A warm welcome to the Stora Enso Post -AGM webcast 2022. My name is Micaela Thorström, and I have just acted as the Secretary of the Stora Enso Post- AGM held earlier today. On behalf of all of us here at Stora Enso, I want to thank you for joining this event.
We'll, during the next hour, present to you the decisions of the Stora Enso Post- AGM 2022. You'll also be able to listen to the presentation by our President and CEO, Annica Bresky, as well as hear the greetings from the Chair of the Stora Enso Board of Directors. This event is held in English.
You can also choose to listen to the event in Finnish or Swedish by clicking on the icon at the left-hand corner of your own screen below the live stream, or if you use a mobile device, below the screen in the middle of your screen. If you want to listen to the broadcast in Finnish, you can do so by selecting the language settings icon in the lower left corner. If you want to follow the broadcast in Swedish, you can do so by selecting the language settings icon in the lower left corner of your screen.
During the whole event, you may send in questions to us, which we will answer during the Q&A session at the end of the event. Questions can be sent by entering the questions in the questions box below the screen at the bottom of your page, or you can send them to us either in Finnish, Swedish, or English. We will translate them and read them to the meeting in English.
Finally, note that we will publish a recording of the full event on our website after the meeting. With this, I give over to the Chair of Stora Enso Board of Directors 2021, Antti Mäkinen.
Thank you, Micaela. Dear fellow shareholders. My name is Antti Mäkinen. I'm the Chair of Stora Enso's Board of Directors. On behalf of the board of directors, I warmly welcome you to this shareholder event held in connection to the annual general meeting of Stora Enso. I'm very sorry that we have to organize the AGM also this year without the physical presence of the shareholders due to the restrictions relating to COVID-19.
In the following, I will briefly discuss the year of 2021 from the perspective of the board of directors. T he focus of the work of the board of directors last year--we announced a renewed strategy of Stora Enso in November 2020--t herefore, the focus of the board's work during 2021 was overseeing the execution of that renewed strategy.
Let me say a few words regarding the strategy execution. During the year, we announced several strategy-enhancing investments, conducted a number of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies with regard to future investments. I'm confident that these investments and planned investments, when realized, will bring profitable growth to Stora Enso and enhance our strategic position in the years to come. A major milestone in the strategy was the ramping up of the new board mill in Oulu that started production in January last year.
During the year, several M&A initiatives were evaluated. It is, however, the nature of M&A activity that all efforts do not always lead to tangible results. We will continue evaluating M&A initiatives as a tool to execute on our strategy going forward. Innovation work is a central element in developing the company and bringing forward our strategic position.
We continued to invest in a significant amount of money on innovation, some EUR 150 million. The innovation work was refocused to better reflect our strategic ambition with positive developments, in particular in barrier coatings and using lignin in various new forms, such as anode material for electricity storage.
Due to the continued structural decline in demand for graphic papers, unfortunately, last year we needed to close two of our paper mills, Veitsiluoto mill in Finland and the Kvarnsveden mill in Sweden. With these unfortunate measures, the demand-supply balance was, however, restored to levels where profitable production can continue on our other sites. All in all, I'm very pleased with the way the renewed strategy has been executed. The work will continue uninterrupted during this year as well.
Another important element in the board work outside of the strategy implementation was the questions relating to E.U.'s forestry regulation, including, but not limited to the forest strategy that the E.U. published last summer. These regulatory measures, partly already decided upon, partly planned for, are likely to have a profound impact on how the forest industry will develop during this decade and beyond. Stora Enso is actively monitoring the development and factoring likely changes in forest policies into all our future planning.
A few words on governance. In the annual report's governance section, you can find important information on the governance of Stora Enso and how the board of directors and the management carry out their respective duties. During the year, Stora Enso's board of directors convened in 15 meetings, and I'm very pleased to note that the rate of attendance by board members was 100%. The board's three committees, the Financial and Audit Committee, the Sustainability and Ethics Committee, and the Remuneration Committee, together held 17 meetings with an attendance rate of likewise 100%.
An external evaluation relating to board's work and the work of the committees has been conducted during 2021. This report was also provided to the Shareholders' Nomination Board for their information. A comprehensive qualitative questionnaire and individual interviews were carried out by an external party. The overall assessment of the board's work and performance, even during COVID-19 pandemic conditions, has been effective and positive.
On remuneration. General remuneration principles in Stora Enso aim to provide a level of remuneration that motivates, encourages, and attracts and retains employees of the highest caliber. During last year, we closed two incentive plans, a short-term incentive program based on achievement in 2021, and a long-term incentive plan running from 2019 to 2021. The outcome of the short-term incentive plan for 2021 was approved in early 2022 in relation to performance against the operating cash flow target and measurable individual key targets, including safety.
Our strong cash flow last year meant that Stora Enso achieved performance above targets for the year, resulting in short-term incentive earnings above targets for the CEO and deputy CEO. Details of the STI outcomes are provided in the annual report. The 2019 performance share plan outcome was approved in early 2022 based on pre-agreed measures.
Performance was measured over three years beginning on January 1, 2019 and ending on December 31, 2021. The 2019 performance share plan resulted in no payment to be made based on that plan. More details on the remuneration, including the details on the incentive plans, can be found in the remuneration section of the annual report.
Financial year 2021. Last year was financially very strong for Stora Enso. You have seen the reports, and our CEO, Annica Bresky, will talk more about the financial performance of the company in her presentation in a few moments. I will therefore limit myself to noting that the board of directors was very pleased with the financial outcome, and I would like to use this opportunity to thank all our staff for the excellent results achieved through hard work and dedication.
The board decided to propose to the AGM a dividend of EUR 0.55 per share, up from last year's EUR 0.30 per share, reflecting our policy to distribute 50% of earnings per share over the cycle and the strong balance sheet that we have. I'm glad that you, dear shareholders, found that a well-motivated proposal and voted in favor of the proposed dividend in the AGM pre-vote. Dear shareholders, with these words, I once again wish you very welcome to this shareholder event. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Antti.
Thank you.
Next, our AGM chair, Seppo Kymäläinen, will join us to present the resolutions made by the AGM. Seppo, welcome and over to you.
Thank you, Micaela. My name is Seppo Kymäläinen of Roschier Attorneys, and I have acted as the Chair of the Annual General Meeting of Stora Enso held earlier today. Stora Enso's Annual General Meeting 2022 has been held with exceptional arrangements due to the continuing uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shareholders and their proxy representatives will therefore be able to participate in the meeting and exercise shareholder rights only through voting in advance and binding consulting proposals and presenting questions in advance.
A total of 2,324 shareholders, representing 161,007,283 A shares and 380,011,149 R shares have participated in the advanced voting. This means that approximately 91% of all A shares and approximately 62% of all R shares, for a total of 83.8% of all the votes in the company, have been represented at the meeting. Stora Enso shareholders have approved all of the resolutions as proposed by the Stora Enso Shareholders' Nomination Board and the Stora Enso Board of Directors.
We will next briefly go over decisions made by the Annual General Meeting, beginning from agenda item 7, which is the first actual decision item on the meeting agenda. The numbering on screen will follow the numbering in the AGM notice. The Annual General Meeting has in agenda item 7, decided to adopt the annual accounts. Clearly, more than 99% of the votes cast in the agenda item were in favor of the decision.
In agenda item 8, the annual general meeting has decided that a dividend of EUR 0.55 per share will be distributed to all shareholders. The record date for the dividend is the 17th of March 2022, and the dividend will be paid out on or about the 24th of March 2022. More than 99% of the votes cast in the agenda item were in favor of the decision.
In agenda item 9, the annual general meeting has decided to discharge the members of the Board of Directors and President and CEO from liability for the financial year 2021. Again, more than 99% of the votes cast in the agenda item were in favor of the decision.
In agenda item 10 the annual general meeting has, in an advisory vote, decided to approve the company's remuneration report in the form published by the company. Approximately 97% of the votes cast in this agenda item were in favor of the decision.
In agenda item 11, the annual general meeting has, again, an advisory vote decided to support the company's amended remuneration policy in the form published earlier by the company. Approximately 99% of the votes cast in the agenda item were in favor of the decision.
Agenda items 12, 13, and 14 concern the election and remuneration of the board of directors. In these agenda items, the annual general meeting has decided to elect the following nine members to the Stora Enso board for the term ending at the company's annual general meeting in 2023: Mr. Håkan Buskhe, Ms. Elisabeth Fleuriot, Mr. Hock Goh, Ms. Helena Hedblom, Mr. Kari Jordan, Ms. Christiane Kuehne, Mr. Antti Mäkinen, Mr. Richard Nilsson, and Mr. Hans Sohlström.
The general meeting has decided to elect Mr. Antti Mäkinen as the Chair of the Board and Mr. Håkan Buskhe as the Vice Chair. We will also soon hear a greeting from the newly elected Board Member, Mr. Kari Jordan.
With respect to remuneration, the Annual General Meeting has decided that the Board and committee remuneration will be increased by approximately 2.5%-4% in accordance with the proposal made by the Shareholders' Nomination Board. Approximately 92% of the votes cast were in favor of the election of the Chair, Vice Chair, and Board Members, and more than 99% of the votes cast were in favor of the proposed Board remuneration.
Moving on to agenda items 15 and 16, which concern the auditor, the Annual General Meeting has decided to elect PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy as the statutory auditor for the company until the end of the Annual General Meeting 2023. Mr. Samuli Perälä will continue to act as the responsible auditor during that time. The remuneration for the auditor was decided to be paid upon the current invoice approved by the company's Financial and Audit Committee. Clearly, more than 99% of the votes cast were in favor of the proposals concerning the auditor.
Agenda items 17 and 18, being the last actual decision items on the agenda, concerned the granting of authorizations to the board with respect to the issuance and repurchase of the company's R shares. The annual general meeting has decided to approve both authorizations in the form proposed.
Both the repurchase and the issuance of shares under the authorizations will be carried out in deviations from the shareholders' preemptive rights for purpose of using the shares as part of the company's incentive scheme. Clearly, more than 99% of both A shares and R shares represented in relevant agenda items were in favor of these authorizations.
This concludes the overview of the decisions made today by the Annual General Meeting. I would like to thank all shareholders who participated in the voting, and will now hand back over to Micaela.
Thank you, Seppo. We will now listen to the pre-recorded greeting by the Chair of the Stora Enso Shareholders' Nomination Board, Marcus Wallenberg.
Dear shareholders of Stora Enso, my name is Marcus Wallenberg. On behalf of the Shareholders' Nomination Board, I would like to propose the board composition and their remuneration for 2022. The nomination board 2021 to 2022 consisted of Chair of the Board, Antti Mäkinen, Vice Chair of the Board, Håkan Buskhe, and two other members appointed by the two largest shareholders: Harri Sailas, appointed by Solidium Oy, and myself, appointed by FAM AB.
The aim of the Shareholders' Nomination Board is to ensure the right long-term competencies for the board's work, as well as to ensure that the diversity of thought and qualities is maintained on the board. The foremost criteria for nominating board member candidates are the candidates' skills and experiences, as well as their personal qualities and integrity.
The proposed board composition includes three women and six men in the age range of 48 years to 66 years, representing five different nationalities. The aim is to continuously ensure that gender diversity is maintained or further strengthened. This year, Mikko Helander, having served on the Board since 2019, has decided not to stand for re-election anymore.
Kari Jordan was proposed to be elected as a new member to the board. He is possessing strong industrial and financial background, as well as personal merits and management experience that has been identified as complementing the board composition. Antti Mäkinen was proposed as the Chair of the Board and Håkan Buskhe as the Vice Chair of the Board.
Regarding remuneration, the aim is to ensure a competitive board remuneration in line with the relevant peer group. This year, the proposal has been for board remuneration to be increased by approximately 2.5%-4%. May I right now take the opportunity to thank Mikko Helander for his service on the Stora Enso board, as well as welcoming, the new board member, Kari Jordan. Thank you.
Thanks, Marcus. You will now listen to the pre-recorded video of our newly elected board member, Kari Jordan.
Dear shareholders. My name is Kari Jordan. I'm 65, almost 66 years of age. My professional career has two parts. The first 25, 26 years, I've been a banker doing corporate banking, investment banking, and also retail banking. After those 25, 26 years, about 20 years, I've been in a leading position. The remaining 13.5 years of my professional career, I've been the president and CEO of a Finnish big forest industry company, where I stepped down in March 2018.
Since then, I've been chairing the Finnish stainless steel company Outokumpu, and I've been vice chair of a big Nordic bank. I believe that this combination is a solid basis for candidacy in Stora Enso. I'm thinking about board membership in the Stora Enso board of directors. Thank you very much.
Next in our program, we will hear Stora Enso's President and CEO, Annica Bresky, present her overview of the financial year 2021, as well as an update on Stora Enso's current strategy and financial targets. After this, we will start the Q&A session of this event. You may, throughout Annica's presentation, send in questions to us by using the questions function below the video stream on your screen. Now, over to Annica.
Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm Annica Bresky, President and CEO of Stora Enso. Before I start, I would like to reflect on the tragic events over the last few weeks. The invasion of Ukraine is shocking and unacceptable, causing a humanitarian disaster. We are fully behind all sanctions and also want to take a stance on the right of sovereign states to choose their destiny, stand up for democracy, and show our solidarity.
Therefore, we decided in early March to stop all operations, export, and import in Russia until further notice. Our sales in Russia is around 3% of total group revenues, and the impact of Stora Enso's sales and EBIT is not material. This decision is in line with our values as a company: to lead and do what's right, which in these times are more relevant than ever before.
We employ 1,100 people in Russia, and we now need to focus on their wellbeing and on supporting our customers. Of course, no one knows how this situation will develop, but we have activated mitigation plans and assess the situation closely to take the necessary actions as everything evolves.
Looking at the agenda of today's presentation, I will cover four key areas for our renewable materials roadmap. After a year of very strong performance, I will give you an overview of how we are further advancing our renewable materials future. Our purpose underpins our belief that everything that can be made with fossil-based materials today can be made from a tree tomorrow. This is what drives both our underlying performance and our opportunities for growth. Sustainability is deeply embedded in both our business strategy and corporate culture.
I will explain how that supports our growth. We believe innovation and collaboration go hand in hand as we grow together with our customers, and we will look at a few examples of that later on. Our products and the CO2 they replace, in short, can mitigate climate change and realize the renewable future for all. I also look forward to taking your questions after the presentation.
Let's start now with looking at our purpose and how we drive the performance of the business. Our purpose, do good for people and the planet, is more important now than ever before. We need to look after our people, the communities in which we operate, and the company. By replacing fossil-based materials with our renewable products, we can contribute positively to climate change.
I'm delighted with our outstanding performance in 2021. We delivered record high results driven by our strategic progress together with strong demand across all our business segments. Our strong top line and commercial momentum has continued into this year, and the positive trends carry on.
Sales increased by 19% year-over-year to EUR 10.2 billion. Operational EBIT improved by 135% to EUR 1.5 billion, and our forest assets increased in value by EUR 700 million to EUR 8 billion. We have a target on net debt to operational EBITDA to be below 2.
In 2021, our leverage decreased to 1.1. This gives us flexibility to take fast actions on investment decisions, and, in these times, also provides resilience. Our operational return on capital employed excluding forest was 17.8%, clearly above the target of 16%.
To drive this progress, our 22,000 employees have worked hard and relentlessly. During a year challenged by the pandemic, we came out stronger. We have kept our operations up and running, managed logistical disturbances, and at the same time, supported our customers. Most importantly, we have worked safely to protect our employees. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Stora Enso colleagues for an excellent job.
Supported by these strong numbers, we also exceeded our long-term financial targets. Our growth target of more than 5% was nearly 30%, and our net debt -to -equity was 22% compared to our target of being below 60%. The dividend per share reached an all-time high of 0.55 EUR per share.
In 2021, we selected the three most relevant and critical sustainability areas for our business, climate, circularity, and biodiversity. We updated our Science Based Sustainability Targets to align with the 1.5 degree scenario. We are well on our way to meeting the 2030 target of reducing both our direct and indirect CO₂ emissions through our value chains by 50% by 2030. We will do this by further improving the energy efficiency of our production processes and logistics, by continuing to reduce our use of fossil fuels.
We're also partnering with our suppliers and customers to drive down value chain emissions. Instead, we will use more clean energy sources, including wood-based biofuels. One way of doing this is to offer products designed to optimize the environmental and societal benefits of the wood fiber. In line with this, our circular design guidelines we will fully adopt by 2025 and support sustainable material choices for our customers with a goal of a product portfolio that is 100% recyclable by 2030.
We've also worked with biodiversity as a natural part of our forest management for many years to both ensure a healthy, resistant, and high-yielding forest for the long term. We have a target of being above 96% in certification for our own and leased lands in wood production and harvesting. Today, we are at 99%. Now, we're taking the next step for the resilience of our forest by defining 15 biodiversity indicators. You will be able to follow our progress on active biodiversity management from this year on.
During the last few years, we have delivered on our promises to take decisive actions to transform, focus, and position the business for higher performance in areas of growth. This transformation is almost complete, and we can now evolve by accelerating our growth and innovation agenda.
A result of our actions is a stronger and more resilient investor proposition, both now and for the long term. We have implemented a new decentralized operating model that will drive operational excellence, strengthen leadership, and enhance customer intimacy. This is supported by a completed profit protection program with ongoing cost savings of around EUR 410 million.
Through our direct forest ownership in Sweden, our Tornator ownership in Finland, and our supply network in the Baltic and Norway, we have enhanced our flexibility of wood supply by securing high-quality, sustainable wood. In light of our decision to not import wood from Russia, the benefit of this established network will come even more into play.
We are reducing our exposure in the structurally declining paper segment. We will instead focus on growth in other segments for renewable products supported by megatrends and where we already have leading market shares. In 2018, the paper business represented around 30% of total sales. Following production closures and divestments in 2021, the segment today represents only 14% of our total sales.
Our transformation has made us more efficient and enabled us to both invest and reinvest in our growth businesses, packaging and building solutions. To accelerate growth in renewable packaging, we are modernizing production units and converting paper machines into high-quality consumer boards. To support the growth of our leading position in wood and building solutions, we aim to expand capacity by one cross-laminated timber site every year and increase the efficiency of our sawmill operations.
These ongoing initiatives are expected to generate EUR 1.3 billion to our top line. This includes the EUR 800 million we expect from another successful conversion, which is now in a feasibility study. I will come back to that later in the presentation.
We're now also accelerating our innovation agenda, where we have entered the commercialization phase for new bio-based materials. I will show you some examples of these developments a little bit later.
Moving on to the next topic on the agenda, sustainability and how that drives our growth and enables us to lead the green revolution. It is a natural part of our strategy and business compass. I'm very pleased that ESG targets now are included into the long-term incentive plan from this year on. I think it's critical to align management with shareholder interest and long-term strategy of the company.
The ESG targets represent 20% of the overall target, and these are critical to ensure a successful business, both by offering solutions to climate change and by embracing a diverse and inclusive workforce. The ESG target is important to us in many ways. With our products, we help combat climate change, and we develop products that both store and replace carbon and at the same time drive higher sales and profit to the business.
We need to be competitive in the employment markets, and both attract and retain talent with modern practices, inclusion and diversity. We want to drive a culture of equality and equity where everyone can reach their full potential. This is so important from several perspectives. Consumers and customers are diverse, and our solutions need to answer to their needs. Creativity, innovation, and ability to make good decisions in a complex reality also benefit from teams with different backgrounds and experiences.
The long-term incentive program is one tool to achieve this, and we are on our way. For example, the gender diversity among Stora Enso's senior management in 2021 was 68% male and 32% female. A slight improvement from 2020. This is, of course, not good enough and we will continue our efforts.
Sustainability is driving our growth strategy, and it is within these three areas, renewable packaging, building solutions, and biomaterials innovations, that we see the greatest potential for scalable innovation and commercialization of new products. In addition to strong demand in their respective segments, we have leading market positions of high margin products.
We see a high demand for plastic-free and circular packaging solutions. This growth is driven by both brand owners, consumers and regulation. Within wood and building solutions, we foresee an annual growth of more than 10% in a market where we already are a leading global supplier.
The massive global construction market is shifting more and more towards eco-friendly buildings with low carbon footprint. Here, we are in a great position to capture a larger share of the value chain with our products.
When it comes to biomaterials innovation, we target high growth and product markets, m arkets where we can replace fossil-based materials with bio-based solutions and technologies. Here, for example, lignin, one of the tree's main building blocks, creates a platform from which we can develop new groundbreaking innovations. All these three focus areas are closely interlinked with our innovation agenda.
I will now give you some examples of our innovations and how collaborations can be beneficial to all parties. First, I want to show you some interesting statistics. The expected annual growth of the global building stock is 2 billion sq m. If only 10% of new buildings were built with wood, there would be a decrease of 50 million tons of CO2. This saving is equivalent to removing 12.5 million petrol cars from the streets annually.
What does that mean for us? Well, today, the wood market only represents around 2% of multi-story buildings in Europe, and this is the key segment for our building solutions. Based on underlying market drivers, together with our strong market position, there is a great opportunity for long-term growth.
Here we have four concepts in the multi-story business segment, focusing on creating renewable solutions for residential, offices, schools, and industrial buildings. We believe that the demand for low carbon buildings will just continue to grow and for many reasons. The construction industry today represents 40% of the global CO2 emissions, and the construction material represents 11% of global emissions. Hence, there is an obvious need to shift to renewable materials.
Construction-related CO2 emissions can be reduced by as much as 75% by building with wood. Important to bear in mind is that wooden buildings store carbon, contribute to greener environments, and in addition, people living or working in wooden buildings report better levels of well-being.
We work very closely with our customers, brand owners, and other external stakeholders. Together, we collaborate on sustainable products and solutions that add value. This keeps us closer to our customers while also supporting market share growth. It also supports commercialization and industrialization of our products.
On this slide, you can see some examples of our partnerships to accelerate growth in building materials, in packaging for food and beverages. Not only are we developing new products, but our goal is to offer 100% recyclable products. As an example of this, we collaborate closely with our customer, Tetra Pak, on building new recycling capacity for beverage cartons.
In our lignin platform, the lignin opportunity is the main product that we are putting our resources in. There is an increasing demand of anode battery material driven by electrification of vehicles, consumer electronics, and large scale energy storage systems. This is a strategic material with no local supply in Europe, and where we can have an opportunity to play a vital role. We have the availability of this material to bring to the market.
The carbon market for batteries is growing by more than 30% annually, and there is a need for 460,000 tons of carbon material in Europe by 2025. We are continuing with the pre-feasibility study in Sunila in terms of scaling up the first operations. This will be followed by a feasibility study, which is the next step in ramping up the first production site. We are simultaneously exploring strategic partnerships to accelerate scale-up and commercialization.
To further accelerate our growth within the packaging segment, we are exploring expansion in renewable consumer board. Here, we have initiated a feasibility study for the possible conversion of an idle paper machine into a high volume consumer board line. In this market, we target customer segments such as frozen and chilled foods, beverages, pharma and cosmetics - segments in which we already today hold a leading global market position.
Here, we see potential sales of EUR 800 million with the capacity of 760,000 tons of folding boxboard and coated unbleached kraft. The CapEx for this investment ranges from EUR 900 million-EUR 1 billion within the years 2023-2026. This initiative would also lead to a net reduction of 300,000 tons of our total market pulp exposure. I will now finalize this presentation on how we are realizing our renewable future.
I start with a few comments on our outlook and guidance. Despite increased geopolitical concerns caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, our outlook and guidance remain unchanged for the time being. The guidance for Stora Enso's full results operationally in 2022, approximately in line with 2021 at EUR 1,528 million.
The macroeconomic environment and the pandemic are, of course, persisting uncertainties. So far, the demand for Stora Enso products across all our businesses is strong, and we see a sustained commercial momentum. We have well-established ways of working and contingency measures to manage volatility in input materials and to secure availability, such as pricing, building flexibility in sourcing and logistics, et cetera. Also, hedging of energy costs are in place. For 2022, we are 80% hedged, and for 2023, 70%.
In addition to this, we are 67% self-sufficient on energy. A good position to be in time like this. We continue, of course, to be proactive and assess the situation very closely, adjusting our mitigation actions accordingly.
To summarize the year, we reached record high profitability and we strengthened our balance sheet. The forest valuation increased by EUR 700 million to EUR 8 billion. We can see that our strategy is delivering results for the company, for our customers, and creating shareholder value. We distributed an all-time high dividend of EUR 0.55 per share, a total of nearly EUR 434 million to our shareholders. I'm very confident that we are well positioned to capture future profitable growth.
Finally, I want to highlight Stora Enso's opportunity to contribute to a greener economy by showing you the positive impact our products have on the climate. Our value chain annually emits 10.2 million tons of CO2. However, our forests absorb carbon and remove 1.5 million tons of CO2 when they are growing.
Our products also store carbon, leading to another 2.5 million tons of net removal of CO2 on an annual basis. Furthermore, and most importantly, we save another 17.2 million tons of CO2 per year when our products substitute fossil-based products. This is equal to the electricity consumed by more than 11 million households every year. In total, our business is net positive. The more we grow our forests and the more renewable material products we make, the better it is for the climate.
Thank you for your attention. Thank you for your trust, and I'll now hand back to Micaela for the Q&A session.
Thank you, Annica. We will now open our Q&A session. Annica will remain with us to answer your questions from our studio in Stockholm. Here at our studio in Helsinki, we have our Board Chair, Antti Mäkinen, as well as Stora Enso's Chief Financial Officer, Seppo Parvi, with us to answer your questions.
Annica, while we wait for questions to come in, I would like to ask you, why has Stora Enso chosen packaging, building solutions, and biomaterials innovation as its strategic growth areas?
Well, thank you, Micaela. The reason for that being that we have strong customer relationships in these areas. We have worked together many, many years in advancing our market position, so we also have strong global market shares in these areas. Lastly, the mega trends that we see and the end consumer new demands on more eco-friendly alternatives also support future growth in these areas. These are the main reasons why we believe we are the winners in these segments and why we should drive the development and growth in packaging and in Building Solutions.
Thank you, Annica. We will now go over to the questions we have received from the audience of this webcast. The first one is also for you, Annica. It relates to the Oulu investment. The potential investment in Oulu recycled machine is a large investment. How will it be funded?
Well, I'm very happy to have seen kind of the successful run of the first line in Oulu. We have very competent people there. The second step decided upon will add EUR 800 million of top line to our company. It is a strategic project, and it will be funded from our normal Stora Enso funds. If decided upon, we will come back exactly how that funding will take place.
Thank you. Our second question also goes over to you, Annica, and it relates to the Russian wood imports. The question goes: How easy is it for Stora Enso to replace Russian wood imports with better sources?
Well, I think we have a big benefit of our own forest ownership in Sweden. Our direct ownership in Tornator in Finland are already set up the supply chains in Baltic and in Norway. It's about replacing birch, which corresponds to 10% of Stora Enso's need of wood. Here we can work in several ways.
First of all, getting more material from our supply chain as described, but also in terms of where we use birch in our product portfolio. This is how we are mitigating this effect. I don't believe that this is gonna be a significant challenge for us. We have good teams working with these actions, and we will manage.
Thank you. We will continue with the next question also for you, Annica, and it relates to EU regulations. Does Stora Enso accept all the EU's proposed directives and regulations on forest use? If not, to what extent are you critical of the regulations?
First of all, I want to start by saying that we support the ambition that the EU has to transform our society towards better climate performance. Having said that, it is important also to recognize that the EU Forest Strategy cannot be a one-size-fits-all strategy. It has to be adapted to the local conditions because the forests vary across Europe.
It's different conditions in Nordics compared to Central Europe or the southern parts of Europe. This is where we have constant dialogue with politicians and governmental representatives in describing where we can do the same as the rest of Europe, but also where the conditions are different. I think this active dialogue has also resulted in changes from the initial proposals that were sent from the E.U.. This is a constant iteration work that we are doing.
Thank you. Our next question goes to Antti. It's from a shareholder stating, while we do not have any concerns regarding the qualifications and experience of Richard Nilsson, we would prefer to see a director independent from the company and the significant shareholders as the chair of the audit committee. Will the board consider reviewing the composition of the audit committee going forward so that it's chaired by an independent board director?
Thank you, Micaela. Thank you for the question. Very good question. We have discussed this matter, and we have in the Board of Directors found that, as also the shareholder posing the question, we have noted that Richard Nilsson is very competent, very well qualified to act as the chair of the audit committee. He is independent of the company, which is the requirement in the governance code that we applied to the Finnish Corporate Governance Code. As he is the most competent of the board of directors, being the chair, I think it's in the best interest of all shareholders that he continues in that position.
Thank you, Antti. We will continue with our next question. It goes over to you, Annica, and this concerns the Ukraine crisis. How much will the Ukraine crisis affect Stora Enso's business in Russia, in Belarus, and in Ukraine?
All in all, our Russian business corresponds to 3% of our sales, about EUR 300 million. It's not significant from that perspective. We are working together now with our employees in Russia and also our customers to kind of assess the situation as we go along.
Thank you. Now we have actually come to the last question we have received today, and this goes also to you, Annica. Great announcement regarding the 15 biodiversity indicators. Have you considered setting a certification target for your wood/timber supply chain?
I think this is an excellent question. We start with our own forest holdings because that's where we can now set the targets, evaluate and assess them. They are science-based, so we are doing this with the support of external experts from biodiversity field. As we can continue to evolve and develop our indicators, these are dialogues we're gonna take with our wood suppliers and the forest owners.
We are very glad to share our expertise in this area and support forest owners in doing good in the area of biodiversity. I know there are many forest owners out there that want to make good choices for the future and have resilient forests. Biodiversity is one part of that.
Thank you, Annica. With this question, I then conclude our Q&A session. I also extend warm thanks to all of you for joining us and for sending us your questions today. Wishing you a great evening and the best of the week. Thank you.