Summa Mill’s premises to Google 

challenge: how to create new employment and find a use for the site of a closed paper mill?

solution: sell it to a search engine giant for a server farm.

Mills are being closed down as the paper industry undergoes major restructuring, especially in mature markets. When Stora Enso has to close a mill, it tries to find new uses for the site that will create employment without competing with the Group.

Paper production at Stora Enso’s Summa Mill in Finland ceased in January 2008. In early 2009 Stora Enso sold the paper mill premises to Google to house a new server farm, and made some of the site available for other industrial uses. This also enables a wind power company to build a factory to manufacture wind turbines and a wind-park close to the site.

That is what Stora Enso strives to achieve: to secure new long-term employment opportunities for its former employees, best of all in growth industries such as search engines and renewable energy. In this way, the closure of an uncompetitive mill can be a benefit for the Group and also its former personnel and the community around the mill.