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Domtar Wins AF&PA Sustainability Award for Water Conservation Programme

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The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) recently announced the results of its 2024 Sustainability Awards, and Domtar was among the winners. The winning project was Domtar’s water conservation programme, which began as a pilot programme in 2023. It will save more than 1 billion gallons of water annually and contribute to AF&PA’s goal to reduce water use by 20 per cent per unit of product by 2030 (compared to a 2019 baseline).

Sustainability is foundational for our members, and our awards programme reflects that. These award-winning projects demonstrate sustainability leadership and innovation in action. We are proud to recognise real-world examples of how our forest and paper industry sustainability goals come to life.

Heidi Brock, AF&PA President and CEO

“We dedicated a portion of capital spending solely for water-reduction projects. This water reduction fund was designed to attract innovative projects and ideas from teams within the Domtar network. Mills could submit proposals for a chance to earn a portion of the available funds,” Domtar underlined.

“The projects didn’t need to provide a financial return. The priority was saving water,” explained Brian Kozlowski, Senior Director of Environment and Sustainability for Domtar’s Paper and Packaging business unit. “That gave our employees the chance to think beyond the bottom line, and they really did!”

The results from 2023 were impressive. The water conservation programme completed ten projects at seven mills that will save more than 1 billion gallons of water annually. That’s enough water to fill more than 1,600 Olympic-sized swimming pools. These projects included:

  • Reusing cooling water, process white water and seal water instead of fresh water
  • Installing flow regulators to control water usage more efficiently
  • Replacing packing with mechanical seals to minimize freshwater losses
  • Adding mechanical seals with tank support systems to extend their life
  • Converting open-loop water cooling to closed-loop systems, eliminating water use altogether
  • Rerouting water streams to a cooling tower for reuse, replacing single-pass freshwater systems

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