The American Forest & Paper Association or AF&PA (Washington, D.C., USA) recently recognized Domtar's (Candada) Hawesville Mill in Kentucky for its water conservation efforts with a 2018 Leadership in Sustainability Award. Hawesville water conservation efforts will save nearly 3.2 million gallons of water per day.

Domtar says that they are committed to being a good steward of the water used. Domtar pulp and paper mills rely on having an uninterrupted flow of water to produce cost-effective, high-quality products. Every day, Domtar mills use millions of gallons of water, which are cleaned before use and again before being returned to their source, in many cases cleaner than when they entered our process.

Hawesville Mill applied continuous improvement principles to make small, relatively inexpensive upgrades, repairs and process changes that not only save money but, more importantly, also conserve vital water resources for our operations and the ecosystem around our facility.

"The savings we realized could apply to many pulp and paper facilities," said Hawesville Mill Manager Grant Forrest. "Capital is always tight, but by identifying some low-hanging fruit and other opportunities, we were able to use a series of small, well-planned and strategically timed projects to create large water savings across the mill."