Water availability

The freshwater used in UPM’s direct mill operations is water from rivers and lakes or groundwater taken from wells.

Our operations are located by large water courses in water-abundant or water-sufficient regions. The mill processes are within the permit limits for water uptake and effluent discharge set locally. This also applies to mills that use groundwater. 

UPM mapped all 24 of its pulp and paper mills on the Water Stress Index (WSI) maps (Pfister et. al 2009). A water stress indicator of 0 means no water stress (blue on the map) and an indicator of 1 means extreme water stress (red on the map).

The UPM Chapelle mill, located near Paris, is the only UPM mill that has some form of water stress, although this is only at a medium level (WSI 0.38). However, withdrawal is minimal (0.1%) compared with the typical flow of 450 m3/s of the River Seine, and thus the mill operations do not have an adverse effect on water availability or water levels.

All other UPM mills are consuming water in areas with no water stress (WSI <0.1). For now, only UPM sites that have large volumes of water withdrawal are mapped.

 

Legend to the maps:

Red = extreme water scarcity; Orange = water stress; Yellow = insufficient water; Turquoise = relatively sufficient ; Light blue = sufficient; Blue = plentiful supplies; Dark blue = water abundant

​UPM in China        

              UPM in Changshu, China​

UPM in Central Europe​

 

UPM Chapelle & Shotton

     UPM in Finland​    

 UPM in North America​


UPM in Uruguay



The maps above are provided by Google earth service.