Kirkniemi Mill is located in Lohja, Finland and makes the Galerie range of coated mechanical papers for heatset web offset printing.

It has three paper machines and an annual capacity of 750,000 tonnes, with more than 90% of the output exported. It also produces 300,000 tonnes per annum of bleached mechanical pulp.

Sappi said the €10m-plus (£8.5m) project would make a significant contribution to its decarbonisation roadmap. Kirkniemi is one of its last facilities to use coal as part of its fuel requirements. 

The project is set to be completed in early 2023, with Kirkniemi’s multi-fuel boiler switching to the use of renewable biomass materials.

The mill’s direct fossil greenhouse gas emissions will be cut by 90%, “which is equivalent to 230,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually”, Sappi explained. 

Mill director Martti Savelainen commented: “By reducing our use of fossil fuels by shifting to renewable energy, Kirkniemi Mill is increasingly part of the solution to climate change. 

“As the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) negotiations underpinned, we collectively need to scale up climate action, and such investments are critical to change our emissions trajectory and dependency on fossil fuels.”

Sappi has set a 2025 target of reducing its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 25%.