In this era of increasing electronic communications, How Green Is Your Paper? ENVIRONMENTAL

Transcription

1 How Green Is Your Paper? Being confident the paper you buy is environmentally sustainable By Donna Atkinson In this era of increasing electronic communications, it s easy to overlook the fact that paper is still an important part of our daily lives and how we communicate at home and for business. As a product made from trees a renewable resource paper can play an important role in making your communications more environmentally friendly. And while many people think about recycled content when they want to go green, that s only a small part of the sustainability equation. To be environmentally responsible, you need to buy paper from a source that is committed to using recycled content, practicing sustainable forest management, actively managing environmental impacts, and monitoring products throughout their entire lifecycle. As you will see, the profile of environmentally sustainable paper has become a lot greener over the past four decades. Recycling is only the beginning Recycling has been in the public eye since the 1970 s, and for many people recycled content in paper products is the most important indicator that a product is environmentally friendly. For certain products that s still true. In fact, every ton of recyclable paper removed from the waste stream extends the life of landfills, saves electricity, reduces water and air pollutants, and maximizes the use of the trees harvested to make new paper. Recycling is one way everyone can contribute to helping the environment. We ve come a long way. Less than 20 years ago, under 40% 1 of discarded paper was captured for recycling. Today, thanks to market demand and subsequent purchasing policies, close to 64% 2 enters the recycling system, including nearly three-quarters of all office papers 3. This compares very favorably with recycling rates for other materials. For example, U.S. recycling rates for aluminum cans were only 51%, and only 31% of glass containers were recovered for recycling in

2 U.S. Paper And Paperboard Recovery 1993 to 2010 But while recovery rates are increasing, the amount of paper fiber being recovered from the recycling stream has declined as more municipalities have moved towards single-stream recycling where recyclable materials are collected in one bin and separated at a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF). Single stream recycling increases recovery rates, but more of the paper products collected are contaminated or unsuitable for recycling which reduces the quality of the fiber stock. For example, a bale of old newsprint purchased for re-pulping will usually contain 8-12% unusable materials like glass, plastic and cans. With a shortage of recovered paper globally, an increasing amount of North America s recovered fiber is being shipped to China where it can be processed at a lower cost. AbitibiBowater is a leading recycler of old newspapers and old magazines in North America diverting 1.5 million metric tonnes of paper from landfill last year with a paper portfolio that includes over 30 grades of paper with recycled content. AbitibiBowater s two recycling programs, Paper Retriever and EcoRewards, help generate a clean, high-quality supply of recovered fiber for our own paper mills and for the U.S. market. Paper Retriever is a fund-raising recycling program that has generated close to $30 million for local non-profit organizations in 23 cities in North America over the past eight years.the EcoRewards recycling program offers waste audits, desk-to-curb equipment and signage and detailed monthly reporting to businesses in thirteen key U.S. metropolitan areas. Pros and cons Moving recycled content over long distances is one of its potential environmental downsides, as transportation generates greenhouse gas emissions. The need to ship recovered paper from cities, where most of it is collected, to paper mills, which are usually quite far from metropolitan areas, can increase the carbon profile of the product. Another consideration is the grade of paper being made with recycled content. Using recycled content in some high brightness products, like office paper, requires more energy and chemicals than using it in lower-grade products, like newsprint or containerboard. And because fibers break down each time they are recycled, the more intense process for printing and writing grades also means more recycled fiber is lost, making it a less efficient use compared to lower brightness grades. The fact that wood fiber cannot be recycled indefinitely means that recycling is not a closed loop. Fresh fiber must be added to the cycle, or else we would run out of paper products in a matter of months 5. It all starts in the forest With that in mind, the forest is the next step in our green journey. It s important to know that the trees being harvested come from a well-managed forest, by companies that are committed to being as ethically and environmentally responsible as possible. Paper made from trees harvested in North America comes from some of the best managed working forests in the world. The forests managed by AbitibiBowater are sustainably managed to reduce environmental harm and to protect key watersheds and wildlife habitat. Not every country is so careful. International tracking of legal and illegal forest activity shows that forest products coming from some countries includes significant amounts of illegally harvested trees 6. Paper from these countries directly contribute to important environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion, loss of habitat and ultimately to global warming. In North America, illegal logging is not a significant issue. In fact, through responsible forest management practices, harvested areas are regenerated to ensure there is no net loss of forest cover due to harvesting. In Canada, this policy has helped the country retain close to 90% 7 of its original forest cover 8. 39

3 Corruption and Illegal Forest Activity World-leading Countries in SFM Certification 2010 Year-end Sustainable forest management certification Fortunately, there is one simple and reliable way for paper buyers and consumers to know with certainty that they are using paper from sustainably managed forests: by looking for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) certification. SFM certification provides impartial, third-party verification that forests are well managed according to a defined standard that integrates and balances the social, economic, and ecological needs of forest resources for present and future generations. Only 10% of the world s forests are certified to any sustainable forest management standard. Globally, there are two leading certification systems: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) International, and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC), each of which recognize standards that guarantee that a forest is being managed legally and sustainably. AbitibiBowater recognizes certification standards set by the Canadian Standards Association, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) all of which are endorsed by PEFC as well as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Canada and the United States are the world leaders in SFM certification. The two countries are number one and two in the world in terms of their area of forest certified, respectively. Canada has a greater area of sustainably managed forest lands than the rest of the world combined. AbitibiBowater has been committed to SFM since 2004, when we certified our first forest area, and is currently among the largest certificate holders in North America, with third-party audited SFM certification complete for all managed woodlands under our care. Throughout North America, AbitibiBowater owns or manages approximately 16.8 million hectares (41.6 million acres) of forestland (as of December 31, 2010) an area slightly smaller than the state of Florida. A landmark agreement with environmentalists Along with the 20 other Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) member companies, AbitibiBowater is a signatory to the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA), a joint agreement with nine environmental organizations, including Greenpeace, ForestEthics, the Nature Conservancy and others. Under the CBFA FPAC companies, who manage two-thirds of all certified forest land in Canada, commit to the highest environmental standards of forest management within an area twice the size of Germany, and conservation groups commit to global recognition and support for FPAC member efforts 9. This landmark agreement provides paper buyers with additional assurance that their paper purchases are having a positive impact on forest conservation and health. Chain of custody certification In addition to knowing that forests are being properly managed, it is equally important to know that the fiber which ends up in your paper product is actually coming from these sources. Chain of custody (CoC) certification provides paper buyers with a third-party-audited, documentation trail that traces a mill s fiber from its origin whether it is the forest or a recycling facility through the manufacturing process, to a customer and/or end user. AbitibiBowater has fiber tracking systems at all of our mills, most of which are CoC certified, so that we can confirm our products are legally and sustainably sourced. Energy and greenhouse gas emissions Of course, environmental concerns aren t limited to fiber sourcing, since manufacturing is a significant step along the path to a final product. In 2010, one quarter of the questions AbitibiBowa- 40

4 ter received from customers related to energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We are working hard to measure, analyze and reduce our impact in this area. From 2000 to 2010, we reduced total GHG emissions by 53%, and we continue to work with consultants and non-governmental organizations to find more opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as improved processes, energy efficiencies and green energy projects. While it takes energy to transform raw fiber into paper, paper manufacturers have some advantages compared to others. Paper manufacturing produces waste-based biomass as a by-product, things like bark, sludge and black liquor all of which can be used to replace fossil fuel. Considering the entire paper life cycle A carbon footprint is more than just the GHG emissions produced at the manufacturing site; a full carbon profile assesses all of the GHG emissions associated with paper from the forest to manufacturing to landfill. Carefully looking at this big picture provides a more accurate perspective of the carbon profile of a product or process. This holistic approach, known as life cycle thinking, brings more scientific rigor to the evaluation of environmental impacts. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies are used to measure and compare the ecoperformance of products across a range of indicators, and are an indication of growing market interest in looking at the cumulative environmental impact of products. In 2009, AbitibiBowater commissioned a third-party life cycle assessment (LCA) for our Equal Offset paper, an uncoated freesheet substitute, comparing its environmental impacts to those of uncoated freesheet paper (UFS). The research found Equal Offset outperformed UFS in 14 of the 15 environmental impact categories tested, such as global warming and land use 10. Life Cycle Assessments Image courtesy of FPAC, AF & PA - Printing and Writing Papers Cycle Assessment, 2010 A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a paper product accounts for a range of environmental impacts generated through any activity associated with the production of the paper from the moment the tree is harvested to the time it is disposed of, including manufacturing, transportation, packaging and many other factors. LCAs can have different goals, such as indentifying which lifecycle stages have the greatest impacts, or comparing the eco-performance of different products. Although LCAs aim to be complete in their analysis, there are still variables. LCAs require large amounts of data to calculate all the inputs and outputs for every step, and many assumptions must be made during the assessment and analysis. This means that two LCAs on the same subject could return different results depending on the objectives, data quality, assumptions and assessment methods used. 13 LCA results must be interpreted carefully, and an understanding of the assumptions used in the process is essential when comparing results of different LCAs. Guidelines developed by the International Standards Association (ISO 14040), outlines recognized standards and methods for conducting an LCA. For further reading An industry-average LCA was recently jointly published by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) and the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) on the environmental impact of products made from four grades of printing and writing papers (office paper, telephone directory, catalogue, and magazines), using North American data. A summary report can be downloaded from the FPAC and AF&PA websites

5 E N V I R O N M E N TA L Finding information to help you make choices In order to help paper buyers assess their suppliers paper products, some web-based tools have been created based on life cycle thinking. One of the most practical is the Environmental Paper Assessment Tool11 (EPAT), developed by GreenBlue, a sustainability non-profit. EPAT is a membership-based on-line comparison tool that allows paper buyers to compare the performance of their suppliers based on a range of criteria, including forest management, resource use and stakeholder engagement. The recently launched Environmental Footprint Comparison Tool12 (EFCT), developed by the National Council of Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI) has a wealth of information for those dealing with the challenges of meeting a range of environmental objectives. The EFCT examines tradeoffs and benefits associated with a range of paper manufacturing process inputs, such as fiber sourcing, water use and energy use. References 1. Paper Industry Association Council 2. American Forest & Paper Association, 2010 data 3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for In the end, it s all about responsibility As we have seen, a paper grade can t be called green just because it has recycled content or any single environmental attribute. You need to examine a product s full environmental profile. Just as importantly, you also should consider the company s broader commitment to corporate social responsibility, which tells you about how they treat their employees, neighboring communities and stakeholders, and how accountable the leadership is for the decisions they make. 5. Metafore Paper Fiber Life Cycle Research php?p=metafore_paper_fiber_life_cycle&s=570 Suffice it to say that buying green is not a black and white decision. 11. Environmental Paper Assessment Tool Donna Atkinson works in Sustainability and Communications at AbitibiBowater Seneca Creek Associates and Wood Resources International World Resource Institute Forest Extent: Forest area (current) as a percent of original forest area; World Earth Trends. Searchable Database. Forests, Grasslands and Drylands. searchable_db/index.php?theme=9&variable_id=313&action=select_coun tries; Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM). 2006b. Sustainable Forest Management in Canada. 20p. SFMBooklet_E_US.pdf (accessed September 24, 2008). 8. Original forest is that estimated to have covered the planet about 8,000 years ago, before large-scale disturbance by modern society began Environmental Footprint Comparison Tool: FPAC - Life Cycle Assessment and Forest Products: A White Paper, Sept. 2010, available at and org/pwlcamaterials/