Google data-centre timber faces possible use ban

Timber from more than 500 hectares of logging linked to Google’s data-centre projects in Kajaani and Muhos could be barred from use if the logging is found to have been illegal, Yle reports.

UPM and Metsä Group have received timber from the areas. Metsä Group stopped deliveries in mid-September after learning of possible questions over the wood’s origin. The companies are waiting for authorities to decide whether the logging broke the law.

If the timber is deemed illegal, certification rules could prevent its use and lead to financial losses worth millions of euros. A similar situation followed a freshwater pearl mussel die-off in Suomussalmi in 2024, when Stora Enso had to abandon processing timber from a 50-hectare clear-cut. The case cost the company several million euros, although the final amount remains unknown.

UPM forestry director Janne Kiiliäinen said a batch of timber from the Google logging reached one of the company’s pulp mills through a trading partner. He described the quantity as equivalent to about five per cent of the daily wood consumption at UPM’s Finnish pulp mills, or a few thousand cubic metres. UPM did not carry out logging or buy timber directly from the landowner.

Kiiliäinen said UPM would inform customers who had bought its products if authorities found the logging illegal. Metsä Group forestry director Juha Jumppanen said timber from the projects had reached the company through forest management associations. The company received about 5,000 cubic metres from Otanmäki in Kajaani, a small amount compared with its overall volumes.

Metsä Group has complained to the associations, saying its contracts require timber to be legal and meet the company’s origin requirements. If disputed timber has already been processed, the company plans to remove an equivalent quantity of other timber in line with certification rules. Stora Enso said it had no involvement with the timber from the Google logging.

The Muhos logging was carried out by the Oulu Region Forest Management Association. Its chief executive, Tapio Kylmänen, declined to comment, but said meetings about the matter, including possible compensation liability, were planned for the near future.

The amount of timber cut in Kajaani and Muhos is estimated at about 50,000 cubic metres. At an average price of 55 euros per cubic metre, the raw timber would be worth about 2.75 million euros. Even if it consisted only of pulpwood and energy wood, its value would exceed one million euros; processing would increase the value several times over.

The logging notifications for the areas were filed in January. In September, LVV halted further work at the data-centre sites after concerns emerged that the law may have been broken.