GS1 Finland

GS1 Finland and Solita help the food industry to comply deforestation regulation

Companies are facing a significant change in 2025 as the EU Regulation of Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) will require them to open their supply chains and production processes. This new regulation aims to guarantee that products used in the EU don’t contribute to global deforestation and forest degradation. Concurrently, it also aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity. Solita helped GS1 Finland with its development project, which aims to help companies respond to the strict requirements of the European Union.

The deforestation regulation introduces various challenges for companies regarding information sharing, which requires new solutions and a review of their processes. However, this change is incredibly vital for the environment and its importance was a focus in our cooperation with Solita. We all thought that what we’re doing will have a significant impact.

Miia Salonen Development Manager, GS1 Finland

Results

Development of a solution proposal for EUDR information production and distribution
Comprehensive descriptions of information flows help companies improve transparency and adapt their operating methods
The descriptions of information flows have raised positive interest in other EU member states
Further transparency in European food chains and concrete mitigation of deforestation
Improved traceability for raw materials
Better communication and transparency between companies on supply chain management and processes
Unified processes and the finding of a common language

Companies must be able to verify that the coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil, beef, wood or rubber they use doesn’t contribute to deforestation. The new regulation is a significant factor in combating climate change and deforestation. It requires companies the ability to trace their own material flows, both technically and from the process perspective. The EUDR entered into force on 29 June 2023. Its transition period of 1.5 years ends in December 2024. Companies are required to make their supply chains transparent or face penalties.

“We’ve known about deforestation for over three decades, but until now, all we’ve seen is recommendations without a binding requirement. In the future, companies will be required to answer various questions about sourcing and production processes and learn to communicate with their partners in a new way,” says Elisa Suvanto, Senior Transformation Designer and Green Deal Regulation Specialist at Solita.

EUDR is a meaningful step toward a sustainable future, fostering transparency and accountability in supply chains to benefit our environment for generations to come.

Elisa Suvanto Senior Transformation Designer, Solita

Transparency required on raw material movements within the EU

How and where does a chocolate bar manufacturer buy its cocoa? What is the path of cocoa from plantation to store shelves? What is the material flow before arrival at a company? How does the raw material move within the EU? These and many more supply chain transparency questions are what food businesses must be able to answer in 2025.

The keywords of this change are raw material traceability and transparency. The EU requires that products and materials must be traceable.

Solita helped GS1 Finland with a development project that aims to help companies respond to the EU’s strict requirements by planning and implementing workshops and documenting the results.

The EU’s deforestation regulation requires companies to operate transparently and verifiably. Purchases from raw material producers who cannot answer questions or demonstrate transparency will not be allowed.

Jussi Niilahti Senior Data Architect, Solita

Understanding information systems

This development project was intended to shine a light on the supply chains and production processes of cocoa, beef, soy, coffee and palm oil. The EU landed on these commodities, as according to its studies, they had the most significant effect on global deforestation.

Supply chains are complex entities with a significant amount of different parties, processes, systems, and operators of different sizes.

We identified a need for complementary descriptions that make it easier to understand the bigger picture. With Solita, we created descriptions of how information flows are combined between different systems. They need to be both sufficiently realistic and simple and clear. To create them, we need good listening skills and the ability to ask the right questions.

Kimmo Keravuori Standards and Compliance Lead, GS1 Finland

In the future, transparent production processes and sustainability will become competitive advantages for a business.

“We’ve improved the companies’ understanding of the supply and value chain. One important goal is to achieve transparency that creates additional value for a company. Companies have such a significant amount of data in the different parts of the value chain, they just need to be able to use it in a new way,” says Tuuli Nybergh, Business Lead at Solita.

“Automation plays a significant role in all of this. We want to help companies create automation-based entities,” says Solita’s Niilahti.

Common company denominator

GS1 Finland, part of GS1 Global, is an international non-profit organisation that helps its customers enhance and manage their supply chains through open standards. GS1 Finland needed a partner to plan and implement the workshop with and to analyse their results. In planning for them, it became integral to unify the workshops in a way to make them comparable. It was also important to give the participating companies a unified understanding of the issues.

Each EU member state is facing their own challenges in the crossfire of the schedule, interpretation and implementation. Solita and GS1 Finland’s goal was to find solutions for the entire industry – not just the companies included in this project.

Finding a common language is an ever-present challenge in every cross-business project. The same things have different names, and the same word may have a different meaning in another environment. What are the common denominators in different company processes? Identifying them isn’t always easy, but it is always important.

Kimmo Keravuori Standards and Compliance Lead, GS1 Finland

Good cooperation for a better world

Salonen and Keravuori, from GS1 Finland, describe their cooperation with Solita as easy and flexible.

“What we wanted from Solita was competence and additional resources, and that’s exactly what we got. Solita had a strong commitment to the project and showed a genuine interest in it. This work has been meaningful for all parties, which has showed in the quality of it,” say Salonen and Keravuori from GS1 Finland.

A project like this requires significant understanding of the industry, its people, and its technologies. Influential solutions are impossible to create without a combination thereof.

Tuuli Nybergh Business Lead, Solita

Information flow descriptions raise interest globally

One of the project outcomes was a proposed solution for the production and distribution of information related to the EUDR. The results will be published during autumn 2024.

“The information flow descriptions have worked. With them, many of our customers have understood what they need to do at a particular point. They’ve been very thankful. We’ve also heard positive feedback from abroad,” says GS1 Finland’s Keravuori.

According to Suvanto, the ultimate goal is to achieve digital transparency for the value chains and a close cooperation that will help to identify and solve sustainability challenges together.

After the project, the EU began reconsidering the regulation timeline. There is a possibility that the given schedule may be postponed to the end of 2025.

Want to learn more? – Contact us

Elisa Suvanto Senior Transformation Designer, Solita

[email protected] +358 504 869 977