UPM supports Finnish universities and makes a contribution of 40,000 face masks as part of the company’s Biofore Share and Care programme. The masks will be handed to the students in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Helsinki, the School of Chemical Engineering at Aalto University, the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Åbo Akademi University and Chemical Engineering students at Lappeenranta University of Technology.
“We support our stakeholders in making their everyday life during the Covid-19 pandemic as safe as possible. Students are important to us and interaction is a significant part of studies. The masks have been in short supply as the need for face masks in different fields has increased. Therefore, we have delivered 500,000 surgical face masks to our key stakeholders all around the world. The safety of face-to-face courses is important to students who are beginning their studies or taking laboratory courses, for example. That’s where the masks come in handy,” Pirkko Harrela, Executive Vice President, Stakeholder Relations at UPM says.
UPM has been active in procuring face masks during the pandemic. We have tried to ensure that we have enough masks for our own personnel, contractors and visitors at our sites. We have also offered the help of our sourcing specialists for non-profit purposes free of charge. Over this summer, UPM offered all production sites the possibility to give masks locally to a local home care or a health centre, for example.
“We are truly delighted by the support UPM has given us and offer our sincere thanks,” Ritva Toivonen, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Helsinki says. “Our faculty provides courses that involve laboratory work and field work in forests and bogs, and on fields. They are essential to learning and cannot be replaced by e-learning. We try to ensure that the necessary face-to-face learning and research work are also carried out safely in these exceptional circumstances. Therefore, we use some 160 face masks daily.”
UPM supports sustainable development and promotes the wellbeing of the communities by participating in numerous local projects. These projects are coordinated through the Biofore Share and Care programme. The donations and sponsorships we give and the pro bono voluntary work we do through the programme have promoted the common good in different ways both nationally and locally. A lot has been accomplished already and the valuable work will continue also in the future.
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