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Water

Water is fundamental to our business and local communities, playing a vital role in forests and biodiversity. We minimize our environmental impact by applying responsible water management practices, assessing risks as well as through close collaboration.

Water scarcity poses a significant challenge worldwide. This puts a great responsibility on companies like us that require a considerable amount of water to operate.

Pulp and paper production are our most water-intensive processes. Water is essential for transporting fibers and chemicals, pulp preparation, dilution, cleaning equipment, process cooling, and steam generation. Water is also essential in operating our hydropower plants and to support nuclear power production.

Our baseline is that we do not operate in areas of high water availability risks. We aim to minimize water usage across all our operations, reduce wastewater volumes, and mitigate associated risks to ensure minimal impact on the environment and local communities.

Protecting aquatic ecosystems

We put great effort into protecting, maintaining, and monitoring local water resources across our forestry, production, and hydropower operations, and during the transportation of our raw materials and products. Measuring our water performance helps us increase transparency, comply with regulations, and identify opportunities for improvement.

We engage in short and long-term water monitoring activities. These include regular assessments of water emission levels in collaboration with local authorities. In addition to regulatory compensations, we support and implement voluntary measures to restore aquatic ecosystems in the areas where we operate. In some regions, we also conduct water studies to evaluate the potential effects of effluent on fish and other aquatic organisms.

Our water-related 2030 sustainability targets

We have ambitious 2030 sustainability targets that are shaped by various factors, including the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They concern production, forests, hydropower, and people. Achieving these requires innovation, collaboration with authorities, scientists, and local stakeholders, and the application of new techniques.

One priority for us is SDG 6, which focuses on clean water and sanitation.

Production related targets for water

The targets at our mills are connected to wastewater management, as we believe this is where we can make the most significant impact.

We aim to reduce effluent organic load (measured as COD) by 40% and wastewater volume by 30% by 2030 compared to 2008 levels. Additionally, we plan to use 100% recycled nutrients in our wastewater treatment plants by 2030.

You can check more details in our interactive analyst tool by selecting the water section.

Policies and compliance

We are committed to compliance with the UPM Code of Conduct and all ethical policies and standards related to it. We also comply with applicable international and national laws and regulations.

As a signatory to the CEO Water Mandate under the UN, we follow recognized principles of water stewardship, continually seeking to use water in a way that is environmentally sustainable, socially equitable, and economically beneficial.
UPM Clean Run Standard complemented with certified management systems allows us to effectively manage and secure continuous improvement of our daily environmental performance.
For efficient use of recycling techniques and managing processes we use Best Available Techniques.

Safeguarding water in forests and plantations

Our sustainable forestry practices support healthy water resources in forests and plantations. We are continuously improving our approach as part of our Forest Action responsibility program.