How Green Are Your Brochures and catalogs and annual

							  How Green Are Your Brochures?
(and catalogs and annual reports and direct mail and
      letterhead and meeting materials and...)

      The paper used to print the BrandSmart binder is
      Forest Stewardship Council certified as having come
      from responsibly-managed forests. FSC is a worldwide
      organization that is dedicated to environmentally and
      socially responsible management of the world’s forests.

      Using paper and other forest products that have earned
      FSC certification is one step you can make to help
      insure your organization is socially and environmentally
      responsible.

      These days, companies of every size are trying to be
      more environmentally and socially responsible.
      Stakeholders, including customers, employees and
      stockholders, expect it.

      One area that can make a big difference is how your
      company handles its printing. By switching to
      environmentally responsible materials and processes,
      you can have a big impact on your firm’s
      environmental footprint without any negative impact
      to quality or cost.

      The following pages give a brief overview of some
      environmental issues related to printing and some of
      the organizations (Iike FSC) that are working to
      address these issues. To learn more about how to
      make your print more ‘green’, contact John Collins
      at (708) 329-1360 or jxcollins@uniqueprinters.com.




                                                   SW-COC-002352
Issues

FIBER SOURCES                                      committed to the health of the forest and the
Do you know where your wood came from?             protection of endangered forests.
                                                      Groups like the Forest Stewardship Council
R E C Y C L E D C O N T E N T:                     and the Sustainable Forest Initiative set
Using paper with recycled content reduces          standards for responsible forestry; companies
the demand for virgin pulp, requires less          that follow these standards can be certified as
energy and chemicals and reduces landfill          responsible foresters.
requirements.                                         Companies along the ‘chain of custody’
   Wood fiber can only be recycled a few           from the forest to paper mill to distributor to
times before it loses its strength. So while       the final printer can commit to FSC
recycling can greatly reduce the number of         requirements and receive FSC Chain-of-
trees that are cut down, we’ll never lose our      Custody certification. Certified companies
dependency on virgin fiber from newly-             within this chain of custody have committed
harvested trees.                                   to tracking and auditing transactions.
   One downside of using recycled content is          With FSC certified paper, you and your
that you can’t know were the wood fiber            stakeholders can be sure that the wood fiber
comes from. It could be from an endangered         in your brochures was harvested in a
forest, like Indonesia’s Riau Province of the      responsible, ethical manner.
Amazon Rainforest.
                                                   A LT E R N AT I V E F I B E R S :
R E S P O N S I B L E F O R E S T R Y:             Paper companies are increasingly offering
Across the globe, forests are being destroyed.     paper created from fiber from ‘alternative’,
Unethical logging practices destroy old            non-tree sources. Sources such as bamboo,
growth forests, threaten the extinction of         kenaf, hemp and sugar cane are being
thousands of animal species and contribute to      utilized.
climate change.                                       Paper made from these alternative fiber
   A point of increasing emphasis within the       options is still not very widespread. One
environmental movement is responsible              possible issue with these alternative sources
forestry. The goal of responsible forestry is to   is there is a lack of third-party certification
insure that the wood fiber used in paper comes     (e.g., the FSC model) which certifies that
from trees harvested in a responsible manner;      they are harvested in a responsible manner.
that the companies harvesting the wood are
CHLORINE FREE
Elemental chlorine has long been used as a bleaching
agent by paper mills. Unfortunately, when elemental
chlorine is used in the paper making process, it creates
dioxin. Dioxin is toxic, known to be a carcinogen…and
doesn’t break down in nature.
   To respond to this environmental threat, paper
companies began using ‘safer’ forms of chlorine or
alternatives to chlorine. Look for papers manufactured as:
Elemental Chlorine Free: Virgin or recycled fibers are
bleached using alternative chlorine compounds (rather
than elemental chlorine)
Process Chlorine Free: Recycled fibers are either
unbleached or bleached without chlorine compounds.
Considered the most “environment-friendly” paper.
Totally Chlorine Free: 100% virgin fiber that is either
unbleached or bleached without chlorine compounds.


ENERGY
PA P E R M A N U F A C T U R E :
Paper manufacturing is one of the most energy-intensive
sectors of the economy. 14.5% of all energy in the
industrial sector is used in the manufacture of paper.
   Some paper companies are starting to address this by
turning to alternative energy sources: wind, hydroelectric,
bio-mass, etc.
  Unfortunately, many mills are located in parts of the
country were alternative energy sources are not available.
Some mills have chosen to purchase Renewable Energy
Certificates to offset some of their energy use with the
production of alternative energy.
Seals

RECYCLED/RECYCLABLE
The Recycled logo is a sign that the paper contains
wood fiber recovered from post-consumer waste.
Generally, when this logo is used the producer should
specify what percent is recycled content.
   The Recyclable logo signifies that the product is    RECYCLED
100% recyclable with no content that would prevent
it from entering the normal recycling stream.
   Neither the Recycled logo nor the Recyclable logo
is trademarked. They can be used without permission                RECYCLABLE




FSC CERTIFIED
The Forest Stewardship Council logo is a sign that
the wood fiber is from a company committed to
responsible forestry. To use the FSC logo, all
companies along the ‘chain-of-custody’ (wood
harvester, paper mill, paper distributor, printer)
have to be FSC Chain of Custody certified.



RAINFOREST ALLIANCE
Companies that receive their FSC Chain-of-Custody
Certification from the Rainforest Alliance’s
SmartWood program can use the Rainforest Alliance
Certified logo in addition to the FSC Certified logo.
CHLORINE FREE
This mark shows that the paper has been certified by the
Chlorine Free Products Association to be manufactured
without the use of chlorine. There are two logos: Process
Chlorine Free (for recycled papers) and Totally Chlorine
Free (for virgin papers)



GREEN-E
Green-E is a certification by the Center for Resource
Solutions that the product was made with Alternative
Energy. Companies can also earn the Green-E logo if
they offset a portion of their power use with purchases
of Renewable Energy Certificates.



GREEN SEAL
Green Seal is a third-party certifying organization that
provides environmental certification to a number of
industries, including the paper industry. Green Seal
certified paper must either:
• Contain a minimum of 30% post-consumer recycled paper
• Be Manufactured without using Chlorine or Chlorine
deriviatives.