DS Smith's Ii site in Finland collected bags of trash

For DS Smith sustainability is at the heart of everything. We think how we can support our communities and want to do our part where ever we operate.

At DS Smith's Ii plant in Finland, solar panels were introduced in 2018 to produce part of the power required at the site. Like all Finnish people, people at Ii site consume coffee quite a lot per capita and due to solar panels, they can now have about 900 cups of climate-friendly way cooked coffee annually while producing the most impressive recyclable printed and traditional non-printed cardboard boxes made from recycled materials to meet our customers' needs.

All the waste the site makes, is sorted in the best possible way and recycled, and all choices are made to consider the community around the site. As a natural continuum, in the municipality that has been chosen as the winner of the European Climate Competition, the staff at DS Smith's Ii site fell into the vicinity of highway E75, which goes to Finnish Lapland through the lively city of Oulu and being next to Ii site, to collect trash and clean the area.

During the collection, a variety of waste was picked up in the bags, the place of which would not be far from the roadside. For example, lids for disposable cups, juice pills, pieces of EPS and road signs, flattened cans had all threw away from passing vehicles along the road. Presumably, the music taste of one traveler had changed when the unnecessary compact disc was also picked up from the roadside.

The clean-up of the site's environment was relaxing time together with the team for the common good. It was easy to see the result of that couple of hours we did. And when you collect trash, you come to think about how it works, how you teach your own children and, of course, be able to influence that unique Finnish nature will always remain tidy. I encourage other companies to clean our common areas as well. 

Jari Teppo, Site Manager, Ii, Finland