New CO2 reporting tool helps us reach our target of reducing emissions by 65%

The new tool was developed in close collaboration with UPM businesses, UPM Energy, UPM Responsibility, the UPM IT department and its Data Management Office (DMO) and external IT experts. It was also tested by different UPM businesses to ensure that it works in practice.

“Having detailed data about our CO₂ emissions is becoming more and more important for us as a business but also to our customers,” says Petri Hyyryläinen, Director, Energy at UPM Communication Papers. “There is more and more pressure to increase the data available for customer specific carbon footprint reporting and the same data can be utilized also for product development.”

According to Hyyryläinen, the tool helps both the business and individual sites by providing real-time data on their emissions and by offering a simple system of reporting the data to all relevant stakeholders.

“It’s a modern tool, and very easy to use. For data entry, for example, you just copy paste the data from your Excel file to the online system,” he explains. “This does not, of course, mean that we have sat here twiddling our thumbs earlier. We followed and reported our emissions consistently for many years. This tool just makes the process more transparent and coherent,” notes Hyyryläinen.

Energy consumption and CO₂ emissions reported in the same tool

The tool enables all production sites to report both the energy (fuels, heat, and electricity) they consume, and tonnes of CO₂ emitted monthly. To ensure that we stay on track toward our target of -65% CO₂ emissions from 2015 levels by 2030, all relevant data since 2015 has been uploaded in the tool retroactively.

Jarkko Hukkanen from UPM’s Reporting and Standards Team has been involved in developing the tool since the project was kicked off around 1.5 years ago.

“Before this new tool was developed, different businesses used various systems and tools. The new tool integrates all data in one place in one unified format. From the Group point of view, this information is now more easily accessible and comparable,” Hukkanen explains.

“The new tool creates added value by speeding up the reporting process through automation. It also reduces manual work and human error,” says Jukka Laitinen, Head of Data Platform at the UPM Data Management Office.