Responsible sourcing

Stora Enso has, as a business with over 20,000 suppliers around the world, a significant influence within global supply chains. Our commitment to responsible sourcing is underpinned by a comprehensive tendering process, proactive supplier engagement, strong risk management, and third-party supplier audits.

Through responsible sourcing, we drive sustainable outcomes across the value chain — advancing human rights, fair labour practices, ethical business conduct, and environmental responsibility.

In line with our Sustainability Policy and our goal to provide 100% regenerative solutions by 2050, Stora Enso is committed to conducting sustainability due diligence across its supply chain.

As regulatory expectations evolve — including the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) — we continuously strengthen our processes for identifying, assessing, and mitigating sustainability-related risks in our operations and value chain.

Our approach is guided by a risk-based framework that enables us to prioritise actions where they have the greatest impact.

The Supplier Code of Conduct is the cornerstone of our approach to responsible sourcing. It is a legally binding document that imposes sustainability requirements on our suppliers concerning human and labour rights, occupational health and safety, climate change, biodiversity, ethical recruitment, and reasonable remuneration for employees.

Additionally for key sourcing raw materials, such as wood, we use forest certification and third-party traceability systems to know the origin of all the wood we use and to ensure that it comes from sustainable sources. These include the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC¹) Chain of Custody/Controlled Wood scheme and the Chain of Custody/Due Diligence System of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).

Our responsible sourcing process is built on four key pillars:

1. Supplier pre-qualification
   All prospective suppliers undergo a structured qualification process, including acceptance of the Supplier Code of Conduct, trade sanctions screening, and a "know your supplier" assessment. Sustainability criteria — such as safety, climate, and product stewardship — are integrated into the tendering process based on their materiality to support balanced sourcing decisions.
2. Supplier risk assessment
   We systematically assess environmental risks — including greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and land use and biodiversity impacts — as well as social risks such as human rights, labour rights, working conditions, and occupational health and safety.
3. Supplier performance management
   Ongoing monitoring includes Supplier Code of Conduct audits, supplier and site visits, self-assessments, and incident investigations to verify compliance and drive continuous improvement.
4. Supplier collaboration and development
   We work closely with suppliers through carbon reduction roadmaps, sustainability deep dives, targeted training, corrective action plans, and performance measurements to build capability and accelerate progress on shared sustainability objectives.

1 Stora Enso Communications’ FSC® trademark license number is FSC-N001919

Goals and key actions

Stora Enso’s key performance indicator (KPI) for responsible sourcing measures the proportion of total supplier spend covered by its Supplier Code of Conduct. Performance against the KPI for responsible sourcing is reported quarterly in the Group's interim reports.

Key actions

1. Continuous work to ensure high coverage for the Supplier Code of Conduct
2. Systematic reduction of CO₂e emissions in the supply chain through incentives, training and knowledge sharing, and co-operation with suppliers, in line with our science-based target to reduce Scope 3 CO₂e emissions by 50% by 2030 from the 2019 baseline, and our commitment to achieve net zero across all scopes by 2040.
3. Improvements in digitalising Scope 3 emissions accounting for improved data accuracy and data-driven decision-making
4. Ensuring that processes and tools are in place for the responsible sourcing of wood fiber

For more details on how we work with suppliers, see our Annual Report.