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Our Approach to Water Stewardship: Preserving Essential Resources at International Paper

IP | October 31, 2024

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 31, 2024 / International Paper Company

Originally published in International Paper's 2023 Sustainability Report

As one of the most precious resources on Earth, water is essential to sustaining life, ecosystems and economic development. It is also critical to IP's operations; we could not make our products without large volumes of good quality, reliably available fresh water. Water is used to preserve wood, to produce steam and energy, transport materials to process equipment and to produce paper and paperboard. In forests, we are working to advance responsible practices that protect watersheds and allow trees to absorb and filter as much water as possible. At our facilities, we are focusing our water use reduction efforts on the mills experiencing the most significant water risks today and in the future.

Advancing water stewardship

Water is essential to nearly every process in our production facilities - pulping, steam generation, papermaking and more. In light of this resource's critical importance to our operations and communities around the globe, IP is dedicated to conserving and protecting local water resources. Our water stewardship activities are closely aligned with our manufacturing objectives. This approach optimizes how we integrate water reduction into our operations and ensures that our water stewardship efforts are more effective and impactful.

As we work toward our Vision 2030 target of reducing our water use per ton of production by 25%, we are analyzing risks and opportunities for water use reduction at each of our facilities with the ultimate objective of minimizing our impact on freshwater sources. We monitor water consumption at all of our mills through flow metering and engineering methods, track this data as part of our internal environmental management system, and report as required by our permits at all locations.

Improving data completeness and quality

As part of improving our internal data controls process, we are including water influent data collection and automation in our EGENZ system (see page 62). This work is ongoing, as incoming water quantification can pose challenges at certain sites with numerous water collection locations and methods. We expect to use this system to report for our 2024 sustainability disclosures. Moreover, we are ensuring that all mills have water input meters that directly measure major sources of water flow, allowing us to move away from estimates. These flow meters will be regularly monitored and calibrated, and data consolidated at the corporate level, monthly, in EGENZ. This will improve data credibility and reduce unreliable data variability associated with water use.

Reducing water use

We've addressed water consumption in our operations through awareness-raising measures and by closely monitoring and recording how we use water. Some mills have completed mill water balances to find opportunities for water use reduction.

Water Wise

We also share best practices across our mill system through our internal Water Wise Campaign, which helps mills make operational improvements to water consumption. Based on prior performance and benchmarks, we are working with sites to decrease their water use to the best applicable levels. This has resulted in a reduction of 1,744 gallons per year at successful mills. In particular, our containerboard mills in Valliant, Oklahoma and Springfield, Oregon have used awareness-raising measures, eliminated leaks and cleaned process systems to cut their water use. International Paper intends to place greater emphasis on the Water Wise campaign going forward.

Water stress

We use the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Water Aqueduct tool to assess water-related risks at our locations. Two of our mills are in basins considered to be water-stressed, they have a "high" or greater level of Baseline Water Stress (BWS) per WRI Aqueduct Version 3.0. One mill is located along the U.S. Southeastern Atlantic coast, which has not experienced water supply challenges to date. The second mill is in Madrid, Spain, and is considered to have a "very high" level of BWS. This recycled containerboard mill uses primarily reclaimed wastewater in partnership with the local municipal utility and minimizes impact to local water-stress challenges. In 2023, we continued to partner with WRI through its Aqueduct Alliance program to stay connected to the latest research, tools and best practices across industries.

89% of water used in our manufacturing operations is returned to the environment

Minimizing potable water consumption in Madrid

We are completing a project to reduce potable water and use more reclaimed water at our Madrid, Spain Mill, which is located in an area of high water stress. The mill still requires potable water for some of its overall use. The project will result in an estimated 27% reduction in potable water use per ton of production. This involves capital expenditure on pumps and pipelines to switch the effluent treatment plant's source from potable to reclaimed water. The result is a significant contribution towards our overall target to reduce our water consumption.

Watershed protection

All water issues are local. And every watershed has unique characteristics, threats and opportunities. Healthy watersheds are essential to communities, the environment and the manufacturing of our products. That's why we are committed to improving the long-term sustainability of shared water resources and are working to understand the characteristics of each basin where we operate to address the most important water issues for our company, local communities, other water users and ecosystems. We recognize that collaboration with the communities in which we operate is fundamental to strengthening water stewardship.

We were the first-ever private-sector participant in the Savannah River Clean Water Fund, where approximately 78% of the basin is currently forested. International Paper, along with The Nature Conservancy and a diverse set of partners, are leveraging public and private dollars to facilitate land production and better forest management to benefit water quality in the river basin. Through this partnership, 10 miles of the Savannah River were protected, along with more than 4,000 acres across two states, impacting drinking water quality for local residents.

78% We were the first-ever private-sector participant in the Savannah River Clean Water Fund, where approximately 78% of the basin is currently forested