UPM Raflatac partners with Vellamo, Finland’s award-winning natural mineral water for a truly innovative sustainable label. Vellamo’s bottles feature UPM Raflatac Forest Film PP, the world’s first and only wood-based polypropylene plastic label material. This transparent label material is constructed from UPM BioVerno naphtha, a 100% wood-based solution made from tall oil, a residue of pulp production, originating from sustainably managed forests.

“This is an ideal collaboration to showcase how labels matter when it comes to sustainable packaging,” says Timo Kekki, Vice President, Films Business, UPM Raflatac. “Our innovative labeling material answers brand owners’ needs to replace traditional fossil-based virgin materials with renewable ones.

The collaboration with Vellamo is an excellent example of how we are labeling a smarter future beyond fossils together with our partners.”

Forest Film PP offers companies like Vellamo an efficient and impactful way to reach beyond their sustainability goals without compromising on product performance. It is made from 100 percent renewable wood-based raw materials in an ISCC certified value chain and has identical quality and performance as conventional fossil-based films.

“Vellamo is one of Mother Nature’s perfect creations and we’re excited to share how we’ve taken great measures to ensure our unique taste, purity and sustainability for the health of our customers and planet by achieving a neutral carbon footprint across production, packaging and logistics,” says Petteri Ahonen, CEO, Ice Age Water Ltd.

Vellamo adheres to strict natural mineral water standards to maintain its official seal of approval and high-quality status of being naturally pure, unique in taste, bottled at the source, and containing no environmental pollution or added minerals or sweeteners. The high-quality, sustainable label is an integral part of the Vellamo water brand and supports Vellamo’s CO2ZERO Sustainability Program which aims to reduce CO2 emissions during the product’s lifecycle to zero.

The label also features UPM Raflatac’s RafMore, an innovative smart label solution that allows consumers to scan the label unique to every Vellamo bottle and access real-time product lifecycle and carbon footprint data. UPM Raflatac recently expanded its Forest Film product range with the industry’s first wood-based polyethylene label film for home and personal care labeling applications.