Ensuring the quality and safety of our products is of paramount importance to us. We take a systematic and long-term approach to ensuring and developing the responsibility of our supply chain, raw materials and packaging. Promoting the circular economy is one of our major objectives.

Product quality and safety

The quality and safety of our products is of paramount importance to us. Our operations are certified pursuant to the ISO 9001 quality management certificate, the ISO 14001 environmental management certificate, the ISO 22716 certificate regarding the manufacture and storage of cosmetics and hygiene products (GMP, Good Manufacturing Practices), and a third-party assured ISO 13485 quality system required for the manufacture of healthcare equipment.

Our laboratories in Herttoniemi and Heinävesi are GLP certified by the Finnish Medicines Agency. Defined by the OECD, GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) is intended to produce reliable and sufficiently high-quality laboratory testing for purposes such as use by the public authorities.

Our products are developed at our product development laboratories in Helsinki and manufactured in Heinävesi and Helsinki in  close cooperation with our quality assurance team.

Target 2020 – 2022	Results in 2021
Zero recalls of products manufactured by Berner.	No recalls of products manufactured by Berner.

 

Responsible supply chain

Berner’s commitment to maintaining and developing sustainable business practices extends throughout the supply chain. Our responsible purchasing is based on our Supplier Code of Conduct. The Supplier Code of Conduct covers topics including human rights, non-discrimination, working hours and wages, freedom of association and the prohibition of the use of child labour and forced labour. We require our suppliers to commit to compliance with our Code of Conduct by signing it.

Our WhistleB whistleblowing channel also allows our external stakeholders to report potential suspicions concerning conduct that violates the law and our Code of Conduct.

Our key tools for ensuring and developing responsible procurement are as Supplier Code of Conduct, supplier self-assessment form and  third-party audits. Our supplier risk assessment is based on the amfori BSCI list of risk countries We are a member of amfori BSCI, which seeks to ensure and develop the social sustainability performance of global supply chains. In our supplier risk assessments, we use the annual amfori BSCI list of high-risk countries, which is based on the six Worldwide Governance indicators published by the World Bank.

Target 2020 – 2022	Results in 2021
The social responsibility of products manufactured in high-risk countries is ensured by third-party audits.	58% of suppliers in amfori BSCI risk countries have a social responsibility audit or certification. We have not yet received a response from all suppliers about the current situation.
We take social and environmental responsibility into account in the selection of new suppliers.	Our supplier sustainability self-assessment form was used in the new supplier selection process. New suppliers located in BSCI risk countries were required to present approved social sustainability audit results or certification.
100% of our suppliers have signed the Supplier Code of Conduct.	In 2021, 13% of all the suppliers supplying our Finnish companies had signed the Supplier Code of Conduct.
We continuously develop our risk management related to responsible supply chain.	We joined amfori BEPI, which focuses on the assurance and development of environmental responsibility in global supply chains.

 

Sustainable packaging

We aim to develop the responsibility of our packaging by using recyclable materials, increasing the use of recycled and renewable materials and reducing the amount of packaging materials used. We strive to minimize the use of packaging materials and we aim to use mono-material plastic packaging. We also develop the sustainability of packaging by actively participating in projects that promote the circular economy.

 

Target 2020 – 2025	Results in 2021
All of the plastic packaging in our own production will be recyclable by 2025.	90% mono-material (PE, PP or PET) at the end of 2021.
50% of our products manufactured in-house will be packaged in recycled materials by 2025.	At the end of 2021, packaging materials made from recycled plastic accounted for 3% of the total..
We will reduce the amount of plastic used in the packaging of our products manufactured in-house by 10% by 2025, compared to 2019.	Decrease plastic use by 6% (kg/pcs) compared to 2019.
10% of the products we manufacture in-house will use packaging that reduces the use of fossil virgin plastic by 2025.	We have actively sought, tested and evaluated packaging solutions that are renewable and reduce or replace the use of virgin plastic. We have also created a plan for implementing packaging solutions that are renewable and reduce or replace the use of virgin plastic. However, we have yet to find new materials – besides recycled plastic – that would offer optimal functionality in product packaging.

 

Responsible raw materials

In our own production, we always try to choose raw material alternatives that are better for the environment, such as raw materials with fewer environmental classifications or manufactured from side streams. We seek to introduce new biodegradable raw materials in our production and to replace existing raw materials with biodegradable alternatives.

We aim to prioritise raw materials manufactured in Finland, the Nordic region and Europe. We list the domestic raw
materials of our products on the websites of our brands. We have created a raw material roadmap that guides our
choices of raw materials. The roadmap outlines our targets until 2025.

Target 2020 – 2022	Results in 2021
We will transition to using 100% certified Mass Balance RSPO palm oil products, or corresponding products, in our own production activities. .	The share of Mass Balance RSPO palm oil was 84% (2020: 81%). We replaced 10 raw materials with MB quality materials.e biodegradability in new raw materials used in our in-house manufacturing and we will increase the number of biodegradable raw materials each year
We will increase the proportion of renewable raw materials to 30% in our Nordic Swan Ecolabel certified products manufactured in-house. The milestone for 2020 is 27%.	The proportion of renewable raw materials in our Nordic Swan Ecolabel certified products was 36% at the end of 2021.
We aim to increase the number of in-house manufactured environmentally certified products by six.	We launched three new Nordic Swan Ecolabel certified products. A total of 35 Nordic Swan Ecolabel certified, in-house manufactured products in 2021.
We aim to reduce the use of peat by approximately 10% per year, with the aim of fully replacing peat in GreenCare substrates at the beginning of the 2030s.	In autumn 2021, we launched clay pebbles, a peat-free product, and compost soil, which contains 50% less peat.
Recycled side streams amount to approximately 220,000 metric tons.	Recycled side streams amounted to 67,000 metric tons.