Expanding the Market for Environmentally Preferable Paper
11/11/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
Progressive companies are reducing the environmental impacts of their
paper use. Their actions represent important steps to conserve
forests, and are easily replicable elsewhere by companies and
individuals.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Five Firms Slash Impact of PAPER Use
Source: Environment News Service http://www.ens.lycos.com/
via ForestWorld at http://www.forestworld.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 11, 1999
WASHINGTON, DC, November 11, 1999 (ENS) - Five market-leading U.S.
companies are reducing the environmental impacts of their paper use
while advancing their business objectives, reports the Alliance for
Environmental Innovation.
The firms come from diverse industries, including finance, food
service, mail and package service, and print media. Their
environmental achievements are highlighted in the Alliance's report,
"Leading By Example: How Businesses are Expanding the Market for
Environmentally Preferable Paper."
"These companies are market leaders and environmental leaders," said
Alliance economic analyst John Ruston. "They have learned how to
reduce the environmental impacts of paper use while meeting their
business objectives. Less air and water pollution, reduced solid
waste and conservation of forest resources are the result of these
improved paper-purchasing practices," he said.
BankAmerica cut paper use and costs over the past decade by
eliminating unnecessary packaging, using lighter weight paper and
using email and the company's intranet to substitute for paper.
Created by the 1998 merger of BankAmerica and NationsBank, Bank of
America Corporation has put into place or is working toward source
reduction and recycling processes and goals. Consolidation of forms,
electronic communications and print-on-demand features have replaced
more than 60 percent of the combined banks' inventory of paper forms
and internal reports.
Ben & Jerry's introduced an unbleached ice cream container that
replaces a container made from paper bleached with chlorine
compounds. A clay-coated printing surface on the new container
maintains the appearance of the old container, but the new container
is brown on the inside, rather than white. Ben & Jerry's customers
have accepted this new, less-polluting package.
McDonald's restaurant corporation has eliminated 26,500 tons of
packaging material from 1991 to 1997. Source reduction initiatives
such as these saved the company $12.2 million in 1997 through 1998.
More than 50 percent of McDonald's paper packaging now contains
recycled content.
McDonald's is also developing a forestry scorecard that will rate its
suppliers based on their forestry management policies and operations.
Time, Inc. is directing the growth in its paper purchasing toward
suppliers that support the concept of a "minimum impact" pulp and
paper mill. As one example, Time is importing between 15,000 and
25,000 tons of paper per year from a new, world-class, totally
chlorine free paper mill in Sweden.
In the last five years, three of Time's top six suppliers have
established new business relationships with the company based in part
on their environmental records.
United Parcel Service created the first two-use reusable express
envelope with the Alliance for Environmental Innovation in 1998. UPS
has committed to eliminating bleached paper from its express
packaging, and has increased the post consumer recycled content of
this packaging by 22 percent.
The Alliance for Environmental Innovation is a joint initiative of
the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and The Pew Charitable Trusts.