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Summer 2011 | p2p Magaz i ne | 11

Green Red Herring

When Vodafone Ireland launched its paperless billing campaign earlier this year, it did so using the slogan ‘Goodbye Paper Bills, Hello Trees’. It argued that one tree would be saved for every 72 customers who switched to paperless billing and, just to reinforce the point, promised to plant a new tree each time that number made the switch – a strategy previously used by BT in its drive to paperless billing.

Vodafone suggested that reducing the amount of paper bills by 70% would save almost 5,000 trees and 500 tonnes of CO

2 per annum. As such, it is an important part of the company’s Green Agenda, which has already helped Vodafone cut CO

2 emissions by 34% since 2008. It will, of course, also save the company money.

For Martyn Eustace, director of the Two Sides initiative to promote the responsible production and use of print and paper, linking paper use to tree loss is fundamentally misleading. He regularly

criticises banks, building societies, utilities and telecoms companies for urging customers to switch to electronic billing on environmental grounds without providing verifable evidence that online communication is more sustainable.

“This is misleading to consumers and encourages them not to use paper when in fact it may be the sustainable way to communicate,” he has said. “Greenwash of this nature is creating a false impression about the sustainability of print and paper and has a detrimental effect on the print and paper industries.” Here, it should be pointed out that the association between paper use and tree loss is not confned to one side of the argument. The title of Arjowiggins’ ‘What One Tree Means To Me’ campaign is arguably guilty of fostering the same lazy assumptions, though in this case the book extolling the benefts of recycled paper won the ‘Best Green Direct Response Award’ at the Green Awards.

Changing business practices not myths about

paper-making are the real threat to the paper industry, argues James Goulding

OPINION

Portucel Soporcel, the Portuguese paper manufacturer famous for its Navigator brand of offce papers, has achieved EU Ecolabel certifcation, indicating that its products meet strict standards for environmental performance. The company already has FSC and PEFC accreditation for sustainable forestry management.

Portucel Soporcel makes its paper from Eucalyptus globulus, which was introduced to Portugal two centuries ago. The company claims that the tree provides the ideal fbre for printing and writing paper, requires fewer chemicals in the production process and represents a more effcient use of raw material, with an 86% reduction in timber use compared to some species of pine and spruce.

Thanks to major investment in new technology, Portucel Soporcel has reduced CO

2 emissions per ton of pulp and paper produced by 59% since 2000. It has also cut water consumption by 45% and reclaims 80% of industrial waste, much of it used to produce green energy.

WORTH A LOOK

Anyone wanting to fnd out more about the paper-making process should visit the online Environmental Footprint Comparison Tool developed by the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI). Despite its US bias, this gives a good overview of paper's impact on the environment and how attempts to improve performance in one area can have a knock-on effect on other parts of the paper-making process. NCASI is an independent, non-proft research institute that focuses on environmental topics of interest to the forest products industry.

www.paperenvironment.org

Raising standards

Main aims

Eustace doesn’t just speak for the paper-making industry. Two Sides’s membership also includes printers, publishers, direct mail organisations, marketing bodies, paper converters and others associated with the production, use and re-use of paper (but not Royal Mail, which has seen letter volumes fall by 20% since 2006 and is facing further annual declines of 5% as people switch to electronic communications). One of Two Sides’ main aims is to dispel what it sees as the myths surrounding paper, including the argument that paper use leads to deforestation, when as Eustace points out “93% of our paper comes from Europe, where the area of forest has grown by 30% since 1950 and is increasing at a rate of 1.5 million football pitches every year.”

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Greenwash of this nature is creating a false impression about the sustainability of print and paper...