Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines

 

PULP AND PAPER MILLS 

                                                              

 

D

ECEMBER 

10,

 

2007 

              

   

 

 

                      

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 WORLD BANK GROUP 

Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines  

Pulp and Paper Mills  

Introduction 

The Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Guidelines are 

technical reference documents with general and industry-

specific examples of Good International Industry Practice 

(GIIP)

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. When one or more members of the World Bank Group 

are involved in a project, these EHS Guidelines are applied as 

required by their respective policies and standards. These 

industry sector EHS guidelines are designed to be used 

together with the General EHS Guidelines document, which 

provides guidance to users on common EHS issues potentially 

applicable to all industry sectors. For complex projects, use of 
multiple industry-sector guidelines may be necessary. A 

complete list of industry-sector guidelines can be found at: 

www.ifc.org/ifcext/enviro.nsf/Content/EnvironmentalGuidelines

 

The EHS Guidelines contain the performance levels and 

measures that are generally considered to be achievable in new 

facilities by existing technology at reasonable costs. Application 

of the EHS Guidelines to existing facilities may involve the 

establishment of site-specific targets, with an appropriate 

timetable for achieving them.  

The applicability of the EHS Guidelines should be tailored to 

the hazards and risks established for each project on the basis 

of the results of an environmental assessment in which site-

                                                 

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Defined as the exercise of professional skill, diligence, prudence and foresight 

that would be reasonably expected from skilled and experienced professionals 
engaged in the same type of undertaking under the same or similar 

circumstances globally.  The circumstances that skilled and experienced 

professionals may find when evaluating the range of pollution prevention and 

control techniques available to a project may include, but are not limited to, 

varying levels of environmental degradation and environmental assimilative 
capacity as well as varying levels of financial and technical feasibility.

 

specific variables, such as host country context, assimilative 

capacity of th e environment, and other project factors, are 

taken into account. The applicability of specific technical 

recommendations should be based on the professional opinion 

of qualified and experienced persons. When host country 

regulations differ from the levels and measures presented in 

the EHS Guidelines, projects are expected to achieve 

whichever is more stringent. If less stringent levels or measures 

than those provided in these EHS Guidelines

 

are appropriate, 

in view of specific project circumstances, a full and detailed 
justification for any proposed alternatives is needed as part of 

the site-specific environmental assessment. This justification 

should demonstrate that the choice for any alternate 

performance levels is protective of human health and the 

environment.   

Applicability 

The EHS Guideline for Pulp and Paper Mills includes 

information relevant to pulp and paper manufacturing facilities 

including wood-based chemical and mechanical pulping, 

recycled fiber pulping, and pulping based on non-wood raw 

materials such as bagasse, straw, and reed.  It does not include 

production or collection of raw materials which are addressed in 

other relevant EHS Guidelines. Annex A contains a description 

of industry sector activities. 

This document is organized according to the following sections: 

Section 1.0 — Industry-Specific Impacts and Management 
Section 2.0 — Performance Indicators and Monitoring  
Section 3.0 — References and Additional Sources 
Annex A — General Description of Industry Activities 
Annex B — Effluents and Emissions Guidelines / Resource Use 
Benchmarks