“Transparency and openness with stakeholders are an essential part of our corporate responsibility worldwide. The EMAS registration and third-party verified reporting promote continuous improvement. The environmental impacts of pulp and paper production are known, and the industry is working on the whole life cycle to minimize the impacts further”, says Kim Poulsen, Executive Vice President, Paper Business Group, Business Area Asia Pacific and Corporate Relations and Development.

UPM already led the way in open and transparent environmental reporting in 2012 when UPM Fray Bentos pulp mill in Uruguay became the first non-European site ever to achieve the EMAS registration as a result of a pilot project between UPM, EU, Finnish Environmental Institute SYKE, the Finnish Ministry of the Environment and Inspecta Certification.

“We’re very pleased that UPM has carried out the audit in China and are grateful that they have shared their valuable experience with us on how to implement EMAS Global in China. UPM truly is one of the frontrunners in this regard”, states Daniel Weiss from adelphi, a project partner in the SWITCH ASIA EMAS Global China project. EMAS Global China is a cooperation programme under the SWITCH-Asia grant, funded by the European Commission. The project aims to promote sustainable production patterns across China by introducing EMAS.