Risk Minimisation in the Supply Chain

In order to recognise the specific environmental aspects of a sector of industry in the market place, in society, politics and legislative bodies it is vital to focus not only on the production process, but increasingly also on the product itself. This will bring about additional requirements concerning a company's risk management: It is not sufficient any more to master the classic risks originating from the actual physical production process of a pulp and paper mill but business procedures need also take into account indirect environmental factors in the (often global) supply chains and product streams within the paper industry. Comprehensive risk management thus begins already with the procurement of raw materials (and other production goods) and thus with the corresponding selection and evaluation of suppliers. The following are some tools towards product-oriented environmental risk management in the supply chain: independent forest certification systems and their implicit checking of the Chain of Custody (CoC) as well as other procedures for the traceability of fibre origin; Carbon Footprint - a current indicator to assess how much fossil CO2 is in the paper (directly from emissions by the paper mill's energy generation; indirectly from the previous supply chain of raw materials and grid power, among others). Information that the user of chemical additives receives from suppliers as an essential element of company risk management (see also REACH). ISO 14001 and EMAS (possibly in conjunction with ISO 9001/OHSAS) offer all the prerequisites to reliably manage environmental risk in the supply chain. Environmental logos on the products, product data sheets, etc. can help to inform the market.