Resolute and Greenpeace Parties Announce the Conclusion of Long-Running Litigations - More information
Search
START TYPING AND PRESS ENTER TO SEARCH

Domtar Teams Rise to Water Conservation Challenge, Win Award

In 2024, Domtar received a sustainability award from the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) for our water conservation program, an achievement that reflects the innovative spirit of our teams across North America.

We launched the award‑winning program in 2023, dedicating a portion of capital spending solely for water‑reduction projects. This fund was designed to attract projects and ideas from across our network.

Mills submit proposals for a chance to earn a portion of the available funds. Importantly, no financial return was required for the projects. The sole goal was water reduction to help position us to achieve our water intensity target: a 20% reduction in water use per unit of product by 2030, compared to 2020 levels.

“I was very impressed by how our teams responded and rose to the challenge,” said Bill Edwards, Domtar’s senior vice president, Operations, Paper & Packaging. “The process not only generated some fun and healthy competition between our mills but also some great and actionable projects that will have meaningful and long‑lasting impacts on water usage for our mills and for our communities.”

In 2023, ten projects were completed at seven mills under a water conservation program that saves more than 1 billion gallons of water annually, enough to fill more than 1,600 Olympic‑sized swimming pools.

Projects covered different aspects of water use, including:

  • Installing flow regulators to control water usage more efficiently
  • Adding mechanical seals with tank support systems to extend
    seal life
  • Rerouting water streams to a cooling tower for reuse, replacing single‑pass freshwater systems
  • Replacing packing with mechanical seals to minimize freshwater losses
  • Reusing cooling water, process white water and seal water instead of fresh water
  • Converting open‑loop water cooling systems to closed‑loop systems, eliminating water use altogether
From left to right: Howard Coker, President & CEO of Sonoco and Board Chair of AF&PA; Gregory Burns, Director, Power, Recovery & Energy Optimization; Brian Kozlowski, Senior Director, Environment & Sustainability; Bill Edwards, Senior Vice President of Paper & Packing  Operations; Steve Henry, President of Paper & Packaging and Member of the Management Board; and Heidi Brock, President & CEO, AF&PA.

More Stories

Environmental Management

Read this story

Business Recycler of the Year Award

Read this story