1.1.–31.12.2011
The first stand-alone Sustainability report for 2010 was published in April 2011.
Data is reported for each plant according to the length of time it has been part of the Ahlstrom Group. This Sustainability report has been prepared with reference to the Global Reporting Initiative 3.1 guidelines to the level B.
[email protected] REPORTING PERIOD
BOUNDARY OF THE REPORT
FEEDBACK AND QUESTIONS
Report facts
Jan Lång
Ahlstrom is a high performance materials company, partnering with leading businesses around the world to help them stay ahead.
Well-known global companies
Helsinki, Finland
33 plants in 14 countries (as of 31.12.2011)
32 in 28 countries
5,185 employees in 28 countries on six continents
EUR 1.6 billion in 2011 (continuing operations)
on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki since 2006
in 1851 PRESIDENT & CEO
BUSINESS CUSTOMERS HEADQUARTERS MANUFACTURING PLANTS SALES OFFICES EMPLOYEES NET SALES LISTED FOUNDED
Company facts
1
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Who we are
2
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Key figures and targets
3
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Business areas
4
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CEO’s message
5
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2011 Highlights
6
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Governance and management
7
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Where do we operate in the world?
8
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Core purpose, Vision, Values, Brand promise
9
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Our sustainability framework
10
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Interacting with our stakeholders
12
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Materiality assessment
14
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Our products with purpose
20
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Sustainability in product design
Contents
24
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People and culture
26
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Ahlstrom as an employer
28
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One Ahlstrom
30
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Health and safety
32
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Community impacts
33
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Code of Conduct and human rights
34
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Supply chain
36
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Responsible sourcing
38
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Environmental management in manufacturing
44
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Appendix 1
Renewed Code of Conduct
46
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Appendix 2
Adherence to GRI3.1
47
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Appendix 3
Adherence to the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact
Who we are
Ahlstrom is a
high performance
materials company,
partnering with
leading businesses
around the world to
help them stay ahead.
We make products that people use every
day, both in the home and industry. We
have a leading market position in all four
of our business areas, Building and Energy,
Filtration, Food and Medical, and Label
and Processing.
Key financial figures
EUR million 2011* 2010 * Change, % 2009
Net sales 1,607.2 1,636.3 -1.8 1,596.1
Operating profit / loss 20.1 46.5 -56.7 -14.6 Operating profit excluding non-recurring items 49.7 66.8 -25.6 39.8
% of net sales 3.1 4.1 2.5
Profit / loss before taxes -6.6 18.8 -40.1 Profit / loss for the period -12.2 10.9 -32.9 Earnings per share, EUR -0.38 0.11 -0.72 Return on capital employed, % 2.0 5.2 -1.1 Capital expenditure excluding acquisitions* 66.4** 47.2 ** 40.6 63.8
Gearing ratio, % 38.2** 46.9 ** 57.7
Net cash from operative activities 83.7 167.5 -50.0 209.6 Dividend per share, EUR 1.30*** 0.88 47.7 0.55
*Continuing operations
**Including discontinued operations
***The Board of Directors’ proposal to the Annual General Meeting. Consisting of a dividend of EUR 0.87 per share and an extra dividend of EUR 0.43 per share.
Our sustainability performance
and targets
SOCIAL PERFORMANCE IN 2011 FOR 2012TARGETS
Achieve Zero Lost Time Accidents, Accident Frequency Rate 0 51 LTA's, AFR 5.11 17 LTA’s, AFR 1.98 Complete compliance training for all key white-collar personnel 456 employees 100% Complete Code of Conduct training for all white-collar employees N/A 100%
Human Potential Index 59 62
Goal and development discussion for all employees 72% 100%
Employee turnover 4.2% 5%
Key strategic development program completion
for targeted employees 33 employees 50 employees
ENVIRONMENTAL
Achieve zero waste to landfill by 2015 14.6 kg/T 13.5 kg/T Reduce water intake by 5% in 5 years 42.8 m3/T 43.1 m3/T Cut electricity usage by 5% in 5 years 1.037 MWh/T 1.000 MWh/T Cut fuel energy usage by 5% in 5 years 10.37 GJ/T 11.59 GJ/T Cut CO2 emissions by 10% in 5 years 553 kg/T 565 kg/T
Have 100% of production capacity ISO 14001 certified 98% 99%
ECONOMIC
Our target is to achieve at least 13% Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), which for 2011 was only 2%.
Key figures and targets
Business areas
Building and Energy
Filtration
Food and Medical
Label and Processing
is one of the leading players globally for materials used in wall- coverings, floorings and windmill blades. It has plants in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Russia and Sweden.
is the global leader in
transportation filtration materials. It has plants in Brazil, China, Finland, Italy, Spain, South Korea and the U.S.
is one of the leading players globally for materials used in teabags, food packaging, masking tape and medical gowns and drapes. It has plants in China, Finland, France, India, the U.K. and the U.S.
is one of the largest suppliers of specialty papers globally. It has plants in Brazil, France, Germany and Italy.
Strategic priorities
To strengthen wallcovering mate-rial presence particularly in Asia and expand the differentiated offering.
To strengthen position in cushion-vinyl flooring materials globally. To align supply platform for reinforcements’ materials for wind energy and marine industries to global trends.
Strategic priorities
To grow next generation applications and invest in global supply platform in transportation filtration.
To grow substantially and establish global presence in air, water and life science materials.
Strategic priorities
To expand the range of sustainable products and strengthen global presence in food applications. To expand the differentiated product offering and strengthen global platform in medical applications.
Strategic priorities
To focus on cost effective materials with sustainable features.
To grow release liners globally.
CUSTOMERS
CONSTRUCTION, ENERGy, FABRIC, MARINE AND TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRIES
CUSTOMERS
AUTOMOTIvE, WATER, ENERGy, HEALTHCARE AND FOOD INDUSTRIES
CUSTOMERS
FOOD, BEvERAGE, MEDICAL, HEALTHCARE AND CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES
CUSTOMERS
LABELING, FOOD AND INDUSTRIAL PACKAGING, GRAPHICS, COSMETICS AND PHARMACEUTICAL PACKAGING, PRINTING, FURNITURE AND
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES Building and Energy 18%
Filtration 20%
Food and Medical 21% Label and Processing 41%
Building and Energy 3% Filtration 45%
Food and Medical 24% Label and Processing 28%
CEO’s message
We believe our role, as a business, is to offer our customers products that make a positive contribution to their own sustainability performance, while achieving improvements in our own. This ambition is at the heart of everything we do, from our management of resources to our membership of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, to our investment in new environmentally-friendly products. As the world’s population rises and concentrates increasingly in cities, we see significant opportunities to contribute to a more sustainable future. We can do this by developing products that help the world save resources, and make everyday life easier, healthier, and greener, from air filters, to components for wind turbines, to specialized medical fabrics. Our recent acquisition of 49 percent of Porous Power Technologies, a US company developing separators to lithium batteries used in electric cars, is another excellent example.
Unlike many companies of our size, we already use a significant proportion of renewable raw materials – 87 percent in 2011 – and this continues to rise as we apply our expert knowledge to make more and more products from renewable fibers. Our challenges as a business relate to the fact that ours is a resource-intensive industry, and those resources are becoming scarcer, and competition for them more intense. Our response is to become more efficient in our use of those resources every year, and to continually look for new ways to consume less energy, use less water, and produce
less waste – and help our customers do the same. We have important initiatives underway in all of these areas, including a plan to reduce our waste to landfill to zero by 2015. There are more details on all of these initiatives later in this report.
In other ways we are similar to all other major businesses across the world, as we face the challenges of difficult economic conditions, volatile and rising commodity prices, changes in environmental regulation, and the risks as well as the opportunities of expanding our business into emerging markets. I am confident that we will address these issues – as well as the specific challenges of sustainability – in the same spirit that Ahlstrom has demonstrated since it was founded in 1851. We have always been a responsible company, and one that has adapted successfully to change, and these principles are made explicit both in our updated Code of Conduct, which we launched this year, and in our values, which are Acting responsibly, Creating value, and Learning and renewing. These values have helped Ahlstrom become the internationally successful company it is today, and they will help us meet the sustainability challenges of tomorrow.
Jan Lång
President and CEO
2011 Highlights
created a new vision
‘Inspiring people, passionate about new ideas, growing with our customers.’ PAGE 8
renewed our Code of Conduct.
We believe that our business dealings should not harm people, the environment or society at large. PAGE 33, 44–45
joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
and its Sustainable Forest Products Industry working group. PAGE 11
developed our own Life Cycle Assessment expertise
at our Research Center.
PAGE 22–23reduced our waste generation by 3.9% over 24 months.
PAGE 38reached zero waste to landfill from 9 plants.
PAGE 41reached zero lost time accidents in 16 plants.
PAGE 30modernized our training program portfolio.
PAGE 27made a large donation to advance human rights in India.
PAGE 33Governance and management
Ahlstrom Group’s Governance Statement 2011 is included in the Annual Report.
Our sustainability and Health, Safety, Environment and Asset management (HSEA) governance and management practices ensure that we integrate environmental and social responsibility into our daily operations. We employ several tools to do this, such as our group-wide policies and processes, sustainability targets and KPI’s, environmental management systems with third party assurance, internal audits, common sustainability measurement system and reporting.
Our Sustainability function is tasked with the development and implementation of our activities in this area. It is led by the vP, Sustainability, and vP, HSEA, who report to the EvP Sustainability and Human Resources reporting to the CEO. Ahlstrom’s Executive Management Team (EMT) is responsible for all policy issues related to sustainability.
In 2011, we decided to strengthen the organization and move to a regional
HSEA structure, with dedicated persons responsible for Europe, the Americas as well as Asian countries.
Everyday sustainability issues are handled by the Group Sustainability function together with the Supply Chain and business areas, who are responsible for the operational management of their sustainability issues. The Group function convenes regularly with the business areas to monitor performance and implement actions.
Every manufacturing plant has an identified person responsible for health, safety and environmental matters. Likewise, plants with a Chain-of-Custody certificate each have a person responsible for forest certifications. Matters of social responsibility fall under the remit of plant management together with Human Resources function, who work together to ensure that each plant has the strong culture and leadership which are necessary to achieve high standards of safety and well-being.
388,872
112,491
11%
69,869
33,809
13%
563,918
700,629
53%
2
2
350
4
15
463
20
11
3,324
205,752
136,120
23%
7
4
1,048
Where do we operate in the world?
MANUFACTURING PLANTS AS OF 31.12.2011
SALES OFFICES
EMPLOYEES PER CONTINENT*
TONS PURCHASED PER CONTINENT
TONS OF PRODUCTION PER CONTINENT
% OF SALES IN EURO PER CONTINENT
We sell our products across the world with just over half our sales in Europe. We source much of our Eucalyptus pulp in South America. Compared to 2010, we had fewer manufacturing plants in Europe and the Americas in 2011, after the sale of the Home and Personal business.
We increased our manufacturing volumes in Asia by 17 percent compared to 2010 and opened two new sales offices there. A new plant opened in Binzhou, China, which will produce glassfiber reinforcements for wind turbine blade manufacturers.
Inspiring people
Passionate about new ideas
Growing with customers
Act responsibly
Create value
Learn and renew
Performance
Improvement
Certainty
Simplicity
Ahlstrom is a high performance materials
company, partnering with leading businesses
around the world to help them stay ahead.
Vision
Values
Brand promise
Stay ahead
Our sustainability
framework
We put this into practice by organizing our sustainability efforts in the same way as we organize our business. And right across Ahlstrom you’ll find the same commitment to safety and human rights, and a shared ambition to be a leader in sustainability in our sector.
Product development
It all starts with product development. We make products that are designed to be useful, but thanks to the high proportion of renewable raw materials we use they are also sustainable. The product development process is particularly significant in this respect, because as much as 80 percent of a product’s environmental impacts are determined in the design phase.
Responsible sourcing
Sourcing is an important area for us, given the nature of our products. In 2011
87 percent of our fiber raw materials came from renewable sources, and all our wood fiber suppliers have third party certification for their forests.
Manufacturing
Our manufacturing operations are always striving to be more efficient. It’s all about doing more with less, and saving both money and resources. At the same time we want to minimize our emissions to air, water and soil.
Sales and marketing
We are good stewards of the products we make, and pride ourselves on building long-term relationships with our customers. They face many of the same sustainability challenges that we do, and we can help them meet these challenges by providing more sustainable products, and sharing our own expertise.
We want Ahlstrom to be a successful and
sustainable business, not just economically,
but socially and environmentally. Everything
we do is underpinned by this belief, from the
way we manage our supply chain, to the way
we manage our workplaces.
Minimized environmental impacts of the products over their life cycle (LCA) Social impacts of products
Certified fiber sources Supplier Code of Conduct
Water use Waste minimization Resource efficiency Energy use
Minimized emissions to air, water and soil
Product stewardship Sustainable value propositions
Helping customers to solve their sustainability challenges
Safety in workplace, human rights, leadership and management practices
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT RESPONSIbLE SOURCING MANUFACTURING SALES AND MARkETING
Interacting with our
stakeholders
STAkEHOLDER GROUP EXAMPLES OF DIALOGUE ASSESSMENTS
CUSTOMERS
Face to face meetings and other contacts via the sales force, www.ahlstrom.com
Joint product development projects Annual and Sustainability reports
Customer satisfaction surveys
Feedback
EMPLOYEES
Daily contacts
Performance management process Ahlstrom Academy training program Insite intranet
Inside magazine
Ahlstrom’s European Dialogue Internal information meetings Local cooperation with unions and employee representatives
Employee surveys Pulse surveys
SUPPLIERS
Face to face meetings and other contacts via the Global Sourcing organization Joint seminars (e.g. Sustainability) Joint product development projects Joint cost reduction projects
Supplier surveys SHAREHOLDERS AND INVESTORS, ANALYSTS, MEDIA
Annual General Meeting Annual Capital Markets Day www.ahlstrom.com
Quarterly conference calls and webinars Annual and Sustainability reports Interim reports
Stock exchange and press releases Road shows
Face to face meetings
Media monitoring Bi-annual media visibility report
ACADEMIA
Practical training and degree theses Research and development projects Recruitment fairs Student visits Preferred employer surveys SOCIETY: GOVERNMENT, REGULATORS, NATIONAL AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES, COMMUNITIES
Local level cooperation with the authorities
Open house events at production plants Public hearings INDUSTRY PEERS, COMPETITORS, bUSINESS PARTNERS, NGO’S, TRADE ASSOCIATIONS
Participation in trade associations, lobbying and joint projects in environmental matters
Employee feedback
A company-wide employee survey was run for the second time in 2011 with the purpose of assessing the level of satisfaction, motivation and commitment of the whole Ahlstrom Group, and giving our people an opportunity to express their views and recommendations on ways to improve their own work and workplaces.
The response rate was a very good 80.5 percent (74.3% in 2010) with 4,221 respondents in 17 languages and 27 countries.
There was an improvement in all areas this year, as measured by a Human Potential Index, with the sole exception of Ahlstrom’s image as an employer. This received some critical feedback. Employees appreciate being able to make their own decisions at work, and office workers felt stimulated and challenged in their work.
Production workers felt most satisfied with the levels of cooperation within their teams. Work/life balance was felt to be one of Ahsltrom’s strengths, and people also felt empowered to try new ideas, which is a positive reflection of our values. People are also satisfied with the amount of information they receive concerning their own work.
A main area for improvement was team spirit. An important action is to activate goal and development discussions to cover everyone, as it seems to have a clear and positive connection with job motivation and engagement.
Customer feedback
Customer satisfaction is a strategic KPI for Ahlstrom. We conducted a customer survey measuring loyalty according to Net Promoter Index in 2011. We were not fully satisfied with the results and have put plans in place to make improvements. These include ways to make our customer service reflect our values, make it more predictable and reliable, and speed up our response times. The results were further analyzed by business and sales units for specific follow-up plans. We aim to repeat the survey twice per year. The results were further analyzed by business and sales units for specific follow-up plans. We aim to repeat the survey twice per year.
Academia
The nature of our business, and the specific sustainability challenges we face, make it vitally important for us to have close relationships with key universities, and specifically those close to our major plants. In Italy, we have collaborated with the University of Turin and in France with Centre Technique du Papier in Grenoble. In the United States we support North Carolina State University. A major grant was paid in 2010 and 2011 to Aalto University in Finland.
Over the years, numerous students have completed their degrees by doing their diploma work or thesis at Ahlstrom. In 2011 we had 39 people working for their M.Sc. or Ph.D. degrees in our units. We also like to welcome student visits to our plants.
Memberships of associations
World business Council for Sustainable Development (WbCSD)
WBCSD is a coalition of international companies united by a shared commitment to sustainable development. Ahlstrom joined WBCSD in 2011 and became a member of its Sustainable
Forest Products Industry working group. www.wbcsd.org
European Disposable and Nonwovens Association (EDANA)
Ahlstrom is an active member of EDANA with a board chairmanship held by Jean-Marie Becker until 1.11.2011 when he became a Suominen executive due to the divestment of the Home and Personal business. Ahlstrom is also a member of the Board Working Group of Sustainability and participates in its
Environmental Evaluation Committee and other business area specific committees. www.edana.org
PaperImpact
PaperImpact is the European Speciality Paper Manufacturers’ Association where Ahlstrom is a founding member. Ahlstrom is a member of its Board of Directors and leading the Public Affairs
and Legislation Working Group. www.paperimpact.org
National Industry Federations
Ahlstrom has representatives on the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), Copacel (Confederation Francaise de l’Industrie des Papiers), Assocarta in Italy and the German Pulp and Paper Association.
Sector specific associations
Ahlstrom is represented in various sector specific associations, both internationally and in local markets where it operates, e.g. American Filtration Society, FINAT (the world-wide association for manufacturers of self-adhesive labels and related products and services) and many others.
SHAREHOLDERS AND INvESTORS, ANALySTS, MEDIA CUSTOMERS ACADEMIA INDUSTRy PEERS, COMPETITORS, BUSINESS PARTNERS, NGO’S, TRADE ASSOCIATIONS SOCIETy; GOvERNMENT, REGULATORS, NATIONAL AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES
EMPLOyEES SUPPLIERS STRENGTH OF THE RELATIONSHIP: WEAkER TO STRONGER LENGTH OF THE RELATIONSHIP: SHORTER TO LONGER
Materiality assessment
LEVEL OF CONCERN TO STAkEHOLDERS
LEVEL OF CONCERN TO AHLSTROM
LOW MEDIUM HIGH
Supplier Code of Conduct Product stewardship
Reducing environmental impacts of customers with products
Cost savings through sustainability Code of Conduct
Open and transparent communication
Integration of sustainability into business processes and product development
Well-being Health and safety
Megatrends creating new markets
Employee attraction
Waste management Renewable raw materials
Certifications
Availability and price of raw materials Stakeholder
engagement
Efficiency of operations and minimizing emissions Life Cycle Assessment
Human rights Community Support for employees affected by redundancies
Sustainability training to employees
better and targeted sustainability information about products
Emerging market opportunities
Raw material safety
LOW
MEDIUM
Strategic sustainability priorities
As a result of the workshop, we decided that helping our customers to reduce the environmental impact of their own businesses with the help of our products is the highest priority for Ahlstrom. For example, our products help to save energy and waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, clean the air or water, and minimize the use of resources. We already have many products that do this (pages 14 –19) and we are determined to develop more. We believe there are new markets and emerging opportunities for these products, all of which are indeed products with purpose.
In general, our products are our best and most important sustainability asset. We want to be good stewards of them, ensuring that they are safe, and can be
made, used, and disposed of with minimal environmental impacts. We also aim to provide our customers with sustainability information about our product ranges which is more transparent, and more targeted.
Managing our resources as efficiently as possible and minimizing waste in all phases of the process is of strategic importance to Ahlstrom and paramount for the sustainability of any operation.
Our decision to update our Code of Conduct in 2011, based on our company values, and implement a new Supplier Code of Conduct in 2012 is proof of the importance we attach to business ethics, both within Ahlstrom, and in our relationships with business partners.
We commissioned PwC Helsinki to conduct a materiality
assessment of the aspects of our business relevant
to sustainability in 2011. They evaluated a stakeholder
sustainability survey conducted in late 2010, a list
of sustainability trends and issues raised by our
competitors and peer group companies, and interviews
with our executive management team, as well as our
Sustainability Annual Plan for 2011. Those issues
deemed to be material were ranked by the executive
management team in a Sustainability workshop, which
helped us set new and ambitious targets in these areas.
Our products
with purpose
Our products are an integral part
of the modern world. You may
not always notice them, but they
play a key role in industry, in
the home, and in transport. On
the following pages you will find
examples of our products from
wallcovering to wind turbines
and water filters.
Glassfiber tissue has a whole
range of uses, from laminate flooring to building panels. As this suggests, glassfiber tissue has to be both strong and reliable, but it also needs to be resistant to mold and moisture, to prevent weather damage and the spread of bacteria. We currently use synthetic binders in our products, but our Life Cycle Assessment work has encouraged us to look for renewable alternatives, which will significantly reduce their environmental impact.
Our glassfiber reinforcements are used as surfacing materials for the blades of wind turbines. Wind power is one of the most significant and promising forms of renewable energy, and by 2008 had already saved close to 300 million tons of CO2
emissions per year, and EUR 6.6 billion of fuel costs, according to the European Wind Energy Association. With the expansion of off-shore technology turbines will become even bigger and more efficient, and we’re meeting this demand by developing new glassfiber reinforcements that can cope with these demanding conditions.
We use 100 percent recycled polyester fibers in all our
wallcoverings, which has
reduced their cradle to gate environmental footprint by 10 percent. We’re now looking for natural fibers to replace the synthetic ones – wallcoverings like this are hung by pasting the wall first, so our challenge is to find a formulation that will maintain our products’ ‘paste-the-wall’ performance.
We’ve developed a new fabric specially designed for teabag manufacturers.
Ahlstrom bioWebTM is made
entirely from renewable raw materials, and its carbon footprint is at least 30 percent lower than other similar products. It uses almost no water during manufacture, and can be made into teabags at a lower temperature, which means our customers can save energy.
Another one of our specialty products is called Cristal
Evolution. It is made only
from cellulose fibers sourced from responsibly managed forests. These fibers are fully recyclable and biodegrade in just a few weeks. Ahlstrom Cristal Evolution was the very first product that could be used to replace the plastic in envelope windows, which has made it possible to recycle over 3,000 tons of paper every year.
Cristal Evolution is also ideal for bread bags – it’s light, thin, and allows the bread to breathe, and can also be printed on.
We provide high performance
Ahlstrom Genuine Vegetable Parchment molds for customers
seeking an environmentally-friendly solution to plastic or aluminium. Produced from renewable sources, parchment molds are 100 percent
biodegradable and produce a significantly lower carbon footprint than alternatives like aluminium.
One of our most important products is what is known as a release liner. These are the ‘backing sheets’ used to supply the adhesive labels you see on thousands of consumer goods, from food and drink to car tyres. Liners like this are coated with silicone, which allows the sticky label to come away easily. We’ve recently developed a new
Ahlstrom Acti-VTM release liner
which is far more sustainable than its competitors – it’s made from 100 percent renewable raw materials, and the silicone can be applied at a lower temperature, which saves energy. This silicone also contains as much as 60 percent less platinum than traditional alternatives.
Our indicator papers are packed with surgical instruments, so that surgeons and nurses and see at once whether they have been properly sterilized, and be confident in using them. We have a range of poster
papers for use on billboards
and in open-air urban environments, which are all made of natural fibers from renewable and responsible sources. Outdoor posters are still one of the most effective forms of marketing in terms of return on investment, and we’re helping to make this form of advertising more sustainable.
Ahlstrom specialty materials are also used for other
medical and diagnostics applications. you can find
them in home pregnancy kits, or in some of the testing materials used in hospitals. They’re also used in the very sensitive process of screening newborn babies for life-threatening hereditary and genetic conditions. A small amount of the baby’s blood is spotted onto Ahlstrom paper and tested, which allows for early diagnosis and more effective preventative treatment.
Ahlstrom air filtration is trusted to create a ‘cleanroom’ environment for hospital operating theatres. Our filters keep the air free from dust, bacteria, viruses and airborne microbes. We sell similar filters to other organizations that require ultra-clean air, such as electronics manufacturers.
We have a full range of specialized medical fabrics which are used to create protective barriers that help prevent the spread of infection. They’re used in surgical drapes, gowns and, sterilization barrier systems used in operating theatres. They are specifically designed to be disposable, because this requires fewer resources than laundering, sterilization, and re-packaging them for subsequent use. All of these products can be safely incinerated.
Filter products are an important product area for us, especially those used in cars, with as many as 50 percent of the world’s automobiles using Ahlstrom filters. We now offer to the filter manufacturers for the automotive industry ‘fast
curing’ filter materials for use in
vehicles. This process allows the materials to be turned into the required filter component at a lower temperature, which saves energy.
These materials can also be used in flame retardant products which are more sustainable than other alternatives, because they do not involve the use of the potentially hazardous PBDEs (Polybrominated Di-phenyl Ethers). We’re already selling our new ‘fast-curing’ filter materials in Europe, Asia and South America.
As air quality becomes an increasingly important health concern, we’re developing more and more indoor air
filtration products, designed
to remove the damaging particulates and volatile organic molecules which may come in from outside, as well as the gases that can be produced from cleaning and cooking inside the building.
Ahlstrom Disruptor ® is one
of our advanced water filtration products. It produces clean and safe residential drinking water in gravity-flow filter devices, without the need for chemicals or electricity. Ahlstrom Disruptor®
removes pesticides, trace pharmaceuticals, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. It can also be used at a municipal level to test water quality. Our filter products are just as
vital to consumers as they are to industry. Our milk filter
media are used on farms
to ensure that bacteria are kept under control. This helps maximize dairy production and protect the purity of the milk.
Our gas turbine filtration media help ensure that this vital machinery works at maximum efficiency, however challenging the environment. Optimizing the filtration process can increase power plant output by up to 20 percent and cut gas consumption by 10 percent, which also reduces CO2
Sustainability in product design
“Our ambition is to incorporate the principles
of sustainability and green chemistry
into our product design.”
Dr. Paul Stenson, EVP, Product and Technology Development
Ahlstrom’s product development is run by a central group
based at Pont-Evêque, France, and there is also a network of
experts working within our four business areas – Building and
Energy, Filtration, Food and Medical, and Label and Processing.
Our 2012 target is to incorporate a Sustainability checklist into the process we follow for all our new product designs, and we also aim to extend our Life Cycle Assessment expertise to cover more of our strategic product ranges. A longer term ambition, but one where we are already making progress, is to adopt the principles of ‘green chemistry’ into our new product development processes.
Green chemistry
Green chemistry is a whole new approach to product design, which aims to reduce or eliminate hazardous chemicals from product development and manufacture. The key point is that this assessment occurs in the design phase, on the basis that it is better to prevent waste or harmful emissions than to deal with them later. There are twelve core principles of green chemistry, which range from pollution prevention, to energy efficiency, to the use of safer solvents. you can read more about this on
Meeting customer demands for sustainable products
the green chemistry website, http://www. warnerbabcock.com/green_chemistry/
A good practical example of how we are applying the green chemistry approach is the gradual removal of all hazardous raw materials from our existing products and manufacturing operations. Formaldehyde, for example, is a component in the synthetic binders we use to improve the strength of paper, nonwoven and glass-based products. As a result, traces of formaldehyde are found in the emissions from the drying ovens in our Filtration, and Building and Energy production plants, which require careful monitoring and ventilation. We have now started work to completely eliminate formaldehyde from our production processes.
Saving energy
Energy reduction is another priority for us, and there are numerous examples of progress in this area. We are, for instance, looking at treating our raw pulp with
enzymes – this natural process starts breaking the fibers down before they are refined, which means we will need less energy later. Our Filtration business is also introducing new ‘fast curing’ materials for our key automotive filter customers. These materials can be turned into specific filter components more quickly and at a lower temperature, which saves our customers energy.
New technologies
We’re always exploring ways of using new technology to make our products more effective and more sustainable. For example, we have now launched the innovative Ahlstrom Acti-vTM technology
for the backing sheets that supply product labels. The technical name for these sheets is release liners, and they are coated with silicone to ensure that the adhesive label comes away easily. Our new process allows these liners to be coated with silicone at a lower temperature, and reduces the platinum content, without compromising the quality of the product.
We have also developed a special Ahlstrom BioWebTM fabric for teabag
manufacturers. Its carbon footprint is at least 30 percent lower than similar products, it needs minimal water during manufacture, and it can be made into teabags at a lower temperature, allowing our customers to save energy.
Meeting customer expectations
Our customers expect us to deliver products that are sustainably sourced, and manufactured in a safe and reliable manner, without causing pollution to the environment. As much as 87 percent of our raw material fibers are already green, because they are sourced from renewable sources. The comparable figure for a petrochemicals based materials supplier would be around 20 percent. By applying the principles of green chemistry to our product design and manufacture we hope to further improve our performance, and demonstrate our ambition to be a leader in this field in our sector.
From cradle to gate
During 2011 we developed our own Life Cycle Assessment expertise so that we can assess the impact of our products from cradle to gate – in other words, from raw materials to the moment the product leaves our factory. In some cases we can extend that analysis through to the product’s use and final disposal, though clearly this is a harder task, as the data is more difficult to come by.
Our Life Cycle Assessment evaluations take into account all the product’s potential
environmental impacts, from carbon emissions, to energy and water use. This assessment helps us make better decisions internally, but it is also invaluable externally, since more and more of our customers are now asking us about the environmental performance of our products.
We’ve carried out four Life Cycle studies so far, using the international ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards to assess our wallcoverings, release liners, glassfiber and vegetable parchment products. This work has concentrated on the products’ impacts
to the point they leave the factory gate: we’ve focused on this part of the cycle because this is where we can have the most influence.
Eco-design approach
Looking forwards, we aim to fully integrate our Life Cycle Assessment into the research and design stage of the development process, since it is known that up to 80 percent of a product’s impacts are determined by the decisions made then.
Assessing the
Life Cycle impacts
of our products
Raw material extraction
End-of-life
Product use
Conversion and packaging Manufacturing
Material processing
Life Cycle impacts
What we have learned so far is that the
raw materials and energy we use have
the greatest bearing on our products’
environmental impacts. As a result, we are
endeavoring to use a higher proportion of
renewable polymers, like poly-lactic acid
(PLA), and recycled synthetic polymers,
like polyethyleneterephtalate (rPET). We
are also working on our energy efficiency.
We studied the contribution of raw materials, energy, water and waste treatment as well as transportation of raw materials to the main environmental impacts of Ahlstrom wallcovering products.
Energy is the main contributor to carbon footprint (global warming potential), while raw materials account for the biggest impacts on acid rain (air acidification potential) or harmful nutrients in water (water eutrophication potential).
Our vegetable parchment molds are made of 98 percent renewable raw materials. We have compared their life cycle impacts to those of aluminium molds. In cradle to gate comparisons, Vegetable Parchment molds have half of the carbon footprint impacts. The performance of aluminium is more affected by the end-of-life phase – if it is recycled it comes closer to parchment. Composting parchment does not, however, significantly lower its impacts compared to landfilling and incineration.
Vegetable parchment molds
Another useful piece of information relates to our logistics footprint. Our analysis has shown that the bulk shipping of wood pulp from South America to our European manufacturing plants is actually a relatively environmentally-efficient method of transportation.
Inbound freight
CED=Cumulative Energy Demand 40 20 60 100 80 % CED No ren ewab le CE RD enew able CE TD OT Glob al wa rming pote ntial Water use Abiot ic dep letion Ozon e lay er dep letion Photo chem ical oxid ation Acidi ficat ion Eutro phica tion 0 Wallpaper with eucalyptus from Portugal Wallpaper with eucalyptus from South America
Contribution analysis of a wallcover product
Water eutrophication potential Air acidification potential Global warming potential
Raw materials 66% 61% 44% 18% 50% 8% 23% 5% 8% 16% 1% Energy
Transportation of raw materials Water and waste treatment
Common culture
and global processes
are key objectives
of One Ahlstrom.
People
Diversity
We have always believed that a more diverse business is a more creative business. We have employees in 28 countries, with 64 percent in Europe, 20 percent in North America and 8.5 percent in Asia.
In 2011 our Board had one female director out of a total of seven. Three of the members were over 50 years old, and the other four were between 30 and 50. Two of the ten members of the Executive Management Team were female, and four executives were older than 50 years.
Of the total workforce 23 percent were women, compared to 19 percent in 2010. There is a balance of ages across the whole Group.
Inspiring people
One of the three elements of our vision is ‘inspiring people’. This ambition extends from our own employees to our customers and business partners, and all our other stakeholders. We particularly want to inspire our own people – empower them to succeed and encourage them to fulfill their potential. We want to be an employer of choice and an organization that never stops learning.
There were 5,185 people working at Ahlstrom at the end of 2011, compared to 5,639 at the end of 2010. This reduction was largely due to the sale of the Home and Personal business to Suominen Corporation, and the profit improvement program. The employee turnover rate was 4.2, and 98 percent were in permanent positions, compared to 96 percent the year before.
Dialogue
We manage employee relations at a local level. Many of our employees are covered by local collective bargaining agreements.
We held our annual Ahlstrom European Dialogue meeting on May 11, 2011 in vantaa, Finland. This involved 18 representatives from 13 European plants. The meeting included a briefing from management on our financial results, and an update on the progress being made on our strategy, objectives and key projects. Each representative brought a list of questions to the meeting, which had been agreed by their colleagues beforehand.
Meetings like this are one way for our people to give feedback, but we also run surveys across the whole company. In 2011 over
4,000 people took part to our employee survey, which was a response rate of over 80 percent. We analyze the results of this survey to calculate what is known as our ‘Human Potential Index’, HPI. The level of our HPI is a key performance indicator for us, and is one of the factors taken into account when determining managers’ bonuses. There’s more on this survey on page 10.
Performance management
A good performance appraisal system is as important to the individual as it is to the company. It helps us ensure we have the skills we need to execute our strategy effectively, and identifies opportunities for personal and professional development for our staff. Since 2011, all our white-collar employees in Ahlstrom have been using the same performance management process.
Ahlstrom as an employer
Headcount* by country Headcount* by educational level
Headcount* by age *Employed 31.12.2011 *Employed 31.12.2011 *Employed 31.12.2011 2011 2010 2009 < 29 13% 13% 13% 27% 27% 27% 33% 34% 34% 24% 23% 23% 3% 3% 3% < 39 < 49 < 59 > 60 2011 2010 2009 Basic 42% 45% 50% 36% 35% 31% 13% 13% 11% 9% 7% 8% Professional B.Sc. M.Sc. Ph.D. 2011 2010 2009 Asia 20% 24% 11% 12% 13% 22% 21% 23% 24% 11% 9% 10% 8% 5%9% 7% 7% 7% 10% 8% 11% 7% 12% 9% Brazil Germany Others USA France Italy Finland
Arvind Purushothaman has worked for the building and Energy business area since January 2009. He helps develop next-generation products like battery separators, wallcoverings, and protective packaging for the automotive, apparel, and home furnishing sectors, with a special emphasis on finding more sustainable products and supporting our automotive customers. He found it stimulating to work with such a diverse group of like-minded people on the program: “The JUMP training was an eye-opener for me. Topics like coaching techniques, cross-cultural intelligence and leadership were really interesting and thought-provoking.”
KEy HUMAN RESOURCES FIGURES
2011 2010 2009
Number of employees at year-end 5,185 5,639 5,841
Employee turnover rate 4.20% 4.00% na
Share of women among all employees 23% 19% 18% Women in Executive Management Team 2 out of 10 2 out of 10 2 out of 12 Women in Board of Directors 1 out of 7 1 out of 6 0 out of 7
Daniele borlatto has worked for Ahlstrom since 1990, in a range of different roles including accounting, sales, and VP positions in Filtration, and is now EVP for the Label and Processing business area. He attended JUMP in 1995, at an early stage of his career, and still considers it one of the best training programs he’s ever done, “It’s a unique opportunity to discover yourself in respect of your personal goals and working ambitions.”
Reflections from a new and old “Jumpee ”
Learning
‘Learning and renewing’ is one of our core values, and in the last year we’ve made a number of improvements to each of the three main components of our portfolio of training courses. The first of these is the
Ahlstrom Academy, which is open to all
employees, and where we have continued to focus on skills of strategic importance for us. We are also streamlining the training offered across the Group, to reinforce our aim of being One Ahlstrom wherever we are in the world. For example we gave the same Project Management training in 5 different countries to a total of 130 employees. Almost 1,000 employees took part in an Ahlstrom Academy course during the year, which is close to 50 percent of the white-collar workforce.
The second element of our training program is leadership and management
development. During 2011 the first two
groups of senior managers graduated from our The Way Forward program, which aims to build knowledge in key strategic areas such as leading people and change, sales and marketing, supply chain, strategy, and business practices in Asia.
We also extended the third element of our training: our leadership development and
mentoring program for future leaders, which
is called JUMP, and which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011. This is one of our most important programs, and has helped us identify and develop some of our most successful leaders. Here are some views from those who attended the program – one from 2011, and one from 1995.
One Ahlstrom
One of Ahlstrom’s special qualities as
a company is the mix of people who
work here. We rejoice in the diversity of
nationalities and backgrounds that come
together in Ahlstrom, and we are united
in our belief in the same values, and our
commitment to the same goals.
We’re proud of the positive working
environment we create at Ahlstrom – we
believe in working hard and achieving
goals, but it’s equally important to have a
good balance between work and free time.
These stories from around the world show
how our people are working together to
improve safety at work, team spirit, care for
their communities, and make progress on
sustainability.
Teambuilding in China
Whenever we open a new facility we always start by focusing on the sort of company we are, and the values we believe in. When we began operations at our Chinese plant in Binzhou, for example, we organized two workshops about our values, and a team-building event around our vision: ‘inspiring people’ and ‘passionate about new ideas’. The workshops helped the teams to discover that nothing is impossible, that new ideas are the root of success, and that working together with the same values allows the whole team to achieve its goals. “This training inspires us and gives us new ideas for innovation, as well as improving the efficiency in our work,” said Wang Xinhai, Winder Operator at the plant.
Supporting the local community in brazil
Our two plants at Jacareí and Louveira, in Brazil, are both working actively with charities for local children. Jacareí works with AME (Associação Morada da Esperança), which helps children living in poverty, and Louveira supports CIELO, an organisation for people with learning disabilities.
Every Christmas a special tree is erected in the plants’ reception areas, and decorated with baubles bearing a wish from a local child. Our employees volunteer to choose a bauble and make the wish come true. We also hold a Christmas party for the children. As Cid Portugal, a shift supervisor at Jacareí and one of the organizers of the party says, “It is a magical moment”, and particularly so for him, since he was once a recipient of one of these gifts as a child.
In November 2011 the local authority held a special event to mark Ahlstrom’s contribution to the community, and encouraged other companies in the city to do the same. “It is gratifying to know that our small gestures can help,” said José Laércio Pereira, our HR Manager for Brazil.
Collaboration in Italy
Teams at our plant at Turin have made some real progress on safety in the last year, as part of their ambition to achieve a zero accident rate. Some of the improvements relate to better processes, such as speeding-up the reporting of near-misses, but the greatest improvement has come from empowering individuals to take more responsibility themselves. As Diego Bianca, the Health and Safety Manager at the plant says, “we have a new approach called PARS, which stands in Italian for ‘think and act responsibly and safely’. It means everyone ensuring that they have the right training for the job, and the task is safe to do.” ‘Act responsibly’ is, of course, one of Ahlstrom’s values, and this is a great example of how much this can achieve in practice. The plant hasn’t achieved a zero accident rate yet, but there have been real improvements thanks to the new spirit of collaboration across the whole plant.
Committed to sustainable operations in India
We opened our manufacturing facility in Mundra, India in May 2010. India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, and the competition for talented employees is becoming extremely fierce. We’re proud to say that Ahlstrom has proved to be an employer of choice locally, with almost 75 percent of our employees university graduates, the highest in the whole company. The number of people studying for higher degrees in Mundra was also the company’s highest at 10 in 2011.
The plant produces single-use protective fabrics for the healthcare industry, and it also uses state-of-the-art technology to minimize its environmental impacts. Water, in particular, is a crucial issue in India, where the climate is so dry, and we have worked hard to ensure our plant is extremely efficient in its use of water for humidification, cooling and general housekeeping. The plant uses only 11,441 m3 of
water annually, but unlike most similar facilities, does not release any effluent back into the environment. We purify our waste water and channel it to a drip irrigation system to water the hundreds of trees that our employees have planted around the plant. The first of these were planted in February 2010 and now there are over 400 coconut trees, 100 sapota trees, as well as many local species.
*2012 target
ASR = accident severity rate. The accident severity rate is calculated by dividing the number of days of absence, by the man hours worked, and multiplying by 1000.
*2012 target
AFR = accident frequency rate. The accident frequency rate is calculated by dividing the number of accidents that result in absence, by the man hours worked, and multiplying by 1,000,000. *2012 target
LTA = lost time accidents.
Accidents that cause the absence of an employee from work for X number of days.
ASR AFR
LTA
Health and safety
Health and safety is included in our overall Risk Management Policy, and our Group Standards and Guidelines, which reflect best practice as defined in the OHSAS (Occupation Health and Safety Assessment Series) 18000. All our plants and employees are covered by this, as well as anyone else who is directly affected by what we do, such as contractors and visitors to our plants. Plant inspections are carried out on a three-year cycle, and any resulting recommendations monitored via a web-based tracking system. We are also implementing OHSAS 18001 across all our plants, with 15 accredited so far. See table on page 42.We’ve made significant progress on reducing workplace injuries at our
manufacturing plants over the last ten years. The Accident Frequency Rate, or AFR, is defined as number of lost time accidents per million man hours. This was 39.08 in 2001, which equated to 373 lost time accidents, but by 2011 it had dropped to 5.11 – a reduction of nearly 90 percent in ten years. Our target for 2012 is 1.98. Safety results are also linked to management compensation.
In the long term our ambition is to have no workplace accidents at all, and we fully believe this is achievable. In fact 16 of our 38 plants did so in 2011. Our challenge now is to achieve this across the whole group, which will help us fulfill our ambition to be the leader in our industry in terms of employee safety. 150 50 100 200 250 300 450 400 350 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 * 0 0.2 0.05 0.1 0 0.15 0.25kpl kpl 11 12* 10 09 08 07 15 5 0 10 20 kpl 11 12* 10 09 08 07 kpl
The experience of our plant in brignoud, South-East France, proves what a difference it can make to have a full-time health and safety expert on plant. Sebastien Jaffrezic was first appointed in 2008, when the plant’s track record was good, but there was still plenty of room for improvement. Having a dedicated professional overseeing procedures and assessing potential hazards resulted in noticeable progress in a short space of time. The key here was a shift in mindset from seeing safety as a chore or even a disciplinary matter, to one where its importance is integral to the plant’s operating culture, and everyone on-site understands the contribution it makes to effective working, and high-quality production.
In the three years since 2008, the lost-time accident rate at the plant has fallen to zero, but no-one sees this as cause for complacency. As Jean-Guy Durand, Plant Manager says, “We have done well, but our intention is to be world class, and there is some way to go to reach that, but we are confident our team can get there.”
One of the key safety issues at our Madisonville plant is the scrap paper baler. Nearly all of the plant’s paper waste is processed on plant using this baler, and then sent to be recycled into insulation material. There were no accidents during 2010 or 2011, but over 650 near-misses, which led to a number of changes to working processes to improve safety.
The team began by carrying out a standard hazard assessment, and gathering input from each of the operators working on the baler. The most important recommendations that emerged related to changes in the way materials were handled and lifted, which reduced the likelihood of strains and injuries. ‘Ergonomic’ changes like this can make a significant difference to employees’ well-being at work.
Progress on
health and safety
in Brignoud, France
Ergonomic improvements
at Madisonville, USA
Seven years without lost time
accidents in Taylorville, USA
In February 2012, our plant at Taylorville marked seven years without a single lost time accident. This has taken hard work by every employee, every day, and a complete dedication to continuous improvement. The whole plant is involved in safety training, safety audits, and the reporting and prevention of near–misses. There are events at the plant to mark each new safety milestone, with families brought together to celebrate what’s already been achieved, and to look forward to the next one.
Community impacts
make efficiency savings across a number of other plants as part of a company-wide profit improvement program. The latter was necessary because we want our business to be sustainable not only environmentally, but also economically. To do that, we have to ensure that we are profitable, both now and in the future, and in some circumstances this can mean we have to close some plants, as was the case this year. We understand that it has very real consequences both for the employees concerned, and the surrounding community. We offer a range of support for people facing redundancy, such as redeployment, outplacement, re-training, coaching or financial support to start their own businesses.
During 2011 we were forced to make 170 employees redundant in Finland, 74 in the USA, 39 in Germany, 22 in Italy, and 35 in Brazil, as well as 22 in various other locations, Our operations often play a major role in
their local communities, especially when they are located in fairly rural areas, where they are major employers and tax-payers, and important business partners for local firms.
Every plant is encouraged to invest in their communities and support local causes. At a group level, the Annual Meeting authorizes significant charitable contributions, such as the EUR 250,000 paid to the Aalto University in Finland in 2010 and 2011, and the EUR 120,000 donated to the Eva Ahlström Foundation in 2011. We do not make political donations.
Focusing our strategy
Among the strategic decisions about the future direction of our business made last year, one was to stop the glass fiber manufacturing in our plant in Karhula, and
making a total of 362. A further 446 people transferred to Suominen Corporation as part of our divestment of the Home and Personal business.
According to our strategy for the future to grow in Asia, we acquired a filtration plant in Binzhou, in China’s Shandong province, in 2010. We began producing glass fiber reinforcements at the plant in late 2011, with a special focus on components for the wind turbines needed for renewable energy generation, which is a major growth area in Asia. We also plan to make wallcoverings at the Binzhou plant, and announced a joint venture for the production of masking tape substrates and medical papers in Longkou, Shandong province, China. By the end of 2011 we had 207 employees in China and our production in Asia Pacific had increased by 17 percent compared to 2010.
Wherever we do business,
we have an impact on the
world around us, whether
on the local community, the
local economy, or the natural
environment. We want to
make our presence as positive
as possible, by making a
constructive economic and
social contribution and by
minimizing any negative
impacts.
AHLSTROM’S ECONOMIC IMPACTS IN 2011
1000 EUR 2011 2010 2009
Direct economic value generated *
a) Revenues 1,852,582 1,894,200 1,596,100
Economic value distributed *
b) Operating costs 1,496,692 1,416,251 1,207,202
c) Employee wages and benefits 353,806 350,000 337,800 d) Payments to providers of capital 22,914 28,200 27,000
e) Payments to government 5,210 7,600 -7,100
f) Community investments 74 74 66
Economic value retained (calculated as Economic value generated less Economic value distributed)
-26,133 92,075 31,132 AHLSTROM’S CHARITAbLE CONTRIbUTIONS 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0 10 09 11 08 07 06 EUR Group Local
Code of Conduct
and human rights
Code of Conduct
Our values as a company are ‘Act responsibly, Create value, and Learn and renew’. As part of this, we have recently updated our Code of Conduct, which covers all aspects of the way we deal with employees, business partners and communities. The revised Code now includes a grievance mechanism which allows employees to report any concerns they may have to [email protected]. Only the vP, Legal Affairs, General Counsel has access to this e-mail address. The Code was approved late in the year and no concerns were reported in 2011.
you can read the full text of the Code in the appendix 1 on page 44–45.
We will be training all our employees on their responsibilities under the Code in the course of 2012. We will also be introducing a Supplier Code of Conduct this year.
Human rights
We are committed to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and we observe the International Labor Organization’s Core Conventions on labor rights. These are particularly important in markets where the local legal framework is under-developed. We also support the United Nations Global Compact and its 10 principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.
Issues relating to human rights are included in our Code of Conduct, and in an internal audit standard applied to all our plants. These audits also include health and safety, and the environment, and are carried out once every three years. Ten assessments were made in 2011, which means 31 percent of the 32 operating plants at year’s end had been audited for human rights.
We have comprehensive compliance policies, for which we provide online and face-to face training, with a special emphasis on competition, antitrust and anti-corruption issues. A total of 456 people were trained last year, and we are focusing in particular on training staff in Asia, since that’s a region of strategic importance for us.
The Eva Ahlström Foundation is a humanitarian organization that supports
underprivileged women, children and young people in Finland and throughout the world, especially those dealing with poverty, oppression, war, political instability or natural disasters. The Eva Ahlström Foundation was founded in 2010 in honor of Eva Ahlström, the wife of Ahlstrom’s founder, who was a generous supporter of healthcare, culture, and education, especially for girls.
The Foundation is currently supporting a three-year program in the Madhya Pradesh area of India, where it is working with UNICEF Finland to provide clean water, sanitation and better hygiene in schools. Educating the children on water hygiene will improve their own health, and help spread the message to the rest of their families. Overall the project will reach 150 schools, 37,500 children and 15,000 families.
Ahlstrom’s donation to the project is a way of demonstrating our commitment to children’s rights and sustainable development in India, which is becoming an important market for us. We opened our medical nonwoven plant in Mundra in the neighboring Gujarat state in 2010, and have a sales office in New Delhi.
Photo courtesy of UNICEF Finland
The Eva Ahlström Foundation
All our products are
made from fibers,
and 87 percent of
those we used in
2011 were from
renewable sources.
Responsible sourcing
Our renewable fiber sources include wood pulp, other natural fibers, recycled fibers and synthetic polymers made from renewable sources such as viscose and poly-lactic acid (PLA). The proportion of renewable fibers we used went up by 5 percent this year.
In 2011, we purchased 1,228 thousand tons of raw materials, worth EUR 923 million. Natural fibers made up 64 percent of all our raw materials, and the percentage of chemicals dropped to 25 percent, compared with 28 percent in 2010. Thirty-two percent of our raw materials were sourced from South America mainly in the form of wood pulp. Seventeen percent came from North America, 46 percent from Europe, and 6 percent from Asia. We have manufacturing plants across the world, and source our raw materials locally when we can.
Responsible forest management
All of our wood fibers are purchased from suppliers who can provide us with the quality of pulp we need, under long-term contracts. We require our pulp suppliers to be Chain-of-Custody certified, either through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSCTM) or the
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFCTM) schemes. Some
suppliers have both.
We believe that using certified suppliers is one of the most effective ways we can help tackle climate change, since that ensures the responsible management of the world’s forest resources. As yet less than 10 percent of forests are certified in this way, most of them in Europe and North America, which means that supplies of certified pulp remain scarce.
Both the FSC and PEFC standards were updated last year to include social criteria such as health and safety and human rights, and both our suppliers and our own certified plants were audited against these new standards.
Ahlstrom raw materials in 2011 Packaging 2% Natural fibers 64% Synthetic fibers 9% Chemicals 25% Total 1,228 ktons
Fourteen of our plants are now Chain-of-Custody certified, with two more added during 2011: Windsor Locks, in Connecticut, and West Carrollton, in Ohio, were the first of our North American plants to achieve this. See table on page 42. We hope the plant at Chirnside, Scotland, will go through the process in 2012, which will mean that the only plants using wood pulp that are not certified will be those in the Filtration business, as there is currently no demand from our customers for certified filter materials. In other areas of our business the sales of certified products continued to increase considerably – demand rose almost 50 percent last year compared to 2010.
Recycled fibers
We use recycled fiber wherever practical. This tends to be in products closest to printing and writing papers, and similar applications, such as in wallpaper base, poster paper, and paper for repositionable notes. We also use recycled polyester fibers in our nonwoven wallcoverings, which helps to minimize their environmental impacts. They also contribute to a building’s green
credentials, with no reduction in the quality of the product.
Most of our products cannot use recycled fibers; strength and consistency are often a problem, and there are also stringent hygiene requirements for food packaging and medical materials.
CO2 emissions from transportation
We’ve been examining ways to reduce the CO2 emissions we generate from
transporting raw materials and finished products. For example, we’ve piloted the use of rail, rather than truck transport for pulp arriving at our La Gere plant in France, and this has proved to save both CO2 and
money. Our other European plants are now following the same model, and we are also examining other ways to manage our freight more effectively.
As we’ve stated elsewhere in this report, we have also established that, contrary to popular opinion, the bulk transport of pulp to Europe by sea from South America is not significantly different, in environmental terms, to sourcing pulp from Europe.
Sources of energy
Last year we used 4,567,925 MWh of energy. We prefer to use natural gas, which is the cleanest burning fuel, but given the nature of our manufacturing processes it is a challenge to change the energy mix used by our plants. That said, we are continuing to look at the possibility of using renewables.
Natural gas 51%
Coal 7% Grid - electrical
power 20%
Purchased steam 15%
Secondary fuels and recovered methanol 8%