The European Union is preparing for the passage of the Green Claims Directive in autumn 2024. The aim is to make environmental claims made within the EU reliable, comparable and verifiable. The purpose of the Directive is not only to protect consumers from greenwashing but also to promote informed purchasing decisions that promote the circular and green economy in the EU. At the same time, the EU seeks to create a level playing field for companies that make claims about the environmental performance of their products.
It has now been proposed that, after the entry into force of the Directive, EU member states would have 36 months to transpose the directive into their own legislation, after which the law will enter into force.
UPM Plywood is preparing for the upcoming EU Green Claims Directive with the same care as for other regulations. The EU objective of reliable, comparable and verifiable environmental claims fits well with UPM Plywood's transparent and long-term sustainability work.
Anne Lihvonen, Senior Manager, Responsibility at UPM Group, and Jaakko Paloheimo, Sustainability Manager at UPM Plywood, are among those working on sustainability themes, inspired by UPM's Aiming Higher concept.
“Green Claims is just one new area of regulation that our expert organisation is constantly working on. We always strive to develop our operations in accordance with both the authorities’ and our own high standards, so that our customers receive all the necessary factual information about our products and their environmental impacts throughout their life cycle,” Jaakko Paloheimo says.
Such documents include product-specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Life Cycle Analyses (LCAs) for WISA plywood, which are publicly available and help to verify the environmental impact of products.
UPM verifies all its sustainability claims
As early as at the end of 2023, UPM has created guidelines to ensure the truthfulness and transparency of sustainability communications. "In addition to environmental claims, our sustainability guidelines cover social responsibility and good governance," Lihvonen says.
Claims must cover the entire life cycle of the product or service – from research and development, procurement, product development and design to other critical elements, such as labelling, marketing, value propositions and communication.
For example, the FSC® (FSC C009856) and PEFC (PEFC/02-31-112) certificates that UPM Plywood uses to verify the origin of raw material for WISA plywood are reliable, third-party verified certificates already approved by EU authorities.
“UPM Plywood's Responsibility Made Easy concept ensures that we link our claims to appropriate documentation and sources of information so that they can be verified, if necessary,” says Paloheimo, giving as an example of the updating work related to the Directive.
The Green Claims Directive is part of a regulatory package
The Green Claims Directive is one new part of a broader EU green transition regulatory framework, which also includes the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), as well as the EU rules to empower consumers for the green transition.
UPM Plywood is preparing for the expectations of the authorities and the market already in advance. Much of the information is already publicly available.
“Naturally, we always update the information with the precision required by the authorities. The expertise of our organisation, as well as the accurate and appropriate documentation of our products, reduces our customers' business risks as regards the responsibility of our products,” Paloheimo emphasises.