The voluntary sustainability commitments launched by the Finnish forest industry in 2012 have significantly accelerated the sector’s sustainability efforts. A newly published final report shows that the majority of the targets set for 2025 were either achieved or substantial progress was made towards meeting them.
The forest industry’s joint sustainability commitments were established in 2012 and were expanded and further specified in 2018. The commitments cover all dimensions of sustainability, ranging from economic and social responsibility to environmental and climate-related issues, spanning the entire value chain from forests to end products. The final report brings together the sector’s progress across six sustainability themes and 17 commitments.
According to the report, the forest industry has successfully advanced sustainability across a broad range of areas. For example, the share of renewable energy used by the forest industry’s production facilities reached 95% in 2025, clearly exceeding the target of 90%. In occupational safety, the number of lost-time workplace accidents has fallen by 78% since 2010.
Significant achievements have also been made in material efficiency. In 2024, as much as 95% of production side streams were utilised as materials or energy, while the volume of landfill waste has been reduced to a marginal level.
However, not all targets were achieved as planned. The ambitious targets were not achieved in commitments related to forest biodiversity, the impacts of forestry on water bodies, the certification rate of wood, and the reduction of nutrient emissions from production. According to the sector, progress has nevertheless been made in these areas as well, although changes in the operating environment and external factors have made it more difficult to achieve the targets.
Sustainability efforts continue
– The sustainability commitment period, which has spanned more than a decade, demonstrates that shared goals, transparent monitoring and long-term efforts deliver results. While significant progress has been made, strengthening sustainability in ways that support business operations requires continuous work beyond the monitoring period. By succeeding in this, the Finnish forest industry can serve as a pioneer of responsible business, thereby helping to accelerate sustainable development throughout the global forestry value chain. The work does not end here; sustainability will continue to be a central part of our sector’s renewal and growth,” says Ville Hulkkonen, Director at the Finnish Forest Industries Federation.
Although the reporting period for the sustainability commitments is coming to an end, sustainability work will continue within forest industry companies and at the sector level. In the future, sustainability reporting and communications will be carried out through companies’ own targets, actions and statutory reporting obligations. The sector’s sustainability achievements will continue to be communicated through the Finnish Forest Industries Federation’s website.
The sustainability commitments have served as an important shared tool for the sector and have provided a concrete way of monitoring progress in sustainability work for more than a decade. According to the final report, long-term efforts have strengthened the forest industry’s ability to respond to growing sustainability expectations and to support sustainable growth, competitiveness and the clean transition.
Previous interim reports on the sustainability commitments:
