Metsä Fibre and Ahlstrom-Munksjö have started unique safety collaboration in auditing

Metsä Fibre press release 31st January

Metsä Fibre and Ahlstrom-Munksjö have started safety collaboration by auditing each other’s production facilities. This is a unique form of collaboration among the Pulp and Paper industry with the target of promoting the safety work within the industry.

“We see that safety has no boundaries, and therefore we want to learn from our partners, and in return, share our own best practices and learnings with our customers, supplier and business partners”, states Camilla Wikström, SVP, Production, Pulp Business, Metsä Fibre.

The program, which started in late 2018, has now its first takeaways. Both companies have paid a lot of attention to safety and especially into preventative actions and trainings. Metsä Fibre has an excellent safety reporting system, which helps safety managers in reporting and following issues to be solved. Ahlstrom-Munksjö has a case distribution method which allows all safety managers to get the most recent information on possible safety issues.
 

“For Ahlstrom-Munksjö it is important that our pulp suppliers, like Metsä Fibre, meet the high safety standards and contribute to the work safety in the entire supply chain. Both companies have their strengths and weaknesses, and we can utilize this by learning from each other.”, says Rune Årnes VP Health & Safety, Ahlstrom-Munksjö. “In this way we can exchange good practices between each other”.

This far we have cross-audited five production sites: two from Ahlstrom-Munksjö and three from Metsä Fibre. The target is to continue the cross-audit program and companies have agreed on two new audits which will take place in Germany later in the year.

In addition to cross-audits Metsä Group and Ahlstrom-Munksjö are collaborating in RISI PPI awards. Companies are sole sponsors of a new RISI PPI Safety Awards category. The Safety Leadership Award will be conferred in March 2019 for the first time. The target for the new safety award is to recognize a pulp or paper production plant for their consistent management and meritorious commitment to occupational safety, long term performance and to encourage their continuous improvement within safety.

Photos and video for press use: link
 

More information:

Camilla Wikström, Senior Vice President, Production, Pulp Business, tel. +358 50 3893 467 e-mail: camilla.wikstrom@metsagroup.com

Rune Årnes, Vice President, Health&Safety, +47 979 73 935, e-mail: rune.arnes@ahlstrom-munksjo.com
 

Metsä Fibre
www.metsafibre.com

Metsä Fibre is a leading producer of bioproducts and bioenergy. The company’s pulp brand is Botnia and the sawn timber brand is Metsä Nordic Timber. The company’s bleached softwood and birch pulp grades have been developed for the production of high-quality board, tissue and printing paper and speciality products. The main applications for spruce and pine sawn timber are products for construction and interior decoration as well as window and door joinery and raw material for packaging industry. Currently employing approximately 1 200 people, the company’s sales totalled EUR 1.9 billion in 2017. Metsä Fibre is part of Metsä Group.

Metsä Group
www.metsagroup.com

Metsä Group is a forerunner in sustainable bioeconomy utilising renewable wood from sustainably managed northern forests. Metsä Group focuses on wood supply and forest services, wood products, pulp, fresh fibre paperboards and tissue and cooking papers.

Metsä Group’s sales totalled EUR 5.0 billion in 2017, and it employs approximately 9,100 people. The Group operates in nearly 30 countries. Metsäliitto Cooperative is the parent company of Metsä Group and is owned by approximately 104,000 Finnish forest owners.

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