Our decisions are driven by the collective will of our members. We focus on initiatives that yield mutual benefits, harnessing the strength of our unified voice, which resonates more powerfully than the sum of individual company efforts.

Market statistics

EPIS conducts market research and publishes industry statistics in strict compliance with the competition rules. The EPIS Online database houses industry statistics since 2000. Monthly and annual market reports are available for members only.

Environmental data

EPIS collects life cycle inventory data from its members every 5 years since 2015. The data is available at #GreenSource and is inserted to common LCA databases such as Ecoinvent and the EU Commission database.

The latest 2020 data show significant improvements over the 2015 data in many parameters. For example, there has been a -31% decrease in the fossil-based CO₂ emissions. The total amount of chemicals used in pulp production has decreased by -9% and the total waste output has decreased by -43%. 97% of pulp production is powered by renewable energy. For more details, see the LCI data here.

Safety collaboration

EPIS has collaborated on occupational health and safety since 2019.

Safety statistics are collected quarterly from member companies own production and from on-site sub-contractors. EPIS publishes industry averages for lost time accident frequency rate and shares information on severe accidents for others to learn from.

In addition, EPIS has collaborated in harmonizing induction training in occupational safety for on-site contractors. The training documents have been shared with members in all EPIS languages.

Communications

One of the key strategic themes for EPIS is the communication of the benefits of cellulose products to society. To reach a wider audience and impact, EPIS has collaborated with Cepi, ProCarton, ACE and EOS since 2020 in the #GreenSource campaign, which aims to raise positive awareness on forest-based products. The target audience for the campaign are the European decision makers and the entire value chain.

The campaign can be found on digital media, LinkedIn and Twitter, or visiting the campaign’s website.

Collaboration

EPIS collaborates internationally with other stakeholders in the forest-based industry.

EPIS is a stakeholder member in Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification™ (PEFC).

EPIS works in close collaboration with Cepi, the Confederation of European Paper Industries, based in Brussels. Part of this collaboration is the #GreenSource campaign, together with ProCarton, ACE and EOS.

GENERAL TRADE RULES FOR WOOD PULP were developed together with UTIPULP in 2014. You can find them here.

Technical standards

EPIS tackles technical topics on an as-needed basis. Recently, EPIS has collaborated on

An example of technical standard collaboration was the creation of industry guidelines for radiofrequency identification (RFID) tracking for the pulp supply chains.

The market pulp producers want RFID to become the identification technology of choice in all parts of the global pulp supply chain.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) refers to a wireless system comprised of two components: tags and readers. The reader is a device that has one or more antennas that emit radio waves and receive signals back from the RFID tag. The tag is a light-weight repulpable label with a watersoluble adhesive and a lead-free metal alloy antenna conductor.

Key Process Steps

RFID is the enabler of digital collaboration between all parties of the supply chain.