INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO

International Paper Company (NYSE: IP, SEC CIK 0000051434) is one of the world's largest manufacturers of containerboard, pulp, and packaging products, with U.S. operations spanning roughly thirty paper and packaging mills plus dozens of converting plants [source: https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000051434]. The California operating row tracked under EPA Facility ID surfaced in this profile is one component of a broader corporate footprint. International Paper publishes annual sustainability reports and is among the better-disclosed forest-products operators against the SASB and GRI frameworks [source: https://www.internationalpaper.com/reports].

Federal EPA ECHO records flag this entity with seventy non-compliance quarterly markers across its California-tracked facility scope in the most recent two-year window — the highest count among non-shard-deduplicated rows in the WhatsMyESG seed [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The Good Jobs First Violation Tracker aggregates corporate-parent enforcement penalties at the parent-corporate level and lists International Paper across a long history of federal and state environmental, OSHA, and labor settlements [source: https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/international-paper]. EPA Region 4 has previously been the lead enforcement office on a 2022-vintage settlement matter referenced in EPA's Region 4 published-document portal [source: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-08/International%20Paper-Ne]. The company filed its most recent SEC Form 10-K on February 27, 2026 [source: https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000051434].

International Paper's U.S. mill network includes facilities in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, New York, Tennessee, and several other states. Each mill operates under a Title V Clean Air Act permit, a Clean Water Act NPDES permit for process and stormwater discharges, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) conditions for solid and hazardous waste handling [source: https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/international-paper]. The corporate-level public record reflects a multi-decade history of mill-by-mill enforcement actions on each of those programs, plus periodic large-dollar settlements covering multiple sites under a single consent decree [source: https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-5-12000-environmental-enforcement-section].

The Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, which aggregates enforcement-penalty data from EPA, OSHA, the Department of Labor, NLRB, and state agencies, currently lists International Paper among the higher-cumulative-penalty parent corporations in the U.S. forest-products sector [source: https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/international-paper]. The company's most recent annual Sustainability Report — which is one of the more detailed in the industry — discloses progress against forest-stewardship, energy, water-use, and Scope 1 and 2 emissions targets and notes the company's roadmap toward 2030 and 2050 climate goals [source: https://www.internationalpaper.com/sites/default/files/file/2024-05/2023%20] [source: https://www.internationalpaper.com/resources/reports/2023-sustainability-re].

Industry trade press has documented mixed progress on those targets. Packaging Dive's reporting on the 2024 ESG report noted long-term progress on forest-certified-fiber sourcing alongside short-term challenges on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reductions across the mill base [source: https://www.packagingdive.com/news/international-paper-sustainability-goals]. The 2022 Sustainability Report documented baseline emissions and water-use figures used in the trajectory analysis [source: https://www.internationalpaper.com/apps/IP_ESG22.pdf]. The most recent 10-K Annual Report (filed February 2026) summarizes corporate environmental risk factors at the consolidated-entity level [source: https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000051434].

Enforcement-history detail at International Paper sits at two layers — the corporate-parent layer aggregated by Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, and the individual mill-by-mill federal Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and RCRA records hosted by EPA ECHO. The Violation Tracker public dashboard summarizes hundreds of distinct enforcement matters across IP subsidiaries and business units stretching back two decades [source: https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/international-paper]. EPA's published Region 4 case file documents a specific multi-mill consent-decree-class matter handled by the Atlanta Federal Center regional enforcement office in 2022 [source: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-08/International%20Paper-Ne].

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Natural Resource Damages Section publishes a list of natural-resource consent-decrees and settlements that periodically includes pulp-and-paper operators [source: https://www.noaa.gov/general-counsel/gc-natural-resources-section/natural-r]. EPA's enforcement-cases-by-statute portal lets reporters and analysts filter civil cases and settlements by Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, RCRA, EPCRA, and CERCLA [source: https://cfpub.epa.gov/enforcement/cases/index.cfm?templatePage=12&ID=1]. The Department of Justice Justice Manual section 5-12.000 on Environmental Enforcement details the federal enforcement framework that governs each of those settlements [source: https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-5-12000-environmental-enforcement-section].

At the federal level the open consent-decree dataset on data.gov hosts the canonical machine-readable record for active and historical agreements between the United States and corporate defendants, including pulp-and-paper operators [source: https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/consent-decrees]. International Paper's own SEC disclosures, accessible through Edgar Archives, contain Item 1A Risk Factors language summarizing material environmental contingencies and ongoing compliance investments at the consolidated-entity level [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/51434/000005143416000042/ip10-k1231] [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/51434/000119312512081097/d263096d10] [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/51434/000005143418000008/ip10-k1231].

The Fintel record-aggregator hosts a clean copy of the February 2023 10-K for cross-referencing the period's environmental disclosures [source: https://fintel.io/doc/sec-international-paper-co-new-51434-10k-2023-februar]. The company's 2024 Annual Report PDF, hosted on internationalpaper.com, contains the most recent CEO-level summary of environmental and regulatory exposure [source: https://www.internationalpaper.com/sites/default/files/file/2025-03/Interna].

The Facility ID associated with this row tracks a California operating site in International Paper's broader U.S. footprint. EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) facility-search portal is the canonical lookup for parent-mapped facility data; the Facility Registry Service at EPA links each operating site to its parent-corporation Federal Registry ID [source: https://echo.epa.gov/]. The site is one of more than thirty paper and converting facilities in International Paper's U.S. operating network as of the most recent SEC 10-K disclosure period [source: https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000051434].

The Good Jobs First Violation Tracker corporate-parent dashboard is the most accessible aggregate view of mill-by-mill enforcement penalties across the parent organization. Researchers and journalists can drill from the parent record into specific subsidiary records and individual mill records, with each leaf row linked back to the originating EPA, OSHA, or state-agency enforcement docket [source: https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/international-paper]. The ECHO Facility Search at echo.epa.gov supports parallel lookup directly from EPA enforcement data [source: https://echo.epa.gov/facilities/facility-search].

Pulp-and-paper mills are characterized by a distinct emission and effluent profile relative to other heavy-industry sectors: total reduced sulfur (TRS) compounds — methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide, and hydrogen sulfide — emitted from kraft-pulping recovery boilers and lime kilns; volatile organic compounds from process vents and wastewater treatment basins; nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide from combustion units; and biological oxygen demand (BOD) plus adsorbable organic halides (AOX) in process effluent [source: https://www.internationalpaper.com/apps/IP_ESG22.pdf]. Each carries a distinct regulatory pathway: TRS and SO2 fall under MACT/NESHAP rules, BOD and AOX fall under NPDES, and combustion-unit NOx falls under either Title V or NSPS depending on age and modification history.

International Paper's annual sustainability reports disclose progress against Scope 1 (direct fuel-combustion) and Scope 2 (purchased electricity) emissions targets at the corporate level. The 2023 Sustainability Report identifies the operating mill network as the dominant driver of consolidated Scope 1 emissions and energy intensity [source: https://www.internationalpaper.com/sites/default/files/file/2024-05/2023%20]. Industry coverage by Packaging Dive notes that the company's Scope 1 + 2 trajectory has been more challenging than its Scope 3 (value-chain) reporting, an industry-wide pattern reflecting the long capital-cycle of paper-mill modernization [source: https://www.packagingdive.com/news/international-paper-sustainability-goals]. The annual 2022 Sustainability Report PDF remains the baseline reference for emissions methodology [source: https://www.internationalpaper.com/apps/IP_ESG22.pdf].

Within NAICS 322211 (Paperboard Mills) International Paper's direct U.S. peers include WestRock (now part of Smurfit Westrock), Packaging Corporation of America, Graphic Packaging International, and Domtar (a Paper Excellence subsidiary). Each operates a similar mill-network plus converting-plant model and faces the same Clean Air Act NESHAP-pulp-and-paper, NPDES, and RCRA obligations. International Paper is the largest by U.S. mill count and consolidated revenue; among parent-corporate enforcement aggregates at Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, its multi-decade aggregate is on the higher end of the peer cohort, partly reflecting its larger scale and longer operating-history footprint [source: https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/international-paper].

Material forward-looking risks for International Paper at the parent-corporate level include: continued capital intensity of compliance with Title V air permits and NPDES discharge permits across roughly thirty mills, including potential MACT and NSPS-rule revisions; transition risk associated with corporate Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions targets and the long capital-cycle of paper-mill modernization; ongoing exposure to environmental contingency reserves disclosed in the SEC 10-K Risk Factors section; and supply-chain risk on certified-fiber availability across the U.S. forest base [source: https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000051434] [source: https://www.internationalpaper.com/sites/default/files/file/2025-03/Interna].

At the operational level, the EPA Region 4 published consent-decree-class matter from 2022 illustrates the multi-mill enforcement pattern that drives episodic but material penalty exposure across the IP mill network [source: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-08/International%20Paper-Ne]. The aggregate Violation Tracker dashboard is the leading public indicator for whether the parent enforcement footprint is rising or falling year over year [source: https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/international-paper].