As Kimberly-Clark celebrates 150 years of providing Better Care for a Better World, the Kimberly-Clark Foundation announced that it will honor this milestone anniversary by awarding three $150,000 grants to global nonprofit organizations that are working to improve the well-being of people around the world. Kimberly-Clark employees selected the grant recipients via online voting from a list of nonprofit organizations that focus their work on the priority areas of the company's brands and the Kimberly-Clark Foundation. The awardees are: *Water.org has positively transformed more than 45 million lives around the world with access to safe water or sanitation; *She's the First has worked with grassroots organizations to make sure girls everywhere are educated, respected and heard; and *Project HOPE has provided nurses and midwives with the skills they need to save the lives of women and babies around the world.

Production at UPM sawmills is now running completely on renewable energy. Since the beginning of 2020, no fossil energy sources have been used in production at any of the company’s four sawmills. Fossil-free production enables UPM to produce even more sustainable timber products with the smallest possible carbon footprint, thereby contributing to climate change mitigation. The reduced carbon footprint of UPM’s timber products also helps our customers reach their respective emission reduction targets. UPM has systematically worked to achieve a transition to fossil-free production at its sawmills. Both thermal energy and electricity are used at all UPM sawmills.

Norske Skog’s EBITDA in the first quarter of 2024 was NOK 76 million, a decrease from NOK 760 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. The fourth quarter EBITDA was significantly influenced by business interruption insurance of NOK 625 million at Norske Skog Saugbrugs. The first quarter EBITDA was negatively impacted by deconsolidation of Norske Skog Tasman of NOK 46 million and lower European CO2-allowance prices of NOK 32 million. Demand for publication paper is stabilising, but further capacity closures are still required. Containerboard demand is increasing but still experiences excess capacity. “We are very satisfied with the demand for our publication paper products in the first quarter. We have invested close to EUR 500 million into containerboard and energy projects over the past three years, and we still maintain a very strong balance sheet and cash position. We are highly satisfied with the production ramp-up at Bruck. The feedback from our customers on product quality is positive, and this is promising for our plan to deliver a total of 760 000 tonnes of packaging paper from Bruck and Golbey into the market in the coming years. Along with the Saugbrugs management team, we have continued to identify future opportunities for Saugbrugs industrial site, and we hope to announce further details during the second quarter,” says Geir Drangsland, CEO of Norske Skog.