The big names cannot help but pump out more sustainable paper products on an almost weekly basis. From biology college textbooks gone green to carbon friendly greeting cards, we’ve rounded up the top ten green papier goods that caught our eye.

7. So, the FSC is not perfect. But it’s a start and it speaks volumes when office supply giants like Staples start to sell what most of us want to start using already in the copy machine: post-consumer waste paper.

6. Green textbooks are challenging Penn State University’s exam taking establishment. Talk about a YAWN generation.

5. Perfect for the green spy in your life? Xerox has got paper that erases in 24 hours.

4. From your hiking map to your grandma’s birthday letter: Chris Ryan, a publisher of outdoor recreation and guide books now buys up to 15 tons of outdated maps at a time to meet his customer’s demands from these premium quality, unique envelopes made from 100% post-consumer content.

3. Random House’s 2008 15% recycled paper policy: the one that triggered a short-term revenue decline and in the future (if the right CEO steps up to the plate) has the potential to paint the publishing world a darker shade of green.

2. Live lighter at the office by switching to 100% post-consumer waste paper and then showing off your CO2 and tree savings using Green Printer’s eco-calculator widget (we couldn’t resist a well-time “plug”!)

1. Verysupercool (yes, that is their real and uber-funky name) teams with CarbonFund.org to create the Greenest Little Greeting Card in Texas.

So, even while the mythical paperless office lures us with its green goodness, we still use and love our paper - printed on both sides, thankyouverymuch.

Save trees, time and money the eco-friendly way with our recycled paper, sustainable printing methods and eco-calculator with Green Printer - more details at http://www.greenprinteronline.com. Now, wasn’t that easy?

A Junk Mail “Sculpture” a la http://antiadvertisingagency.com

A http://greenprinteronline.com dispatch.

We’ve come this far in our exasperation with junk mail-apalooza and now people are luring us with cold, hard cash (or the beauty of planting a tree) to get us to stop receiving virgin-forest-eating junk mail.

We’re in love with Green Dimes (thank you to Nate Burgos of Design Feast for the gread tip), which not only offers a widget that claims to track, in real time, how many:

i. trees are saved;
ii. Victoria Secret catalogues are stopped and;
iii. (tongue in cheek style) “people helped”,

but also offers a really convenient online service to cut out those annoying credit card application forms. Read the rest of this entry »

Image source: http://timblair.net | Lights out for Sydney, Australia 2007

An http://greenprinteronline.com dispatch. 

Earth Hour is tonight, March 29th from 8 to 9 pm. The idea is to turn off the lights as a symbolic gesture that us citizens, business owners, uber-corporations (hello, Google’s black screen, hello McDonalds in Toronto saving 10 000 kilowatt hours) local governments and non-profit groups are taking climate change seriously.

Despite gripes that Earth Hour falls on the NCAA basketball regional, it’s lights out for over 23 major cities worldwide like Toronto and Bangkok. Read the rest of this entry »

Image source | www.jiinjoo.com

An http://greenprinteronline.com dispatch.
When asked: how “green” are you, the brains behind accounting, IT and architectural firms who, kudos to them – both the closet greens or eco-warriors who proudly bear their eco-badge on their sleeve – jump up to say that they are helping their clients drive sustainability solutions.

Even lawyers are realizing their impact on their environment. No seriously, lawyers are sharp enough to know that using all that virgin paper cannot be good to the environment.

But when it comes to driving internal sustainability initiatives? Many still respond by: “we recycle”. Period. Read the rest of this entry »

Photos by Chris Jordan | “Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption”

Design Goes Green - The first of a series of articles by Green Printer on the cross-section between the environment, business and the creative communications industry.

According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, used or unwanted electronics amounted to 1.9 to 2.2 million tons in 2005, with most of that ending up in landfills. We did a post earlier on the how the chemicals that seep into the soil, even decades later, can have harmful human health effects and the fact that heaps of the stuff are often left abandoned in developing countries. Read the rest of this entry »

Warning: so, as the video and Oprah’s darling du jour and guerrilla closet warrior Peter Walsh so clearly outlines, our pack-rat habits are making us chubby. They can also be a barrier to us going green. Not surprising, did you notice that your lean and toned friends also tend to have pretty darn spotless, sustainability-forward and organized homes, while your plumper friends tend to lavish in “chaotic creative” spaces. Hmmm… Read the rest of this entry »

Image Source: http://www.replate.org

We ask design guru Nate Burgos, named Fast Company’s debut “Fast 50 Champions of Innovation“, to reflect on how the Internet changed how designers ‘make connections’ and why government and ‘big business’ should care about environmental sustainability and design activism.

Our take: major organizations should take a cue from the incredibly creative and nimble ways designers (who often, historically speaking, have a pulse on how online mediums work faster than business) are using the Internet and multi-media platforms to attract highly engaged users - not to mention high web traffic rates.

Here are nine websites to watch and more on what the ever quotable Burgos said on design activism, the Internet and sustainability… Read the rest of this entry »

Image source: www.futureproofnola.com.

Design Goes Green - The first of a series of articles by Green Printer on the cross-section between the environment, business and the creative communications industry.

At some point, one comes to the inevitable conclusion that in order to “green” your marketing material, one needs to take a little extra time to plan ahead and live a “slow food” version of marketing. Yes, I hear the snickers and yes, even marketing speed demons can learn a thing or two from the slow movement.

So, for all you energizer bunnies out there, here are a few tips from Montreal based Vivace Design‘ s Karine Himbeault that, incidentally, we found take 60 seconds or less to actually carry out.

Read the rest of this entry »

An http://www.greenprinteronline.com dispatch.

When companies make the shift to reduce the carbon footprint of their supply chain, paper is one of the first – but perhaps most overlooked – ways to shed those office carbon pounds.

But the carbon, environmental and cost savings benefits of switching from virgin paper to more sustainable paper didn’t escape Sustainable Business Design - a consulting firm that provides carbon footprint, greenhouse gas audits and “The Low Carb Corporate Diet” ™ service.

Nancy E. Landrum, Ph.D., of SBD demonstrated that a local, multi-site client who had not thought about paper purchasing as a way to “go green” experienced “immediate environmental and financial success in their quest for green” by simply making the change to recycled paper.

But how big of a success was it exactly?

“The final combination of paper choices recommended to the client represented a 10% cost savings, 13% fewer carbon dioxide emissions, and 35% fewer trees when compared to their previous product,” says Landrum.

And, if offering climate change and carbon strategies that work wasn’t enough, Landrum oversees a blog worth reading at http://www.sustainablebusinessdesign.blogspot.com, check out the January 30 post for a list of useful webinars like “A Guide to Green Purchasing (Feb. 20)”. It’s like attending a green learning conference across the country minus the across country flight emissions – we are loving it.

Green Printer offers ultra sleek, sustainable and 100% post-consumer paper to help your organization save trees and reduce your carbon footprint - the easy and cost-effective way. More details at www.greenprinteronline.com.

(Image source: www.treehugger.com)

Ecolabelling.org — looking behind the labels
What’s green? And who says so?

Ecolabels are everywhere from Wal-Mart’s “seafood aisle” to my local grocery store. But, at the end of day, what do these labels really mean? Who’s behind them?

And, most importantly, can I rely on them to make my certified no-rainforests-were-destroyed-in-the-making-of-this-latte latte?

Ecolabelling.org – your source on the background of over 285 ecolabels around the world – makes it easier to answer these questions and more by sharing a global database of who’s deciding what’s green.

Big Room Inc. launched ecolabelling.org for as a resource for consumers, environmental professionals and procurers to learn the source of each ecolabel and what it actually means.

That means: one less consumer paralysed in indecision under the florescent lights of the natural foods aisle and one more green procurer who can sift through nearly 100 food ecolabels with the click of a mouse.

So far, ecolabelling.org has tracked down over 285 ecolabels or green certification systems that exist worldwide and estimate that close to 400,000 companies and nearly 500,000 products have gained a green label or valid certification. The database is a platform that will grow, so they look forward to hearing from eco-labels and certification schemes worldwide. Are they missing your favourite ecolabel? Let them know!

For more information about who is deciding what is green, check out www.ecolabelling.org.