Green Options

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of Proforma Simonetta Freelance, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see proformagreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Independent Printing was displaying eco-friendly flash drive folders at the Proforma convention in Dallas last week.

As we have written before about Independent Printing, they are a great resource for Forest Stewardship Council certified [...]

Gold LEED Certified Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa in Northern California is an eco–friendly property whose name Gaia means “Mother Earth” in Greek.

Gaia’s green features include:

• Skylights: Solatube tubular skylights are used in conference rooms, lobby and the hallways.
• Landscaping: Chemical free landscaping with native and climate-adaptive plants for limited water use for irrigating.
• Education: The resort promotes awareness of sustainability with “GreenTouchscreen® kiosks show guests and visitors how much we are saving in water, electricity and how much CO2 we are emitting.”
• Water: Facilitied include DDLow flush toilets, low flow showerheads, and koi pond uses recycled water from the site, that’s filtered and cleaned prior to entering the pond.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which provides chain-of-custody certifications for forestry-based products (including office and printing papers, as well as the suppliers that print on, distribute, and dispose of those products), has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Government, the first-ever legal action in its 10-year history.

The letter from Corey Brinkema, president of the FSC-US, to FSC certification holders is reprinted below. The letter is reprinted from the Print Buyers Online Green Content section.

Dear FSC Certificate Holders,

I have important news to share with you. On September 10th, the Forest Stewardship Council – United States (FSC-US) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Government, the first-ever legal action in our 10-year history. I’d like to take a moment to share why we undertook this action and why I believe it matters to all those who value responsible forestry.

Our lawsuit against the U.S. Trade Representative stems from the Canadian Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) between the U.S. and Canada. In September 2006, the SLA settled trade litigation between the two countries related to the 30% duties the U.S. imposed on imported Canadian lumber in 2002. The SLA settlement awarded the U.S. $1 billion. One of the settlement provisions required Canada to “donate” $350 million of this $1 billion to two U.S.-based forestry foundations — the newly created U.S. Endowment for Forests and Communities and the American Forest Foundation. According to the SLA, monies were to go to “meritorious initiatives” in the name of sustainable forestry and forest communities.

FSC-US believes that this enormous disbursement of funds was both illegal and a violation of the American public trust. The law required that these funds be first deposited in the U.S. Treasury and then left to Congress to decide how to spend any funds.

Wall Street is in financial crisis. Individual investors are reeling. The world is watching. If ever there were a time to get serious about our world stewardship, it’s now.

While we’re used to thinking along broad, expansive lines such as international policy and national priorities, the fact is, there are changes you and I can make in our daily lives to make things better, including in the world of marketing. We don’t have to change the world. We just have to change our world.

That’s what “Greening Print Marketing” is about.

Along those lines, I got a press release from Xerox today. The company has released a new series of papers and tools to help companies reduce the environmental impact of printing in their organizations. This starts a comprehensive program of papers, resources, and Web tools to help customers identify the right paper, the right supplies, and the right way to print with the environment in mind.

Can a company that manufactures copy machines, and sells more paper than any other single brand, really walk the talk on sustainable business practices?

That question framed my response to an offer to talk with Patty Calkins, Vice President of Environment, Health and Safety at Xerox Corp. After all, don’t copy machines “[consume] vast amounts of water, paper, and energy…?” I’ve seen numerous press releases on environmental issues from the company whose name is now synonymous with “photocopying,” but I was still skeptical: isn’t this still a business model built on heavy inputs of energy and paper?

Patty and I talked on the phone last Wednesday (April 9), and, as in other situations, my reservations were addressed directly and concretely. I had forwarded a version of the above question prior to our talk, so she was ready for me. Among the company initiatives she detailed for me:

It makes sense that a growing number of religious organizations are speaking out to curb global warming and protect the environment: after all, people of faith believe in the sanctity of God’s creations … not just humans, but all creatures (and plants) great and small.

In that same spirit, it also makes sense that a publisher of religious materials has now created the first "green" Bible. Thomas Nelson Inc., a Bible and religion

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