The new headquarters of Finnish forestry giant Stora Enso is a tribute to the material that’s kept the company in business for 700 years. The largest timber building in Finland, Katajanokan Laituri is a fitting home for a firm that provides wood for the construction industry and turns trees into paper, packaging and, increasingly, biomaterials. “We are among the largest private owners of forests in the world,” says Hans Sohlström, the company’s CEO, who is sitting  in one of the building’s soothing all-wooden meeting spaces overlooking Helsinki harbour. “Wood is at the heart of everything that we do.”

When Monocle visits the firm’s HQ, which opened in September, the public lobby is bustling with locals stopping in to take photographs of the new building and its airy atrium. Sweeping curves of exposed timber are illuminated by a large oculus-like skylight and the space is filled with the mild but pleasant scent of freshly cut wood. Employees gather over coffee here while the large terraces are perfect for a breather after business meetings, with the sound of waves lapping on the pier below.

The building is constructed from more than 2,500 individually milled pieces of wood, from the laminated veneer lumber of the frame to the timber that lines the inner walls, lifts and staircases. There are trees planted in an open-air courtyard as well as in the expansive rooftop garden, which also features hammocks and a bar. All this, coupled with the building’s location, means that wherever you are in Katajanokan Laituri, your view is of wood and sea. “Being close to natural elements – so-called biophilic design – improves our wellbeing and productivity,” says Sohlström. “People are enthusiastic and inspired by working in this space. We’re already seeing more people wanting to return to the office, rather than work from home.”

It’s certainly an impressive building but the new HQ has a lot to live up to: Stora Enso’s former headquarters was a white, monolithic block designed by renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and completed in 1962. It remains a landmark in the capital. The company’s new home, therefore, needed to be a striking piece of architecture but also express something about where the business is heading.

For much of its long history, Stora Enso was first and foremost a paper company. Since 2023, however, rising costs and falling demand have meant that Stora Enso is in the process of divesting from paper altogether. Paper now accounts for a small part of its overall revenue, even if the company still makes everything from newsprint to book and magazine paper, advertising paper and craft paper. “Paper as a product is not going anywhere and there is a great future for print media in specialised segments where digital cannot compete,” says Sohlström, kindly citing Monocle as his example. But packaging, he explains, has replaced paper as the primary driver of growth for the business. Just think of all those delivery services that we rely on. “There is a strong push to replace plastics in how we wrap products and the best way to achieve that is to use biodegradable wood-based alternatives.”

All of this is prompting the business to pivot. As it diversifies away from paper, Stora Enso is showing that wood from responsibly managed forests can be used to make many of the products that we need daily, such as tableware, cups, cosmetics containers, hygiene products and even cleaning products, in addition to packaging in its multiple forms. In part, this is about greater sustainability – putting fewer plastics derived from fossil fuels into the environment – but also a need for the company to move with the times. “Batteries, new types of construction materials, bio-based plastics,” says Sohlström as he lists just a few products derived from wood that Stora Enso has on the horizon. The company’s credo that “everything that is made from fossil-based materials today can be made from a tree tomorrow” is ambitious, perhaps even impossible. But every year a new product category is added that edges the industry closer to this goal.

Another sector in which the shift from fossil fuel-based materials to wood is making a significant environmental impact is construction. By using wood instead of concrete to build the new headquarters, Stora Enso says that it generated 35 per cent less carbon emissions during construction. That’s an area where the company sees the most growth potential in the years ahead. “In the EU alone, less than 3 per cent of all the material used in construction is renewable wood-based; the rest is almost entirely non-renewable,” says Sohlström. “In this way wooded construction can actually be a very important part of the climate solution.” Stora Enso’s new HQ embodies this thinking, he explains. “This building will store 6,000 tons of carbon for more than 100 years.”

Katajanokan Laituri and its meandering façade, reminiscent of Aalto’s signature waves and his iconic Savoy vase, occupies one of the most prominent locations on the Helsinki skyline. In the otherwise stone-clad neoclassicism of Helsinki, this wooden building is certainly a statement. It shows that Stora Enso, and by extension also Finland, are confident that wood has a bright future. Sohlström doesn’t deny the fact that the building was designed to impress. “We wanted to show what wood is capable of,” he tells Monocle. “This is a country that lives off of its forests.” — L
storaenso.com