UPM Joins Together for Sustainability (TfS) Initiative to Enhance Sustainability in Its Supply Chains

(UPM) UPM has joined Together for Sustainability (TfS), a chemical industry initiative that promotes and improves sustainability practises within its supply chains. By joining the initiative the member companies share a wide coverage of supplier data, such as audit reports and sustainability assessments performed by independent experts.

"UPM's traditional businesses are having high exposure to chemical industry supply chain, not only on chemical raw materials but also on equipment and services." says Ilkka Nurmi,Senior Vice President, UPM Sourcing. "While UPM is not a chemical company, we actively work on portfolio transformation and have a great growth potential in biofuels and biochemicals businesses where we are heavily entering the arena of chemistry", he continues.

TfS has established a standard approach for evaluating and improving the sustainabilty performance of suppliers. Evaluation covers key areas such as environmental impact, health and safety, labour and human rights as well as management and governance. The assessments and audits benefit both members and suppliers, who only go through the process once and avoid multiple assessments by different customers.

"We welcome UPM to the TfS Initiative and look forward to working together on our shared vision of improving supply chain sustainability. UPM brings a strong track record in sustainability to the membership base as well as the ambition to work on sustainability together with the TfS members," says Rüdiger Eberhard, TfS President and Senior Vice President, Head of Procurement (CPO) Evonik Industries.

"Responsible sourcing has been high on UPM's agenda for years and we have already done a lot of work to ensure the sustainability of our supply chains. However, the global supply networks are so complex that it's necessary to pool the resources so that everyone can have access for a wider range of supplier sustainability information. This efficiency will enable focus on sustainability improvements in the supply chains. This is what TfS is all about" Nurmi tells. "We are looking forward to start working together with the other TfS members to further develop the initiative, and to make our global supply chains even more sustainable," Ilkka Nurmi concludes.

UPM
UPM leads the forest-based bioindustry into a sustainable, innovation-driven and exciting future across six business areas: UPM Biorefining, UPM Energy, UPM Raflatac, UPM Specialty Papers, UPM Communication Papers and UPM Plywood. UPM provides sustainable and safe solutions to the growing global consumption. Products are made of renewable and recyclable materials. The group employs around 19,100 people worldwide and its annual sales are approximately EUR 10 billion. UPM shares are listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. UPM - The Biofore Company - www.upm.com

About Together for Sustainability (TfS)
TfS AISBL is a joint initiative of chemical companies for sustainable supply chains. It was founded in 2011 to develop and implement a global program to assess, audit and improve sustainability practices within the supply chains of the chemical industry. Currently it has 20 member companies worldwide and intends to grow globally. TfS is a partner company of Cefic. The TfS Initiative strives to achieve mutual benefits for both its member companies and their suppliers. In doing so, social and environmental conditions are to be continuously improved for the benefit of all relevant stakeholders, including employees, neighborhoods, local communities and society as a whole. TfS consists of an assessment and an audit process. TfS members can individually and independently apply these processes for their sustainable sourcing activities. http://www.tfs-initiative.com READ MORE