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[GreenYes] Re: [GreenYes]Not-so-green magazines



It's an interesting observation David. You may be aware that most all
the non-profit organizations working on advocacy around paper issues
have developed and reached consensus on a document called the "Common
Vision for the Transformation of the Paper Industry" which I think is
relevant to your question. It can be found at www.environmentalpaper.org,
the website of the Environmental Paper Network (EPN). It consists of
four pillars, Reducing Consumption, Maximizing Use of Recycled
Content, Responsible Fiber Sourcing (better forestry, avoiding
endangered forests), and Cleaner Production. Conservatree, Co-op
America, and ForestEthics serve on the Steering Committee of the EPN,
which is a network of over 100 organizations primarily in North
America and Europe.

The Common Vision is a long-term "roadmap" to a holistic solution, and
using recycled fiber is certainly still at the very top of priorities
for all these organizations. Generally, the consensus message has
been to the effect of, "first, include as much post-consumer recycled
content as you possibly can, and second, if you absolutely must at
this time use some virgin fiber, ensure it is from credible,
sustainably-managed sources and not from endangered forests." (of
course before steps 1 and 2 is step 0: use less)

So in direct response to your observation and figuring, I think
advocacy around paper production/consumption is still really strong on
advocating recycling and use of recycled fiber, however, that advocacy
has become more sophisticated in achieving global progress and
environmental benefits, and in avoiding unintended consequences,
through working in alliance with a broad community.

Joshua Martin
Network Coordinator
Environmental Paper Network



On Feb 28, 7:06 am, David Biddle <Dbid...@no.address> wrote:
> This article is interesting and continuing a trend. There is one use of the
> word ³recycling² in it and that is to name ³a nonprofit called the National
> Recycling Coalition.² The author mostly speaks nebulously about ³sustainable
> forestry practices.²
>
> Now, I went to the Coop America site and found a wealth of information on
> the need for using recycled paper, but it¹s just not clear to me whether all
> the big magazines cited in the Fortune article are using recycled content or
> just using ³environmentally responsible² paper. I also went to the Forest
> Ethics site (http://www.forestethics.org), and while they certainly directly
> offer information on recycled-content paper, much of their work is centered
> on sustaining the forestry industries and making them more responsible. I¹m
> not complaining here, just trying to figure out where recycling is going in
> the whole mix. Seems like it¹s getting lost a bit.
>
> Db
> --
> David Biddle, Executive Director
> <http://www.blueolives.blogspot.com>
> Greater Philadelphia Commercial Recycling Council
> P.O. Box 4037
> Philadelphia, PA 19118
>
> 215-247-3090(desk)215-432-8225(cell)
>
> <http://www.gpcrc.com>
>
> Read In Business magazine to learn about sustainable
> businesses in communities across North America!
> Go to: <http://www.jgpress.com/inbusine.htm>
>
> on 2/27/07 3:32 PM, Gary Liss at g...@no.address wrote:
>
>
>
> > This is a great article highlighting an opportunity for Zero Waste communities
> > to get involved. If you're interested in helping with the campaign to get
> > magazines to really go Green, contact:
> > * Coop America Magazine Paper Project, go
> > to:http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/woodwise/publishers/magazines/ind...
> > or contact Frank Locantore, WoodWise Program Director, 1612 K St NW, Suite
> > 600, Washington, DC 20006,(800) 58-GREEN, <f...@no.address>
> > * Susan Kinsella, Executive Director, Conservatree, Phone -415/561-6526,
> > E-mail Fax - 509/756-6987, s...@no.address, skype
> > -susanekinsella,http://www.conservatree.org<http://www.conservatree.org/>
> > They can highlight how you could make a difference with this campaign.
>
> > Gary
>
> >> From: "Eric Lombardi" <e...@no.address>
> >> To: "'Greenyes'" <GreenYes@no.address>
> >> Subject: [GreenYes] FW: [PaperNet] Not-so-green magazines
> >> Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:00:37 -0700
>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: papernetwork@no.address [ mailto:papernetwork@no.address
> >> <mailto:papernetwork@no.address> ]
> >> On Behalf Of Conrad MacKerron
> >> Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 4:55 PM
> >> To: papernetwork@no.address
> >> Subject: [PaperNet] Not-so-green magazines
>
> > Not-so-green magazines
> > Some glossies cover the environment, but cover up their own practices, says
> > Fortune's Marc Gunther.
>
> > By Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
> > February 22 2007: 9:34 AM EST
>
> >http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/21/magazines/fortune/pluggedin_Gunther_g....
> > fortune/index.htm?section=money_topstories
>
> > NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The New Yorker won awards for its stories about
> > climate change and Vanity Fair publishes a "green" issue, but just try to
> > find parent company Conde Nast's environmental policy. You can't.
>
> > Newsweek ran a cover on "The Greening of America," but its owner, The
> > Washington Post Co., won't identify the magazine's paper suppliers or say
> > where its paper comes from. Maybe The Post's Bob Woodward should
> > investigate.
>
> > As for Hearst, which publishes Oprah's magazine and Cosmopolitan, the
> > privately held firm is developing an environmental policy to govern its
> > paper buying. But the company won't provide details.
>
> > "The magazine industry's hypocrisy runs deep," asserts Todd Paglia,
> > executive director of Forest Ethics, an environmental group that protects
> > forests by holding companies accountable for their paper buying.
>
> > "Conde Nast," Paglia goes on, "is seemingly unaware of the strangeness of
> > doing a high-profile series in The New Yorker on climate change, while
> > exacerbating the problem by using environmentally irresponsible paper."
> > Conde Nast did not return emails or calls seeking comment.
>
> > The reluctance of publishers to talk about their environmental impact
> > suggests that they aren't paying attention - or that they want to avoid it.
> > That makes a project undertaken by a group of paper users - including the
> > Time Inc. division of Time Warner (Charts), the German publisher Axel
> > Springer, Random House UK, which is a unit of Bertelsmann, and packaging
> > firm Tetra Pak - all the more unusual.
>
> > Those companies are all big customers of Stora Enso (Charts), a
> > Finnish-Swedish paper, packaging and forest products giant based in London.
> > With Stora Enso, they formed a partnership to track their supply chain into
> > the heart of Russia's forests to try to insure that it is harvested in a
> > sustainable way.
>
> > Ordinarily, I try not to write about Time Inc., which publishes Fortune and
> > CNNMoney.com. This story is an exception because the company's environmental
> > practices deserve recognition.
>
> > Time Inc. joined with Nike (Charts), Staples (Charts), Hewlett Packard
> > (Charts) and the nonprofit group Metafore in 2003 to form the Paper Working
> > Group to promote environmentally preferable paper. It worked with
> > environmental groups to measure its greenhouse gas emissions, and set
> > reduction targets. It discloses its paper suppliers and bought about 70
> > percent of its paper from sources certified as sustainable during 2006, up
> > from 25 percent four years earlier.
>
> > As the world's largest magazine publisher, Time Inc. acted partly to avoid
> > becoming a target. (In 1994, Greenpeace activists protested the company's
> > forestry practices by climbing the Time & Life Building in New York.) But
> > its work also has been driven by the passion of David Refkin, a Bronx-born
> > accountant who joined the company in 1982, took charge of its paper buying
> > in the late 1980s and is now its director of sustainable development.
>
> > Cleaning up the supply chain
> > Refkin, 49, has tracked the company's paper to the woods of Maine, Wisconsin
> > and Michigan, in an effort to promote sustainable forestry. "I once went to
> > Iron Mountain, Mich., to have breakfast with 375 loggers," he says. "They
> > wanted to have me for breakfast."
>
> > Over the years, he has become an environmentalist. He is the board president
> > of a nonprofit called the National Recycling Coalition and even nudged a
> > friend who operates a Vermont ski resort to buy electricity from wind. "If
> > you're in a business that depends on the weather," he reasons, "you ought to
> > buy green power."
>
> > Refkin turned his attention to Russia because Stora Enso, a Time Inc.
> > supplier, imports wood from Russia. The partners in a project called "From
> > Russia With Transparency" identified two logging companies in Russia, and
> > worked with them to improve their environmental practices so that they can
> > obtain certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent
> > body. (One company, Russkiy Les, expects to be certified this year.) The
> > group also tackled worker safety and corruption, both serious issues in
> > Russia.
>
> > Americans, Germans, Brits, Finns, Swedes and Russians collaborated on the
> > project. "How many wars have been fought between those countries?" Refkin
> > mused. "The culture challenges were enormous." The American and European
> > buyers had to be careful not to push around the Russian suppliers.
>
> > Two nonprofit groups, Transparency International and the Karelian Research
> > Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, monitored the project. A detailed
> > report on the project, as well as a video, can be found at
> >www.tikhvinproject.ru/<http://www.tikhvinproject.ru/> .
>
> > Why should publishers go to the trouble of cleaning up their supply chain?
> > Florian Nehm, sustainability officer for Axel Springer, which publishes
> > magazines and newspapers, said companies should be concerned not just about
> > the visible quality of paper but its "invisible" quality as well - its
> > environmental and social impact.
>
> > "There are 3,000 journalists working for Axel Springer," Nehm says. "They
> > criticize everything and everyone, and they can only do that with
> > credibility if the company that they work for has adequate standards of its
> > own."
>
> > That should be a wake-up call to other publishers. Those who ignore
> > environmental issues may be putting their reputations at risk.
>
> > Publishers will be happy to hear that Forest Ethics - which ran a successful
> > campaign against the Victoria's Secret catalog and its parent company,
> > Limited Brands (Charts), last year - says it will remain focused on
> > catalogs, not magazines, for now. But Paglia says the group intends to look
> > at magazines and their paper, perhaps as soon as next year.
>
> > ___________________
>
> > Conrad MacKerron
> > Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Program
> > As You Sow Foundation
> > 311 California St., San Francisco, CA 94104
> > Phone:415-391-3212, ext. 31
> > Web:www.asyousow.org<http://www.asyousow.org/>
>
> > Gary Liss
> >916-652-7850
> > Fax: 916-652-0485
> >www.garyliss.com<http://www.garyliss.com/>
>
> --
> David Biddle, Executive Director
> <http://www.blueolives.blogspot.com>
> Greater Philadelphia Commercial Recycling Council
> P.O. Box 4037
> Philadelphia, PA 19118
>
> 215-247-3090(desk)215-432-8225(cell)
>
> <http://www.gpcrc.com>
>
> Read In Business magazine to learn about sustainable
> businesses in communities across North America!
> Go to: <http://www.jgpress.com/inbusine.htm>


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