---
title: "UPM Augsburg Environmental and Societal Responsibility 2025 report Augsburg; Solids limit exceeded amid major wastewater treatment shutdown."
sdDatePublished: "2026-08-10T08:07:00Z"
source: "https://www.upm.com/siteassets/reporting-hub/emas-reports/emas-report-2025-upm-augsburg-paper-mill-english.pdf"
topics:
  - name: "environment"
    identifier: "medtop:06000000"
locations:
  - "Dörpen"
  - "Augsburg"
---


UPM Augsburg Environmental and Societal Responsibility 2025 report Augsburg; Solids limit exceeded amid major wastewater treatment shutdown.

UPM Augsburg
Environmental
and societal
responsibility
2025

Environmental and Societal responsibility 2025
UPM Augsburg
UPM Augsburg is located on the edge of Augsburg city center. Founded in
1849, the site currently employs around 260 employees and produces up to
350,000 metric tons of coated supercalendered printing paper in reels per
year. The paper is primarily used for magazines, newspaper inserts, advertising
brochures, and sales and mail order catalogues.
In addition to recovered paper and pigments, virgin fibers such as groundwood
pulp and chemical pulp from sustainably managed forests are used as raw
materials for paper production. The water required for the production process
comes from deep wells on the mill site. The wastewater is cleaned in Augsburg’s
municipal treatment plant. The steam required for the papermaking process is
generated in a combined heat and power plant operating on natural gas. The
mill’s electricity is supplied via the national grid.
The Augsburg site is also home to the head office of UPM Communication
Papers and its functions.
UPM Augsburg Environmental and Societal
Responsibility 2025 is a supplement to the
Corporate Environmental and Societal
Responsibility Statement of UPM’s pulp and
paper mills (available at www.upm.com) and
provides mill-specific environmental and
societal performance data and trends for the
year 2025. The annually mill supplements
and the UPM Corporate Environmental and
Societal Responsibility Statement together
form the joint EMAS Statement of UPM
Corporation.
UPM is a material solutions company,
renewing products and entire value chains
with an extensive portfolio of renewable
fibres, advanced materials, decarbonization
solutions, and communication papers.
Our performance in sustainability has
been recognized by third parties, including
EcoVadis and the Dow Jones Sustainability
Indices. We operate globally and employ
approximately 15,100 people worldwide, with
annual sales of approximately €9.7 billion.
Our shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd.
UPM – we renew the everyday
For more information
about PEFC certification
visit pefc.org
For more information
about FSC certification
visit fsc.org
EU Ecolabel : FI/011/001
Production capacity
Up to 350,000 tonnes per annum
Personnel
Augsburg mill 260 / Augsburg office approx. 108
(total number of employees as at December 31, 2025)
Products
Magazine paper (LWC):
UPM Ultra
UPM Matt
UPM Cote
UPM Cote Silk
Certifications
Augsburg mill:
ISO 14001 – Environmental Management Systems standard
ISO 9001 – Quality Management Systems standard
ISO 50001 – Energy Management Systems standard
ISO 45001 – Occupational Health and Safety standard
PEFC Chain of Custody – Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification
FSC® Chain of Custody – Forest Stewardship Council®
Augsburg mill and Augsburg office:
EMAS – EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
All certificates can be found in the UPM Certificate Finder
(available at www.upm.com/responsibility)
Environmental labels
EU Ecolabel (EU flower) for copy and graphic paper
PEFC/02-31-80
Promoting
Sustainable Forest
Management
www.pefc.org
2

Environmental and Societal responsibility 2025
Review of the year 2025
UPM’s “Clean Run” initiative
UPM is driving further improvements
in environmental performance with the “Clean
Run” campaign. All UPM mills are audited
to assess the quality of their environmental
work and determine any necessary action. In
addition, all employees are informed about
environmental issues relating to their mill.
During the reporting year, the maximum
permitted daily load of suspended solids in
wastewater was exceeded. The cause of the
limit value exceedance was insufficient waste-
water treatment performance of the systems
prior to the major shutdown. Appropriate
corrective measures were implemented.
Environmental audits
During the reporting year, an environmentally
relevant external audit was conducted: our
Chain-of-Custody process for FSC and PEFC
was audited by a certifier. The Augsburg mill
was recognized for very good implementation
and execution of the process.
Working together to achieve goals
Each year, we set ourselves detailed new
targets for quality, energy, environmental pro-
tection and occupational health and safety.
We actively involve our employees in both the
setting of goals and the implementation of
targets. We consistently work on improving
our environmental performance not just within
the company, but also in our collaboration
with customers, suppliers, authorities and the
general public.
UPM joins “The Climate Pledge”
The aim of this cross-industry network of
major companies is to jointly mitigate the
climate crisis and to work towards achieving
a carbon-neutral global economy. By signing
the agreement in 2021, UPM has committed to
achieving the objectives of the Paris Climate
Agreement ahead of time.
Environmental protection is an integral part of the papermaking processes at UPM Augsburg.
Since 1997, we have been working with an integrated management system that combines quality,
energy, environmental and occupational health and safety, and we also participate in the European
Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). This means we develop our environmental work
independently and document our progress in a transparent and comprehensible manner.
Dr. Eva Kriegbaum
General Manager
Eva Männer,
Manager OHSEM
Environmental protection is a priority
As part of the Finnish UPM Group, we attach
great importance to environmental protection
and continually optimize our paper produc-
tion process. We keep our environmental
impact as low as possible, especially in the im-
mediate vicinity. In 2025, we continued to take
regular measurements of airborne emissions.
This showed once again that our values not
only comply with the permissible limits, but in
some cases even fall significantly below them.
We always follow up any complaints im-
mediately. In 2025, there were no complaints
about tangible environmental impact.
3

Environmental and Societal responsibility 2025
UPM Augsburg
Contribution to UN Sustainable
Development Goals in 2024
Water
Reduction of normalized specific
wastewater generation since 2017
–22%
Emissions
Avoidance of
5,560 t
of CO2 scope 1 emissions at the site in
2025
Healthcare
83
Employees at the mill participated in
the health initiative offered as part of
prevention, the ‘Cardioscan’ vitality
check.
Waste
0 kg/t
Paper
process waste to landfill.
Certified fiber
Forest certification schemes like
FSC® and PEFC guarantee that
wood, our most important resource,
comes from sustainable sources.
UPM’s target is to use only certified
fiber for papermaking by 2030.
90%
certified fiber used for papermaking.
Energy
Improvement in specific gas
consumption for coating drying
and calender heating by
–6%
compared to the mean value
for 2024
Safety
Our clear goal at UPM is:
Zero fatal and serious accidents.
We were able to meet this target
in 2024. Occupational health and
safety is an integral part of our daily
activities. We are also working
to reduce or completely prevent
all incidents within our sphere of
influence by means of continuous
improvement and effective risk
management.
The TRIF* including external
companies in 2025 amounted to
4.4
TRIF*: total recordable injury frequency (%)
4

Environmental and Societal responsibility 2025
5

Environmental and Societal responsibility 2025
Air
Waste
Energy generation is the main source of air
emissions from paper mills. Emissions can be
reduced through the appropriate choice of fu-
els and combustion technology, and through
flue gas purification. UPM Augsburg has set
itself the target of further reducing CO2 emis-
sions through efficient energy use, as per the
strategy set out in the UPM mills’ Corporate
Environmental and Societal Responsibility
Statement.
In line with the circular economy principle,
the majority of production waste is recycled.
All waste is forwarded to waste management
facilities and disposed of in compliance with
the relevant statutory requirements.
UPM Augsburg aims to maintain the waste
recovery rate at its current level of 99.9%.
CHP emissions in 2025
Limit value
(mg/Nm3)
Mean value of
measurements (mg/Nm3)
CO
50
0.8
NOX
100
69
Reference year: 2000
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
Carbon dioxide (fossil), CO2,
Scope 1
kg/t paper, development as %
100
60
40
0
20
80
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
Recovery rate
%
100
60
40
0
20
80
6

Environmental and Societal responsibility 2025
Water
The water for the production process is drawn
from deep wells on the mill premises. Virtually
continuous water recycling within our systems
reduces water use.
Part of the process water evaporates
as the paper web dries. The thermal energy
contained in the exhaust air is recovered and
reused as much as possible. The remainder is
discharged into the ambient air as water va-
por. Cooling water is taken from the Proviant-
bach, Schäfflerbach and Stadtbach canals.
The process water is recycled several
times before it is discharged as effluent to
the Augsburg municipal treatment plant for
purification.
The “Water emissions” emission values on
page 10 are the intake values for the Augsburg
municipal treatment plant.
During the reporting year, the maximum
allowable daily solids load in the wastewater
was exceeded. The cause of the limit exceed-
ance was insufficient wastewater treatment by
the plant prior to the major shutdown. Appro-
priate corrective measures were implemented.
Organizational structure and
emergency organization
Operators in charge are appointed for envi-
ronmentally relevant production plants and
ancillary facilities.
Statutory representatives advise the mill
management and the specialist departments
in the following areas: immission control, water
protection, waste, hazardous goods, radiation
protection, and internal rail operations.
There are also designated representatives
responsible for the integrated management
system (quality, environment, energy) and for
occupational health and safety, fire protection
and data protection.
Comprehensive emergency plans have
been defined for emergencies of all kinds, such
as fire, industrial accidents and environmental
incidents. From alerting to immediate action
and follow-up, there are guidelines to minimize
the effects of an emergency to the greatest
extent possible. Detailed flow charts are
available for different types of emergencies. A
crisis team has been appointed to decide on
the action to be taken in the event of a large-
scale emergency.
Mill management
Mill Service
Paper machine 3
Pulp
Mill development
Maintenance
Increase in specific wastewater volume due
to lower utilization of production capacity in
2023 and 2024
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
Wastewater volume
(not normalized)
m3/t paper, development as %
100
60
40
0
20
80
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
Adsorbable organic
halogen compounds, AOX
mg/l
1.0
0.6
0.4
0
0.2
0.8
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
Temperature
°C
50
30
20
0
10
40
Reference year: 2000
Limit value
Annual average
7

Environmental and Societal responsibility 2025
Social responsibility
Improving our environmental
performance
We take responsibility for the environment and
are committed to minimizing the impact of
our production operations on our employees
and the environment. For example, a solution
was found within the UPM Group to use the
ash from our fiber residue as a soil stabilizer
and as an additive for construction materials.
Additionally, UPM sets itself environmental
goals that are in line with the Agenda 2030
sustainability targets.
Significant environmental aspects:
The environmental aspects identified as signif-
icant are taken into account by appointing
officers and implementing an appropriate op-
erational structure, and by considering these
aspec