New York Mill Produces First Green Certified Paper
10/16/98
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Title: New York Mill Produces First Green Certified Paper
Source: Environment News Network
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 10/16/98
By sustainably managing land used for timber and pulpwood production,
certification can complement other regional efforts to accommodate
wild land protection.
A New York paper mill has just completed its first run of printing and
writing paper certified to have come from a well-managed forest.
The paper, produced by the Lyons Falls Pulp and Paper mill, is the
first produced under the National Wildlife Federation's regional
SmartWood certification initiative. It carries a Forest Stewardship
Council certification label, which means it came from independently
inspected and certified forests that have met high standards for
environmental and social responsibility, said Spencer Phillips, the
Wilderness Society economist who initiated the project.
The Forest Stewardship Council is the not-for-profit organization
working to improve forest management practices worldwide through
certification of forest products.
Certified solid wood products, from flooring and furniture to bird
houses and guitars, have been available for several years, and some
tissue and wall paper have recently become available in Europe.
Lyons Falls' pulp and paper mill is the first in North America to be
awarded a certificate. It also is producing the only certified
printing and writing paper in the world.
"Today's production run is the first step to ensuring that consumers
can get both high quality paper and high quality forestry," said Craig
Updike, director of R&D for Lyons Falls Pulp and Paper. "By offering
FSC-labeled paper, we can satisfy our customers' desire to know where
their forest products come from and to take positive actions to
support responsible forestry."
"With this effort," said Phillips, "the northern forest is serving as
a model for market-based forest conservation nationwide." Stretching
from the Maine Woods through northern New Hampshire and Vermont to New
York's Tug Hill Plateau, just west of Lyons Falls, the northern forest
comprises 26 million acres. The project grew out of Phillips' research
into opportunities to diversify, and therefore strengthen, the
region's forest-based economy.
"Paper certified according to the FSC system stood out as having the
potential to capitalize on the northern forest's existing strengths,
including a reputation for product and environmental quality," he
said.
Putting the FSC label on finished products also requires an audit of the
so-called "chain-of-custody" so that one can know that the finished
product actually contains the fiber from the well-managed forest at the
beginning of the chain. In this case, the Vermont-based SmartWood Program,
an FSC-accredited certifier, conducted the inspections and audits at the
Lyons Falls mill prior to and during production runs, through its regional
office based at the National Wildlife Federation in Montpelier, Vt.
Certification involves inspection and auditing of the land from which
the timber and pulpwood originate to ensure that it is managed
according to FSC's internationally recognized standards for good
forest management. For now, Lyons Falls is getting pulpwood from the
SmartWood-certified Haliburton Forest in Ontario.
While applying the FSC label to paper presented some unique
challenges, the project proves that "certification is not just for
lumber anymore," as Eric Palola, NWF's coordinator for SmartWood's
initiative in the Northeast puts it. "Now the FSC system can be
applied to any forest product and used to reward forest owners and
managers who protect water quality, wildlife habitat, recreational
opportunities and worker and community interests while producing saw
timber and pulpwood."
For Lyons Falls, the first run is just the beginning, said Updike.
"We're starting with a relatively small order for one grade of paper
-- reply card stock -- but we will be ready to offer FSC-labeled paper
of all types and grades in the next couple of weeks. Several existing
and new customers have inquired about certified paper for newsletters,
catalogs, stationery and other applications. The National Wildlife
Federation, which is buying the initial run, is already one of our
major customers, and we expect to meet even more of their future paper
needs."
Updike, Palola, and Phillips stress certification's importance in the
context of other efforts to better connect paper production and
consumption to environmental quality. It does not substitute for
making paper with recycled content. Instead, since many papers require
the strength of some virgin fiber, certification ensures that the
virgin content comes from well-managed forests. In fact, the paper
produced today contains both recycled fiber and certified virgin
material. This certification also complements chlorine-free bleaching
of virgin fiber, which eliminates dioxin discharges to waterways.
Finally, by sustainably managing land used for timber and pulpwood
production, certification can complement other regional efforts to
accommodate wild land protection.
For more information, contact Stacy Brown, Forest Stewardship Council,
(802)224-6257,
Copyright 1998, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved