Green Printing — Pulp (Non) Fiction: Fighting for Our Forests

Is it recycled? Is it recyclable?

Does the mill use energy efficiently? What about clean air and water? What about sustainable forestry? Should I buy from a printer who uses soy inks? Should I buy from a printer who’s close by so that there is less energy used in delivering my print job? What about global warming?

These are excellent questions, and clearly it’s not just about recycling. Fortunately, help is on the way.

Three years ago, I conducted market research on environmentally preferred papers (EPP). I went to Seattle because I expected the Pacific Northwest to be especially sensitive to environmental issues but, even there, I found that the awareness of environmentally friendly papers was very limited. People knew about recycled paper, but said it was lower quality and higher priced. Beyond that, there wasn’t much awareness.

This is no longer the case.

Many companies now have a senior executive whose role is corporate social responsibility, and this includes managing sustainability. Companies issue social responsibility reports along with their annual reports, and issues such as green buildings and green power are rising in importance, along with the mantra for paper, print and packaging to reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Recycling is an excellent starting point, but there are limits to recycling. Some papers drop out of the fiber stream, remaining in libraries, file cabinets and bookshelves. Fibers also degrade with reuse and, according to a study by Metafore, a non-profit group based in Portland, OR, if we didn’t add any virgin fiber to the fiber stream, we would run out of fiber in a matter of months.

Mills have long used recycled fiber, as much as is collected, and it is not clear that more demand and higher prices would necessarily result in higher collection rates. If a few customers demand more recycled content, unless collection and recovery increased, the net effect would be zero because there would simply be less available for other products and other customers.

Sustainable forestry is a supplement to recycled fiber, and third-party certification of sustainable forests has begun to gain traction. In the United States, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) are the two leading forest certification programs. FSC, a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible use of the world’s forests, establishes standards and accredits independent organizations to certify that these standards are met. Similarly, SFI provides third-party certification of responsible forestry. Rick Cantrell, vice president and COO of SFI, adds: “The SFI program focuses on the use of forest certification as a tool to achieve sustainability. The SFI program is proactively addressing critical issues facing the conservation of our forests by improving practices on the ground.”

Why multiple certification programs? According to Cantrell, competition is a good thing and has made both FSC and SFI stronger. While each organization claims that its approach is better, some environmental groups have endorsed FSC while criticizing SFI because of SFI’s connection with the American Forest & Paper Association. However, SFI is now fully independent, though several environmental groups, such as Forest Ethics and the Rainforest Action Network, still believe that FSC has a more positive, on-the-ground impact.

With 130 million acres under third-party certification in North America, more fiber is available that meets SFI than FSC, but FSC is gaining, with North American acreage doubling in 2006 to 60 million acres.

Most paper merchants have now adopted FSC. While some have simply responded to pressure with a “me too” offering, others have shown leadership. The two largest national merchants, xpedx and Unisource, are supporting both FSC and SFI. At xpedx, an International Paper company and a leading supplier of paper and graphic supplies in the United States, Jeff Higgins, corporate director of marketing services, notes, “Sustainability is key for xpedx. In December 2006, we became the first merchant with chain-of-custody certification for both SFI and FSC. What’s more, xpedx is facilitating certification for 61 additional printers through its printer program.” Similarly, at Unisource, Ed Farley, senior vice president, paper marketing, says, “Unisource will be fully certified by both FSC and SFI by July, and is in the process of analyzing its product offering and consolidating products into a comprehensive offering of environmentally preferred papers.”

Embracing FSC and SFI

Clampitt Paper, of Dallas, is another merchant that has fully embraced FSC. According to Don Clampitt, the company brought in a consultant, educated the sales force and now runs seminars about sustainable paper for designers and end users. The firm has also acted as a facilitator for printers, with the results showing that the number of FSC-certified printers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area grew from three to 13 in the past eight months, and Clampitt is now the “go to” merchant in the area.

Bob Cochran, vice president of sales and marketing at the Domtar Distribution Group (DDG, formerly RIS Paper), advises that DDG was the first merchant in the United States to be FSC certified, and it now offers a wide variety of FSC-certified papers.

Moreover, Liza Murphy of the Rainforest Alliance, a non-profit, globally active conservation organization dedicated to promoting responsible land use (not to be confused with Rainforest Action Network), points out that many other merchants have also stepped up. Rainforest Alliance is accredited by FSC and provides independent certification through its SmartWood organization. Murphy adds, “We also work with merchants to build markets for FSC-certified products. DDG, Spicers, Central Lewmar, West Coast Paper, the Lindenmeyr family and too many others to mention have really stepped up in the past two years.”

What’s driving the change from three years ago? Clampitt calls it a “perfect storm,” noting that Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” has raised awareness, and the environmental concerns are all over the television. At the same time, environmental groups such as Forest Ethics and the Rainforest Alliance are raising the visibility. DDG’s Cochran adds that variety is now more plentiful, including papers both from North America and offshore, both coated and uncoated.

Printers from Seattle to New York are now gaining FSC certification. Rainforest Alliance’s Murphy reports that there are now more than 200 certified printers in North America, including giants such as Quad/Graphics, RR Donnelley and Quebecor, with multiple locations certified.

And, yes, the Pacific Northwest has gotten greener. In Tukwila, a suburb of Seattle, Rich Lancaster, president of Printing Control Graphics, says, “FSC certification is one part of a bigger program at Printing Control to reduce our overall environmental footprint, to encourage our customers to use environmentally sound practices and products, and to help drive our industry to a greener future. Printing Control has been reducing its environmental footprint locally for more than six years through its participation in the King County EnviroStars program and, most recently, we became FSC certified. We are experiencing more and more interest in our environmental practices from our customers, to the point where we now believe that the effort we have made will most certainly reach an economic payback in the years to come.”

Pictorial Offset (Carlstadt, NJ) and Sandy Alexander (Clifton, NJ) are two large commercial printers that are leading the way. Jon Fogel, senior vice president at Sandy Alexander, reports that the company is not only FSC certified, but also that its electricity is 100 percent wind powered. At Pictorial, Lester Samuels, managing partner, notes that awareness at corporations and advertisers has increased dramatically. “Pictorial Offset was the first commercial printer in the greater New York area to become FSC certified in 2004, and carbon neutral and SFI chain-of-custody certified in 2006,” he says. “Since leading this initiative, Pictorial has realized more than $5 million in new and incremental revenues directly attributable to its environmental activism.”

Green Printers Preferred

Samuels adds that studies have shown that financial institutions favor companies with good sustainability track records. Rainforest Alliance’s Murphy echoes this, noting that institutions such as HSBC, CitiGroup and Goldman Sachs are all saying that participation in FSC is a key part of risk management.

There’s a lot for printers to consider but, again, help is on the way. Merchants can be an excellent source of information for printers, designers and end users about the environmental features of various papers: wind power, chlorine free, recycled, sustainable forestry and more. There are other resources, too.

The science of Life Cycle Analysis permits a comparison of alternatives and takes into account the myriad environmental impacts of wind power, recycling, certified forestry, clean air, energy use and so on. Pira International offers Life Cycle Analysis and consulting on sustainability, and Metafore offers the Environmental Paper Assessment Tool (EPAT), which allows paper and print buyers to perform their own analysis. PI

About the Author
Jack Miller, known as the Paper Guru, is senior consultant, North America, for Pira International, a leading provider of strategic, marketing and technical consulting for paper, print and packaging. He can be reached at jack.miller@pira-international.com.

Resources:

FSC: http://fsc.org and www.fscus.org
SFI: http://www.sfiprogram.org
Metafore: http://www.metafore.org
Pira International: http://www.piraconsulting.com
Rainforest Alliance: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/smartguides
King County, WA, EnviroStars program: http://www.envirostars.org
Re-nourish sustainability toolkit: http://www.re-nourish.com/sustain/index.php?blog=11