UPM wins Sustainable Innovation Management prize in Germany

UPM has been awarded the Sustainable Innovation Management prize at the Best Innovator 2010 awards in Germany last week. The annual competition, which is organised by the international management consultancy A.T. Kearney together with the German top weekly business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, awards companies that excel in outstanding innovation management.

UPM won the competition with its outdoor flooring material UPM ProFi Deck, which presents an environmentally friendly alternative for decks, terraces and boardwalks. Other companies awarded with the sustainable innovation management prize were BMW, Intel and EWE.

– UPM’s innovativeness is based on the lifecycle approach, which encompasses all the processes from the sourcing the raw material to the product’s primary use and recycling possibilities. With UPM ProFi we have successfully turned residues of labelstock production, which previously was burnt or disposed in landfills, into a versatile new raw material, says UPM Executive Vice President Hartmut Wurster.

According to the jury, one of UPM’s strengths is the company’s readiness for innovative thinking and continuous change. In addition to the organisers of the contest, the jury consisted of representatives from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, a non-profit organisation supporting R&D in diverse industries.

– Only companies that approach innovation systematically, and in addition to R&D and production units also invest in marketing and market research, can succeed. Hence, a central criterion in assessing the 100 participating companies has been to what extent their innovation strategy was co-developed and implemented by the top management, says Kai Engel, Partner at A.T. Kearney and member of the jury.
 
UPM ProFi will gain presence also at the World Expo in Shanghai later in the year, where the Finnish Pavilion is clad in UPM ProFi.

UPM employs approximately 23 000 professionals and the company has production units in 15 countries worldwide. In 2009 UPM’s turnover was 7.7 billion Euros.

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