The company is at present and has been in the past involved in P&P projects leading to illegal logging, the destruction of rainforest and other sanctuaries of threatend species, heavy pollution of air and water and forceful displacement of local inhabitants.

Currently Andritz plays a major role as Gunns's partner in the construction of the infamous Bell Bay Pulp Mill in Tasmania. In the past Andritz took part in desastrous P&P projects such as  a pulp mill in Borneo (together with United Fiber Systems), up to date having destroyed over 150.000 ha of native rain forest. The company was also involved in the construction of the controversial Fray Bentos pulp mill at the border between Argentina and Uruguay. 

Big dams have frequently imposed high social and environmental costs and long-term economic tradeoffs, such as lost fisheries and tourism potential and flooded agricultural and forest land. According to the independent World Commission on Dams, most projects have failed to compensate affected people for their losses and to adequately mitigate environmental impacts. Local people have rarely had a meaningful say in whether or how a dam is implemented, or received their fair share of project benefits. In stead of the construction of big dams there are more sustainable and cleaner ways of energy generation, like solar and wind power.

An example of a big and controversial dam project is the Ilisu project on the Tigris river in south-eastern Turkey. This project not only threatens the biodiversity of the Tigris valley and the material existence of the inhabitants of Ilisu, it will also destroy the ancient town of Hasankeyf as well as hundreds of yet unexplored archaeological sites. Although the Austrian ECA Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG (OeKB) and Bank Austria (and all other European ECAs and banks involved) withdrew from this project in July 2009 because of its vast impacts and its breach of international standards, Andritz continued their involvement. In June 2010 Andritz announced that they signed a EUR 340 million contract for delivering turbines and other construction material, after its two European partners Alstom and Züblin had also pulled out of 'Ilisu'.

Besides the Ilisu dam project Andritz is also involved in big hydropower projects in Brazil. It is participating in the construction of 28 turbines for the Jirau dam, part of the Rio Madeira dam project, and is planning on delivering equipment for the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river. Both dam projects are highly controversial and receive a lot of local, national and international opposition.