy period 2020–2025. The agenda was approved by the Board of Directors, and progress in different areas is regularly monitored. The agenda focuses on four themes, People and safety, Sustainable nonwovens, Low impact manufacturing and Corporate citizenship.

Sustainability agenda 2020–2025

Our sustainability targets and key performance indicators

INDICATOR	TARGET	RESULT
Lost time accident	0	2 in 2022
Employee engagement index	73%	65% in 2022

INDICATOR	TARGET	RESULT
Number of sustainable product launches¹	Over 10 per year	12 in 2022
Sales of sustainable products	50% increase in sales compared to the base year 2019	99% increase compared to the base year 2019

INDICATOR	TARGET	RESULT
Coverage of renewed Code of Conduct	100% of existing employees and new hires	95% of all employees trained by the end of 2022
Supplier assessment	Raw material suppliers assessed against supplier code (based on risk assessment)	Establishing the assessment process proceeded as planned

INDICATOR	TARGET	RESULT
Energy consumption (GJ/t of product)	20% reduction compared to the base year 2019²	0.6% reduction compared to the base year 2019²
Process waste to landfill (kg/t of product)	20% reduction compared to the base year 2019	2.5% reduction compared to the base year 2019
Water consumption (m3/t of product)	20% reduction compared to the base year 2019	6.1% reduction compared to the base year 2019
Greenhouse gas emissions (t/t of product)	20% reduction compared to the base year 2019³	20.0% reduction compared to the base year 2019³

Sustainable products launches include new sustainable product launches, re-launches and concepts related to sustainable products.
Energy consumption figure for 2019 was restated.
Target is set for Scope 1 and 2 emissions (emissions from our own operations and purchased energy generation). Due to the greenhouse gas calculation method revision, the greenhouse gas figures for the base year 2019 were restated in the 2021 report.

Materiality

Identification of the most material aspects of sustainability helps us to prioritize our work and efforts in this area. At Suominen, material sustainability topics are defined according to their significance to Suominen’s business and stakeholders’ expectations as well as their impact on the economy, the environment and people, including human rights. A materiality assessment was originally conducted in 2019. The process included a stakeholder survey sent to stakeholders – such as customers, employees, institutional investors, suppliers, industry associations and owners – and interviews with key stakeholders.

The current business environment and key market drivers affecting the industries in which Suominen and its customers operate were also reviewed as part of the process. The topics were then assessed on the basis of their importance to Suominen and its stakeholders at an internal workshop involving key experts and management. As a result of our analysis in 2019, the six most material sustainability topics for Suominen were chosen: eco-friendly products, health and safety, energy efficiency, waste prevention, financial stability and employee engagement. The results of the assessment served as the basis for our Sustainability Agenda 2020–2025. The validity of the Agenda was confirmed in 2021 through a web-based stakeholder survey, which was open to all our stakeholders.

In addition to this, in 2022, Suominen also evaluated the impacts on the economy, the environment and people, including human rights, to ensure the validity of our Sustainability Agenda and that it reflects the material impacts. During the process, topics relevant to the business of Suominen in all parts of the value chain were listed and the negative and positive impacts of these identified. The topics were grouped on the basis of evaluating the severity and likelihood, which is based on the operating environment and risks identified by the Executive Team.

Based on the evaluation of impacts it was concluded that the Sustainability Agenda and material topics under it are valid. Stakeholder dialogue concerning the Sustainability Agenda was continued in 2022, including with customers, investors, and employees.

Suominen and UN Sustainable Development Goals

We have identified three SDG’s which covers the areas where we can make the biggest contribution and our sustainability agenda guides our work towards these goals.

Sustainability reporting

Suominen publishes annually its sustainability report as part of Annual Report. The purpose is to share information for our key stakeholders about Suominen’s sustainability approach and progress in sustainability.