PEFC releases new list of PEFC product categories

Ahlstrom-Munksjö, a global leader in fiber-based materials, has been awarded EcoVadis’ highest recognition level, Platinum, for the company’s sustainability performance. The company’s continuous efforts have now been rewarded, placing our Group among the top 1 percent of companies assessed by Eco Vadis. The rating is an improvement from Gold level rating, which we were previously rated since 2019. Our score increased especially in Environmental performance and Labour & Human rights. “During the past year we have made a significant step change in sustainability and put it as a key value driver for our growing business. We have a sharper sustainability strategy, an integrated operative model and a solid and holistic set of key performance indicators to help us monitor and evaluate our performance. We are thrilled and proud to move from the gold rating to platinum, as this gives us external validation that our ambition has been recognized and the concrete actions are already bearing fruit,” says Johan Lunabba, Vice President, Sustainability and Public Affairs.

20 years ago, European small-forest owners came together to create an international forest certification system that had their needs at heart. On 30 June 1999, PEFC was born. From January 2019 to June 2020, we are celebrating the achievements from 20 years of caring for forests globally and locally. Through a series of chapters, we will tell the story of PEFC, from the early ideas back in 1999, until today. From July to June, we will publish texts, photos and videos about PEFC’s history, approach, members, stakeholders and much more. Each month, one chapter will shed light on another facet of PEFC. Voices of the past and present will speak about highlights from the last 20 years, key events that have shaped the organisation, and the future of PEFC. Click Read More below for additional information.

“PEFC has been promoting nature-positive and people-positive sustainable forest management for the past 25 years, and the structures that we have put in place can be scaled up to bring even more forests under sustainable management,” said Thorsten Arndt, Head of Advocacy at PEFC International, at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 16) yesterday. Speaking at the side event “Sustainable Forest Management: Key to Biodiversity” he explained that not only about a quarter of the world’s production forests is certified under PEFC, but also one million smallholders have achieved PEFC certification. Smallholders manage a significant portion of the world’s production forests. Recent estimates suggest that smallholders are responsible for managing around 25% of all production forests globally. This highlights the crucial role they play in sustainable forest management and the broader forestry sector, and PEFC has successfully made certification accessible to them.