Beyond Compliance:
How Stora Enso Packaging Solutions Built a Lasting Safety Culture
Case Study
How one of the world's oldest companies built a human-centred safety culture through a sustained commitment to systems, technology, and the quality of its leadership.
Highlights
45%
reduction in Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate since 2018
75%+
of internal and hired agency employees engaged in proactive safety reporting
≈100
leaders trained across Europe
About Stora Enso
A global leader with deep roots
Stora Enso traces its origins to 1288, making it one of the world's oldest known companies. Today, with approximately 19,000 employees and operations on every continent, the company is a leading provider of renewable materials across packaging, biomaterials, and wooden construction.
Their solutions touch industries as diverse as food and beverage, e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, construction, and hygiene, with every sector benefiting from a core commitment to sustainable forestry and a circular bioeconomy.
"What I am most proud of is seeing a mindset change in at least part of the people I work with. I can see that some leaders are no longer looking for problems in people first, but instead they start by looking at the organization, procedures, work conditions, and system factors."
Stora Enso Packaging Solutions Employee & CareFactor Participant
"A major shift for me was accepting that people make mistakes because it is part of human nature. We cannot "train away" human limitations or expect people to behave like machines."
Stora Enso Packaging Solutions Employee & CareFactor Participant
"This training was superb. Couldn’t find anything that will make this better. "
Stora Enso Packaging Solutions Employee & CareFactor Participant
"This helps me to improve my skills to bring my team to higher level."
Stora Enso Packaging Solutions Employee & CareFactor Participant
Stora Enso Packaging Solutions' Safety Transformation
Building the Foundation (2019-2022)
Stora Enso Packaging Solutions' safety transformation began in 2019 with a deliberate, long-term commitment to change, structured around three interconnected pillars that the business area has pursued in parallel ever since:
- Leadership & Culture — developing the human capabilities and behaviours that drive safe workplaces
- Systematic Way of Working — introducing consistency, and discipline into how safety is managed across the business area
- Technology & Digitalisation — investing in tools and innovations that reduce risk and improve visibility
The central insight behind this framework is straightforward but important: no single pillar can succeed without the others. Progress in one area amplifies progress in the others. And sustainable improvement requires all three to move forward together.
The first phase of the journey focused on building strong foundations, establishing more rigorous safety management systems, supporting units that were struggling most with their safety performance, and beginning to invest in new technologies. By 2022, that sustained groundwork had produced a stronger platform from which to go further.
The breadth of Stora Enso Packaging Solutions' effort has been far-reaching, with results achieved through a combination of initiatives including:
- Implementation of the Division Safety Management System
- Safety Capability Reviews across sites
- Investment in new technologies, including VR safety training, 3D heat maps and anti-collision systems
- Systematic risk management and operational discipline improvements
- Employee engagement activities and contractor safety programs
- Intensive support for units experiencing the greatest safety challenges
- Leadership development, including investment in leader capability-building programs from 2022
The Challenge
The Next Frontier
By 2022, Stora Enso Packaging Solutions had significantly strengthened its safety systems, processes and technology. Yet leadership recognised that progress was beginning to plateau. While compliance and operational discipline had improved, the next level of performance would depend on something less tangible: how people felt, how leaders engaged, and the degree of trust that existed across sites and teams.
"I was reading Clive's book, From Compliance to Care. It was... so to the point, really touching upon how to work with the organisation, how to get people on board, how to work with the leadership."
—Bas Vennix, SVP Operational Excellence & Safety, Stora Enso Packaging Solutions
During this period, Bas Vennix discovered the CareFactor approach through Clive Lloyd's book From Compliance to Care. The concepts aligned strongly with Stora Enso Packaging Solutions' belief that technical excellence alone would not deliver the next stage of performance, leading to a partnership with GYST.
"That really was the beginning of the journey with Clive and GYST," Bas reflects, "and the beginning of actually breaking through that plateau and building towards the next level."
The Approach
A bespoke program built around leadership and care
GYST and Stora Enso Packaging Solutions co-designed a bespoke CareFactor program tailored to the realities of a multilingual, multinational manufacturing workforce. Delivered over a 12-month period, the program comprises of three integrated components, with each successive cohort refining and strengthening the program's impact.
CareFactor Module 1
Two-day immersive leaders program. Foundations of psychological safety, human-centred leadership, and practical frameworks for building engaged teams.
CareFactor Module 2
Two-day advanced leaders program. Deepens the CareFactor concepts, incorporates the GROW model, and features extensive activities and role plays to embed learning.
CareFactor Module 3
1.5-hour virtual session for reflection, feedback, and embedding discussion. Includes new content (e.g. active listening) and group sharing of real-world application.
Four years of continuous growth
The GYST–Stora Enso Packaging Solutions engagement has been one of sustained commitment and progressive development, adapting through organisational change and expanding in ambition and reach.
Introduction
The CareFactor program, and its underlying thinking, is introduced to Stora Enso’s Packaging Solutions Leadership Team. The focus was on building understanding and securing buy-in to run the program with Operational Leaders.
CareFactor Cohorts 1 & 2
The first CareFactor program (Module 1, 2 & 3) rolled out with two cohorts of leaders, bringing together representatives from Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and the Netherlands. Sessions were held face-to-face, establishing the foundations of psychological safety, care-based leadership, and team engagement.
CareFactor Cohorts 3, 4, 5 & 6
A continuation of the program introduced in 2023, with refinements made based on participant feedback, including deeper application of content through role plays and the GROW model.
Alumni Event (Riga, Latvia)
CareFactor alumni are brought together in Latvia for an alumni event, serving as a milestone consolidation and continuation of the safety journey. Possible expansion into China is also being explored.
The Results
Seven Years of Measurable Progress
Stora Enso Packaging Solutions' sustained commitment to safety transformation has produced consistent, measurable improvement across every dimension of the journey, from injury rates and employee engagement to leadership capability and cultural change.
Active participation in safety
Leaders and employees are engaging more consistently in Safety Walks & Talks, risk assessments, observation reporting, and the sharing of improvement ideas than at any previous point in the journey.
Increased employee engagement
More than 75% of internal and hired agency employees engaged in proactive safety reporting, while participation in the biannual safety survey increased by 13% compared with the 2021 baseline.
Leadership capability strengthened
Participants report greater confidence in how they communicate with teams, coach individuals, and create the conditions for psychological safety - shifts that are visible in day-to-day leadership behaviour.
Safety culture visibly transformed
Safety is no longer experienced as compliance overhead. Across the business area, it is described by leaders and employees alike as something that genuinely adds value because people care for one another.
50% accident reduction
De Lier achieved a 50% reduction in accidents over three years, from 2023 to 2025, with continued progress in 2026.
Reduction in TRIFR
Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate reduced by 45% across Packaging Solutions, reflecting sustained improvement over the course of the journey.
Stora Enso Packaging Solutions' experience demonstrates that lasting safety improvement is rarely achieved through systems, procedures or technology alone. While all three remain essential, the organisation's journey shows that sustainable performance ultimately depends on leadership, trust, and the quality of human relationships. Seven years into its transformation, the company continues to invest in all three pillars, creating a safer, more engaged and more resilient organisation for the future.
Stora Enso Packaging Solutions Shares Their Safety Transformation Story
Hear directly from Stora Enso Packaging Solutions' Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence & Safety, Bas Vennix, about how they broke through their performance plateau and transformed workplace culture.
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