Finland orders Google to stop clearing forest at two data centre sites

Finland’s Licensing and Supervision Agency (LVV) has ordered Google’s Finnish subsidiary to stop work at two planned data centre sites, in Muhos and Kajaani. The halt covers work that significantly changes the environment. The agency issued the order on Tuesday.

Tuike Finland Oy must stop at once, and by 23 October at the latest. The halt lasts until the environmental impact assessments (EIA) for both projects are complete.

The order covers tree felling, topsoil removal, digging, quarrying, crushing, moving soil, ditching and building site roads and storage areas. Planning, measurements, soil surveys and other minor work that is easy to reverse can go on. Tuike has until 14 October to explain itself in writing. The agency can follow up with enforcement measures, including a conditional fine.

“In our assessment, these measures change the environment and cause impacts that the EIA procedure is meant to identify and assess,” said Tommi Muilu, who heads the LVV’s environment department.

Muilu said large-scale work had already taken place at the sites. It included removing trees, stripping topsoil, building site roads and storage areas, changing ditches and culverts, and stormwater works.

About 300 hectares of forest felled

The two sites are part of Google’s €13bn investment in Finland, announced in September. The plan also covers Vaala and its existing data centre in Hamina. Google calls it its largest single investment in Europe.

The LVV first asked Tuike and both towns for explanations on 18 September. It said then that, according to public information, the Muhos site had lost about 300 hectares of forest. The local plans in both towns face appeals at an administrative court. A building ban therefore applies, and felling trees there needs a separate permit.

Hanna Halmeenpää, chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, told AFP that loggers had cut “nature sites which should be preserved”. Environment minister Sari Multala expects the projects to slip, she told Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday, according to AFP. She called it “a serious matter” if the company and its subcontractors had acted as claimed.

Google says it fell short

“We understand the concerns and have fallen short of our own high standards in this instance,” said Google spokesperson Sondre Ronander.

“We acted in good faith under the Forestry Act, and ran nature surveys and put in place measures to protect high-value areas,” he said.

The company will follow the LVV’s guidance and plans to plant trees across 130 hectares at Muhos.

Other operators keep arriving. On Monday, Nordic operator atNorth announced a site in Salo worth about €2bn. Caverion is building a substation for Nebius in Mäntsälä. From 2027, the EU will also rate data centres on their energy and water use.