7 facts about UPM’s commitment to a non-fossil future

Our Meadow Lake mill enjoys a stable supply of quality fibre, drawn from 1.9 million hectares of nearby boreal forest. It’s an awesomely beautiful and productive region, and it’s managed through a long-standing and highly successful partnership with local Indigenous nations. Mistik Management Ltd. holds the provincial Forest Management Agreement for the area. Mistik is an equal partnership between our Meadow Lake operation and NorSask Forest Products, which in turn is owned by the Meadow Lake Tribal Council. In addition to supplying fibre to the partners’ mills, Mistik provides forest management services to L&M Wood Products, which is also Tribal Council-owned. This arrangement – and the resulting revenue and employment and contracting opportunities – is a foundational element of the economic-development strategy of the nine First Nations that make up the Meadow Lake Tribal Council. It is also a model of localized, inclusive and participatory forest management (certified to Forest Stewardship Council standards). A public advisory group, for example, plays a key role in developing Mistik’s 20-year Forest Management Plans, the most recent of which was approved in May 2019.

Preem and RenFuel are assessing, in collaboration with Rottneros, the construction of the world’s first lignin plant for biofuels, at the pulp mill in Vallvik, Söderhamn. The plant is expected to produce an annual volume of 25,000-30,000 tonnes of lignin, and will be completed in 2021. The collaboration between the companies means that Preem will be the first fuel manufacturer in Sweden to use lignin in its production. Via the company Lignolproduktion AB, which is jointly owned by Preem and RenFuel, the aim is to reach a total annual production capacity of 300,000-500,000 tonnes of lignin, based on the assumption that more plants similar to that in Vallvik are established in the future. Click Read More below for additional information.

The Finnish Paperworkers’ Union has issued a strike announcement to UPM, declaring a strike to all work under the expiring paper industry collective agreement at UPM. The strike would start at the mills on Saturday 1 January 2022 at 6.00 EET except at the Lappeenranta biorefinery, where the strike would start on 1 January 2022 at 7.00 EET. The strike would end on 22 January 2022, at 6:00 EET, unless an agreement for a new collective agreement is reached before then. Should the strike materialise, UPM strives to meet customer demand through deliveries from its mills outside Finland to the extent possible. UPM will not disclose the financial impact of the possible strike at this point.