UPM has published a new Forest Action Programme, which will run until 2030. The global programme steers UPM’s global wood sourcing operations and covers its own forests in Finland and the United States as well as its plantations in Uruguay. The programme goes beyond current standard requirements and its measures have a positive impact on the fundamental aspects of sustainable forestry: climate, biodiversity, soil, water and societal contribution.
UPM, Arla Finland and K Group have teamed up with Oppi&ilo to create Finland’s first educational activity book designed to teach Finland’s 60,000 preschoolers about recycling. The Kierrätyskaverit (“Recycling friends”) activity book aims to make recycling a fun, easy and inspiring part of their daily lives.
Finnish company UPM takes the next transformative growth step and enters the biochemicals business by investing in a biorefinery at Leuna, Germany. The biorefinery will produce a range of 100% wood-based biochemicals which enable a switch from fossil raw materials to sustainable alternatives in various consumer-driven end-uses. The investment opens totally new markets for UPM with large growth potential for the future.
Finnish company UPM launches a new advanced wound care product for the European market. FibDex® is the first wound dressing created from wood-based nanofibrillar cellulose to receive regulatory approval and be awarded a CE mark. Nanofibrillar cellulose, which has been shown to be biocompatible with human cells and tissue, forms the core of the dressing. UPM’s proprietary nanotechnology, combined with over a decade of research into nanofibrillar cellulose and a highly professional R&D, has resulted in the development of this unique product.
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for UPM’s possible Kotka Biorefinery in Finland has been completed and given to the authorities for their final conclusions. The UPM Kotka Biorefinery would produce approximately 500,000 tonnes of advanced biofuels made from sustainable raw materials for use in the road transport, marine and aviation sectors. The biorefinery’s products could also be used for replacing fossil raw materials in the chemical industry.
UPM Raflatac is extending its range of film face materials for the European market with a new white plant-based material that provides a sustainable alternative to fossil-based films for a wide variety of end uses. “RafBio PE White – UPM claims – performs just like standard PE film, and its excellent flexibility makes it ideal for the squeezable bottles and contoured containers that are widely used in home and personal care applications”.
Finnish pulp and paper giant UPM moves forward with the development of biochemicals business by evaluating the potential of building a biorefinery in the Chemical Park Frankfurt-Höchst in Germany. The new-to-the-world biorefinery would combine novel technologies and utilize sustainable wood raw material in an innovative way. This opportunity is the outcome of more than five years of extensive technology development and piloting.
Cosmetics industry giant Oriflame Products Poland has joined UPM Raflatac’s RafCycle recycling program. RafCycle recycles and reuses pressure sensitive label waste to create new materials. The partnership supports Oriflame’s target to reduce its landfill waste to zero across all their manufacturing sites. Oriflame is a leading beauty company selling direct. It has its origin in Sweden with corporate offices in Switzerland. The company offers a wide range of high-quality beauty products.
“It is time to act quickly and in a targeted manner in order to ensure the much needed decarbonisation of the European transport sector”. To say it is Piero Cavigliasso, director public affairs Biochemtex (Mossi Ghisolfi Group) and president of the Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels, an European group which brings together big companies such as Clariant, UPM, British Airways and Dong Energy
“Our companies – Cavigliasso writes in an note – re-confirm the willingness to further deploy and supply the most innovative technologies to produce advanced biofuels from currently unused, underutilized or otherwise wasted raw materials in order to contribute to the EU objectives outlined in the strategy (European Strategy for Low Emission Mobility, published by the European Commission last 20 July, editor’s note).”
UPM, the Finnish forest industry company, and the Shanghai-based Tongji University College of Design and Innovation started cooperation in 2015 with a target to create a modern concept for the traditional Chinese tea house by using UPM’s innovative wood-based biomaterials. The project has now reached its goal with the introduction of the Biofore Tea House in the ‘Moi Helsinki’ event in Beijing, China on 13-15 May 2016.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 