Is Your Paper Green?

"Spin" is everywhere. Paper named NORDIC should come from Sweden, Norway, Finland, or at least northern Wisconsin. While recently reviewing environmental issues and paper purchases, it came to light that NORDIC, our house cover sheet at the time, was made in China. That’s just wrong. We asked, "Does the Chinese mill subscribe to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards?" The answer, "No." But, I knew that. Our next step? Find a replacement. We are serious about the world’s environment. Supporting the economics of clear-cut and wanton deforestation while reaping high environmental costs of soil erosion, wildlife habitat loss, and other environmental-repair expenses doesn’t make good economic, environmental, or social sense. In the USA, Canada, and Europe, pulp-wood forests are mostly well managed with reforestation efforts coming behind the tree cutters. There are ample reasons to support environmentally responsible suppliers.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI), and Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) are three organizations that currently set international standards of forest sustainability, from the forest to the end user, through the use of Chain-of-Custody (CoC) certification. All end users are encouraged to purchase cellulose-fiber products from suppliers throughout the supply chain who work seriously to see that forest cutting, planting, and management, are done in an environmentally sound and sustainable way. Paper is a highly competitive commodity under intense price pressures. In a global economy, some of that competition comes from mills that operate only with an eye toward immediate economic gains, low costs, and getting the most from today’s pulp-producing forests with no regard for the future or the environment. Paper mills in countries where there are few (if any) government regulations to assure compliance to environmental standards have no reason to operate in an environmentally responsible manner. Other than outside economic influences from environmentally responsible buyers not buying their product, they have no incentive to make changes. As a matter of fact, the lack of regulations make them able to compete with price very effectively and help them drive environmentally regulated and conscious producers out of the market. It is up to us, as world consumers and citizens, to tailor our purchases to support firms who keep future generations in mind related to clean and renewable harvesting of trees. Only through making knowledgeable and discriminating purchasing decisions can we hope to influence abusers of the environment to change their ways. The preferential use of certified suppliers from raw materials to finished product (CoC certification) is an attempt to do just that. The positive global impact could be substantial--especially in the field of sustainable forests. Using paper with recycled content is also helpful. Recycling paper has many benefits, but the cost of recyled-content paper is often significantly higher than virgin-pulp paper. Consequently, only printing customers with a very strong commitment to the environment are willing to specify recycled paper.

Evangel Press, although a very small player in the whole scheme of things, will do its part to support environmentally committed paper mills and companies. These are companies who are Chain of Custody (CoC) certified and recognized by a forest management agency as taking seriously the impact of tree harvesting and pulp and paper manufacturing on the environment. By the way, we have switched from Nordic to Kallima which is manufactured by Tembec, a Canadian corporation. The Kallima Web site identifies the Tembec company as "The largest forest products company in Canada to make a corporate wide commitment to seek FSC certification on all forest lands under their management." FSC certification assures that, "All forest products carrying the [FSC] logo have been independently certified as coming from forests that meet internationally recognized FSC principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship."