Picture: Ronny Andersen, Sales Manager (left), and Bjørn-Roar Lintho, Quality Manager (right), at Stenqvist AS have implemented the PEFC certification and are ready to deliver certified paper bags to bakeries.

Traceability is cornerstone of our sustainability practise

Stenqvist AS is a leading manufacturer of packaging for the bakery industry and retail businesses in Norway. As an efficient tool for documenting the sustainable origins of wood fiber in paper, the company utilizes PEFC certification.

"Our main customers, both large and small bakeries, require documentation of the sustainability and origin of the paper. The easiest way for us to provide this is by using the PEFC Chain of Custody certification," says Ronny Andersen, Sales Manager at Stenqvist AS.

In total, Stenqvist supplies bakeries with approximately 300 million paper bags in various formats. They use paper of MF/MG quality with excellent tear strength. The paper is 38-60 grams thick and is sourced from Nordic spruce and birch, primarily from Swedish paper suppliers.

The end consumers of Stenqvist's products are major grocery chains in Norway, including Norgesgruppen, Coop, and Rema. Their focus on environmental issues and sustainability has intensified, leading to stricter procurement policies and more explicit requirements concerning traceability.

"In the past, customers were content with knowing that the wood fiber came from Nordic forests. However, now we are required to prove the sustainable origin. Regarding wood fiber, this means having a forest chain of custody certification based on a third-party audit, such as PEFC," explains Andersen.

Stenqvist, a part of the packaging giant Papier-Mettler, benefits from an extra dose of German precision and meticulousness. With a robust quality system and experience from the English BRC certification, the process of obtaining PEFC certification went smoothly.

"The certification process was relatively straightforward. Combining PEFC with other quality systems is very easy," says Bjørn-Roar Lintho, Quality Manager at Stenqvist. "We incorporated necessary elements, such as management reporting and explicit management responsibility, into our existing system. In total, it took no more than one week's work."

As a Chain of Custody method, Stenqvist has chosen the percentage method with 100% certified content. This not only simplifies the operation of the system but also ensures that customers receive wood fiber from 100% sustainably managed forests and nothing else.

In 2024, bakeries will start using the PEFC label on paper bags as new print designs are implemented. This will mark the completion of the "traceability journey," communicating to consumers that the paper can be traced back to sustainably managed forests.