ENERGY SAVING IS THE FUTURE

During the past two years, UPM has improved energy efficiency significantly as a result of engaging its employees in a global energy saving campaign. The campaign was particularly successful at UPM’s German mill Nordland Papier.

During the two-year energy saving campaign UPM gained a total of EUR 55 million from all energy saving activities and at the same time reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 7%. When investments included into the energy saving campaign are fully in operation from 2013 onwards, expected annual savings from these alone will be EUR 25 million.

Successful campaign at UPM Nordland Papier

At UPM’s mill Nordland Papier in Germany, the energy saving campaign has been a success. Since the project started in 2009, the mill has managed to save 140,000 MWh on heat and 28,000 MWh on power. With this amount you could serve 5,600 German households with heat and 7,000 households with power for a year.

The main reason the Nordland mill managed so well in the energy saving campaign is that employees were educated about energy saving. The so-called Energy Forum was made accessible to all employees at Nordland. Since 2008, a total of 139 energy saving ideas have been implemented locally at UPM Nordland Papier. Many of them were low-cost or no-cost projects and others needed investments. Even though the formal campaign was completed last year, energy saving is an ongoing process. Information about the biggest projects has also been sent to other UPM mills so that mills can learn from each other.

The long term target for UPM is to achieve the best carbon footprint in the industry by improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of carbon neutral and bio-based energy.

Text: Nina Colliander-Nyman
Photos: Viljak

This article is based on an interview with Director Markku Taavitsainen from UPM’s Paper Business Group and Anton Held, Energy Manager at Nordland Papier.