You run an sustainable organization, receive referrals from the Internet and want a brand that’s memorable. You also want to automate your web traffic.

Enter the green widget - a ‘brand confirming’ tool you can’t overlook. If you have a brand, says Stefan Juhl, a widget will only confirm (or make others more aware of) your brand values. So, what is a widget anyway? Erick Schonfeld explains and Max Gladwell defines the role of a widget as one of the many tools a social (change) media practitioner can employ. Read the rest of this entry »

Myth no. 1: The paper production industry is low on the GHG emitter totem pole.
Not so, actually the paper and pulp industry is the third largest polluter in both Canada and the United States. The Green Press Initiative (GPI) states that one of the biggest benefits of using recycled fiber is that it emits 38 percent less GHGs. Recycled fiber also uses 44 percent less energy to produce, and conserves up to 34 mature trees for every ton replacing virgin fiber.
Read the rest of this entry »

This week, greenwash fatigued bloggers (Gawker describes it as improbable a real news item as ‘the hot dog industry going vegetarian’) and non-profit spokespersons turned a skeptical eye on a group of direct marketing companies called the Green Marketing Coalition (GMC). Corporate clients, including Microsoft, Washington Mutual and OptimaHealth, are also in on the initiative.

GMC’s goal? Altruistic enough. According to the New York Times article “Direct marketing goes green. No, really”, these marketers are joining hands and taking small, albeit very conservative, steps to make an inherently unsustainable practice (i.e. sending wads of personal junk mail) at least a little bit greener. We have already written about junk mail solutions and naughty, catalogue-sending companies before and so we were curious about what best practices the industry funded group came up with. Read the rest of this entry »

A Green Printer dispatch.

According to Patricia Calkins, Xerox vice-president for Environment, Health and Safety, being smarter about paper use is a win for the environment and for the bottom line, so it is no surprise businesses would zero in on improving their performance in that area.

While long an “evangelist” for greener operations, Xerox is, at its core, a global document management company, which manufactures and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies.

And so, the question that Jeff McIntire-Strasburg asked in April still hovers: “can a company that manufactures copy machines, and sells more paper than any other single brand, really walk the talk on sustainable business practices?” Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve started a green team and seven weeks later, your once ecstatic committee of cubicle warriors by day, green champions by night (a.k.a your green employees) begin to dwindle in numbers. Even the most eager employees look like they would prefer to be idling in traffic than be here listening to your green pitch.

Preston Koerner wrote a valuable article in Green Biz on how to prevent “green fatigue” and separate it from the “green noise” amongst customers in response to a recent commentary on eco-overload in the New York Times. Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks back, I was writing about CO2-friendly supply chains and saw the hefty list of U.S. companies that the Environmental Defense Fund had helped switch to recycled content in a drive to reduce paper waste across the nation.

Now, paper is back under the public eye in fuller force than ever because of its significant climate change footprint.
“Paper is a tremendously resource-intensive product to produce,” explains project manager Victoria Mills, “and the decomposition of paper in landfills generates methane, a greenhouse gas with 23 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide.” Read the rest of this entry »

Image source: it all skyrocketed with Gutenberg’s printing press…

A Green Printer dispatch.

Ever wondered how much energy and thought it took to produce that shiny brochure your marketing staff handed to you this week? And no, it’s not just the brand and visual design genius we’re talking about.

Let’s face it: making a few pieces of paper look pretty takes up some pretty hefty resources and the paper and pulp industry is there to meet our paper hungry needs (so much for the paperless office).

In fact, the OECD Environmental Outlooks calls the pulp and paper industry the single largest consumer of water and the third greatest industrial greenhouse gas emitter, right after the chemical and steel industries and the oil and gas industry.

And, that rank, as echoed by Co-op America is not set to go down anytime soon.

The Environmental Defense Fund further attests that paper use is on the rise with paper and packaging still making up one third of municipal landfill waste. And, producing all those nice brochures (or manuals or contracts or….) takes up a lot of energy. In fact,

• Producing paper uses 11.5 percent of all energy in the industrial sector.
• One third of all wood harvested in the U.S. goes into paper products.

Thus, on the bright side, paper use presents the potential for enormous environmental savings. Citigroup took up the challenge of using post-consumer waste paper and saved 43.8 billion BTU’s of energy, enough to supply 430 homes for a year.

But then, what about those cool, “a must” coloured graphs and charts on the company brochure?

More than likely, it was made using inks containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). That’s short for those nasty major pollutants linked to the deterioration of the earth’s protective ozone layer and, consequently (some researchers suggest), to accelerating climate change.

So what are we to do?
Let’s begin with the water used to print those brochures. Waterless printers have been able to dramatically reduce water consumption. For example, a printer in Switzerland, operating one of the world’s first waterless web presses, eliminated the use of approximately 250,000 liters (about 66,000 gallons) of water in one year. That water would normally have come from a nearby lake, which is a source of drinking water for tens of thousands of people.

The invention of water-washable inks has allowed the waterless pressroom to be virtually VOC-free. Water-washable ink technology takes out the need for solvent-based press and blanket wash solutions, which typically account for a large portion of a printer’s VOC output.

So, have your cake and eat it too. We all love handing a cool looking brochure to a client. It just doesn’t need to cost the Earth.

More resources

• No piece of paper is completely environmentally invisible, even the recycled kind, so choose check out these guidelines for environmentally preferable paper by the Environmental Paper Network.
• Handy printable signs to encourage better office paper use by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
• Ever wondered where to even start to buy greener paper? The first step starts with asking the right questions and this Paper Supplier Evaluation PDF by the EDF is about as thorough as it gets.
• Recycled paper purchasing article from GreenBiz.com.

Get these brands and more, all while tracking how much CO2, trees and wastewater you’ll save with the Eco-Widget, at Green Printer.

Image source: Ecofriend.org

A Green Printer Online Dispatch

Do you scoff at company-made labels (i.e. internal labels) and only go for the non-profit, third party born eco-labels when buying green office supplies? Or do you take both with a grain of salt, comparing the merits of “private” and “public” labels?

If you’re the latter or if you are a green procurer, you probably want to streamline the “boom! done, I’m buying that product - not that one - because it has a trusty brand” process. So, here are the ins and outs of some of the up and coming brands that you’ll see in Staples, online or in a custom office paper supply shop.

The CEO - ENVIRONMENT®
Description
Just like the CEO, this paper covers all the recycled paper rounds. It’s reliable, it’s got experience (comes in smooth, felt, laid, and parchment finishes) and it’s around internationally.

You can buy either 100% post-consumer recycled, FSC-certified fibers, specialty fibers or 100% recycled with 30% post-consumer fiber from the entire line. Plus it’s cost-efficient.

What this paper is best for
Acid free and archival, so it’s ideal for scrap booking. It comes in different colours (all 22 of them) and is fit for the renewable energy expert at your office - all papers are made entirely with Green-e Certified renewable energy

What it’s not so good for
If you are looking for 100% post-consumer line of paper only - this one also carries 30% post-consumer fiber paper type.

The Verdict?
It’s a flexible, no fail solution - just takes some time to choose paper amongst the large selection.

The Office Eco-Star - Astrolite PC 100
Like that person who spearheaded the green team at your work, was the first to buy a hybrid and talk about installing solar panels over the weekend - this paper is an eco-star. In fact, it’s one of the cleanest, brightest, and smoothest recycled paper types available. It’s also FSC-certified so you can be sure it contains only de rigeur 100% post-consumer recycled fiber.

What this paper is best for
Um, everything: from business cards to product sheets, especially since Astrolite PC comes in a thicker, new 130lb double thick cover.

What it’s not so good for
What’s not to like?

The Verdict?
100% reliable just like the Office Eco-Star.

The Design Connoisseur - ChorusArt
Description
ChorusArt paper has top-quality triple coating, giving it a slick yet totally eco-chic feel to it.

What this paper is best for
Shiny-er, glossy-er stuff with the FSC stamp on it: catalogues, book covers, magazine covers, direct mail, inserts and flyers, books, art books, magazines, commercial printing, supplements, annual reports, brochures and more. This paper is FSC-certified, guaranteeing that the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council are respected and that the pulp the paper is made of consists of a mixture of fibers from certified forests and post-consumer recycling processes from controlled sources.

What it’s not so good for
Depending on what you want to use this paper for, it has a lighter feel to it.

The Verdict?
Your Design department will love you.

The Office Knight - The Save-a-Tree ®
Description
Just like your trusted office cubicle buddy back in the day (yes, the one who answered your harried call to finish off a research report at 1:23 am), this paper will get the job done. Made from 100% post-consumer waste, Process Chlorine Free (PCF), it also runs and prints like virgin paper - what more could you want?

What this paper is best for
Medium weight, everyday use yet “dressed to impress” paper quality that’s ideal for CSR and annual reports, stationery, newsletters, catalogues, brochures and more.

What it’s not so good for
Super thick and shiny-ish business cards - this paper has a medium weight feel to it. People that are adamant about having the FSC standard on their communications material should choose another paper product - this one does not have this label (the FSC actually came under fire last year).

The Verdict?
Your PR department or Cause Marketing team will thank you - great for communicating your corporate green committments to stakeholders and an alternative to the FSC label.

Now, if only buying coffee was so eco-conscious and those trees planted by the UN could create a domino effect..

Get these brands and more, all while tracking how much CO2, trees and wastewater you’ll save with the Eco-Widget, at Green Printer.

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 »