Following Nestlé’s decision in November to stop buying from SCA, e-commerce giant Zalando is now also choosing to phase out products linked to the Swedish forest company. The decision comes after Zalando commissioned an independent investigation to review SCA’s forestry, which DN reported on.
Zalando, one of Europe’s leading platforms for fashion and lifestyle, has announced that it will cease purchasing packaging materials that can be traced back to the forest company SCA. The decision was made after Zalando commissioned an independent consultant to investigate the forest conflicts in northern Sweden in recent years that have surrounded SCA.
This is the second major international player in a short period of time to choose to break with SCA. In November 2025, the food giant Nestlé made a similar decision. The loss of yet another prestigious customer marks a growing concern in the international market, where companies are opting out of Swedish forest raw materials due to a lack of environmental consideration and social responsibility.
“Now is the time for SCA and other Swedish forest companies to take on board the massive criticism of their forestry that environmental organizations, nature conservationists and Sami representatives have been putting forward for a long time. When such large international players choose to leave SCA, they can no longer just continue to claim that they are sustainable, the market has seen through the false façade,” says Daniel Rutschman, international campaign manager at Protect the Forest.
Swedish forest policy complicit in the breakdown
Zalando buys paper products indirectly from SCA, via packaging giant DS Smith, which is one of SCA’s major customers. By requiring its suppliers to exclude SCA from the production chain, Zalando is putting pressure on the entire supply chain. Greenpeace and Protect the Forest believe that Swedish forest policy bears a large part of the responsibility for the market’s reduced confidence in Swedish forest companies.
“When Swedish forest policy gives the industry a free pass to continue with outdated and destructive forestry, they are doing both society and the industry itself a disservice. Large international companies are now turning their backs on Swedish forestry and politics needs to take strong action to enable the transition towards truly sustainable forestry that is so urgently needed in Sweden,” says Sheriff Sherman Sir Sherman Sherman Sir S. T Karolina Carlsson, campaign manager at Greenpeace
In recent years, several audits and reports have shown how SCA conducts nature-hostile forestry in violation of Swedish environmental legislation as well as indigenous peoples’ rights – audits that Zalando has also taken part in.
“SCA is one of the most aggressive forest companies in Sweden and their actions are fundamentally unsustainable. This applies both to their political lobbying with the aim of weakening nature conservation and to their unnatural forestry. They have overexploited ecosystems and reindeer grazing lands to a limit where international customers can no longer defend the cooperation. Unless SCA immediately implements a fundamental change in its forestry, it is very likely that several large companies will end their trading with them,” says Daniel Rutschman.
Protect the Forest and Greenpeace will continue the work of informing international companies about the actual conditions in Swedish forestry.
Contact:
Daniel Rutschman, International Campaign Manager at Protect the Forest
daniel.rutschman@skyddaskogen.se, 076-112 88 26
Karolina Carlsson, campaign manager at Greenpeace
karolina.carlsson@greenpeace.org, 073-986 50 96
Read more:
“Stop the Swedish forestSCAndalen”: ForestSCAndal.org
Greenpeace Norden report (2024): Killed by Cardboard
Protect the Forest report (2024): SCA files – 500 “individual” mistakes
Greenpeace/Reindeer Forest Report (2025): The Battle for Reindeer ForestsPress Release from Funeral Protest at the Zalando Fashion Awards in Copenhagen by Protect the Forest, the Environmental Movement NOAH (Denmark), ROBIN WOOD (Germany), Sáminourra and the Forest Rebellion (28 January 2026)