Filed under: Uncategorized
The Newspaper Environmental Innovation Council is seeking constructive feedback on the working draft Vision Statement on sustainability and model practices copied below.
The document is intended to send clear signals to Newsprint Manufacturers that if they produce more environmentally sustainable product — at comparable quality and price — we’re ready and willing to buy it. The voluntary standards should also serve as a proactive defense against Bad Legislation and Regulation, including: New mandates on recycled fiber content and reporting; shield against do-not-mail and litters laws pushed by environmental activists; better position our industry for either/both credits and exemptions in any future carbon taxing/cap-and-trade policies. And the Council (NEIC) itself seeks to serve as another useful platform for monitoring and sharing best-practices on newsprint, production and energy related efficiencies and cost savings.
Our Vision for an Environmentally Sustainable Newspaper Industry
Newspaper Environmental Innovation Council
DRAFT – December 2010
Given the vital role that newspapers play, it is critical that we in the newspaper industry work together to ensure a sustainable future. With this vision, we commit ourselves to environmental leadership. With an efficient use of resources that is environmentally responsible, climate-friendly, socially just and economically viable, we will work with our supply chain partners to promote innovation that ensures sustainably produced newsprint.
The goals below address issues that we, as concerned newspaper industry leaders, will work to advance within our sphere of influence.
We recognize that the newspaper industry has the power to reduce the loss of forests and decrease greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. As such, a reduction in the use of virgin wood fiber and other natural resources (water, energy resources) would reduce the industry’s ecological and carbon footprint.
Goals
We endorse the following goals:
• Supporting a healthy climate and protecting high conservation value forests
• Maintaining the species diversity of our forests and supporting best practices in forest management
• Improving our production efficiencies
• Supporting best practices in both print and digital operations
• Monitoring and reporting industry progress towards these goals
We will support these goals with the following objectives and targets:
I. Supporting a healthy climate and protecting high conservation value forests:
We will work towards:
• Replacing virgin wood fiber with recycled or alternative fibers whenever possible.
• Phasing out fiber from endangered and carbon-rich forests from the supply chain, and finding suitable alternatives.
• Supporting the development of newsprint made with non-wood fibers including agricultural residue, and work towards phasing out and finding suitable alternatives to virgin fiber.
• Supporting multi-stakeholder conservation plans such as the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, and the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement.
• Supporting initiatives to increase fiber recovery and increased de-inking capacity to increase recycled fiber availability.
• Developing a working group to determine an approximate industry baseline of greenhouse gas emissions.
Target:
• Support an increase in the industry’s average use of recycled fiber from today’s (2010) estimated 35%, to 40% by the end of 2012 and 50% by the end of 2015 (the majority to be postconsumer waste).
II. Maintaining the species diversity of our forests and supporting best practices in forest management
We will, when buying newsprint containing virgin fiber, work towards:
• Giving preference to suppliers that work toward the conservation of endangered and carbon-rich forests and the protection of biodiversity contained within these forest ecosystems, and work toward phasing out paper sourced from endangered forests.
• Ensuring that paper we buy does not originate from endangered species habitat. If we find that any of our papers do contain fiber from such habitat, we will engage our suppliers to cease operations in that area.
• Seeking virgin fiber that is certified with purchasing preference to suppliers whose virgin fiber is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified or certified to equivalent world-leading sustainable forest management practices.
• Encouraging suppliers to integrate the concerns of indigenous and local communities adequately into forestry standards, plans, and assessments.
• Ensuring that no existing natural forests are converted to new plantations.
• Supporting innovative market initiatives that seek to grow the supply of FSC certified forest products such as Carbon Canopy in the US Southeast.
Target:
• Strive to increase the newspaper industry’s use of virgin and recycled newsprint certified to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard or from equivalent certified world-leading sustainable forest management practices, from today’s (2010) estimated 13%, to 20% by the end of 2012 and 50% by the end of 2015.
III. Improving our production efficiencies
We will work towards:
• Eliminating waste within our printing operations.
• Supporting the advancement of best industry practices in pollution prevention, energy and water conservation.
• Supporting efficiency and innovation to continue reductions in paper waste. (These may include reduced basis weights, the minimization of unsold newspapers and improved newspaper recycling among others.)
• Adopting best practices of energy efficiency in our facilities to decrease the carbon footprint of the newspaper industry (This may include replacing fossil fuels with sources of new renewable energy).
Target:
• Achieve zero waste by 2020 within our newspaper printing operations, with significant waste reductions by 2015.
• Reduce our energy consumption 10% by 2012, 15% by 2013, and 20% by 2015.
IV. Supporting best practices in both print and digital operations
Given that the increased use of computers and mobile devices to read the news has environmental implications, we will work towards:
• Supporting social and environmental standards for mining raw materials used in electronic devices.
• Supporting and encouraging extended producer responsibility, recycling, and safe disposal and management of end-of-life electronic products.
V. Monitoring and reporting industry progress towards the goals
We will work towards:
• Tracking and monitoring progress to meet the above goals within the Newspaper Environmental Innovation Council, by producing an annual sustainability report, posting information about or practices on a determined website, and promoting responsible paper use in publications as appropriate.
Appendix 1: Relevant Definitions for the Newspaper Environmental Innovation Council
Agricultural Residues:
Residues left over from food production or other processes, where using them maximizes the lifecycle of the fiber. Fibers include: cereal straws like wheat straw, rice straw, seed flax straw, corn stalks, sorghum stalks, cotton stalks, cotton linters, sugar cane bagasse, rye seed grass straw and possibly kenaf. Agricultural residues are not from on purpose crops that replace forest stands or food crops.
Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement:
In 2010, Twenty-one member companies of the Forest Products Association of Canada entered into an agreement with Canopy and 8 other ENGO’s that will lead to the establishment of new protected areas, the protection of endangered caribou and the implementation of world class sustainable harvesting in the tenures outside of caribou habitat. This Agreement applies to 2/3rds of the Boreal operating area.
Carbon Canopy:
Seeks to establish a new model to support landowners who expand protection, restoration and conservation of their forests and certify management practices to the high standards of FSC certification. The Carbon Canopy is focused initially on building a credible carbon market model for landowners in the Southern US. www.carboncanopy.com
Endangered forests and ecosystems:
• Forests harboring a rich array of biodiversity that have been heavily impacted by human activity,
• Global forest types that are naturally rare and threatened,
• Forested wilderness areas, including those that are rich in species diversity, contain threatened species, or provide critical ecosystem services, and
• Old growth forests that have not previously been subject to commercial logging.
For more information on the definitions of ancient and endangered forests, please see the definition of endangered forests as outlined in the Wye River Coalition’s Endangered Forests: High Conservation Value Forests Protection – Guidance for Corporate Commitments www.environmentalpaper.org/documents/EF-Report.pdf
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC):
The only international forest certification system supported by leading environmental and social organizations around the world, including Canopy and Green Press Initiative. It is the most rigorous and credible certification system for forest products in the world and requires operators to manage their forest tenures in accordance to a set of criteria that includes high-conservation value forests, endangered species, genetically modified trees, the conversion of natural forest into plantations and the impacts on aboriginal peoples.
See the principles and criteria here: http://www.fsc.org/fileadmin/web-data/public/document_center/international_FSC_policies/standards/FSC_STD_01_001_V4_0_EN_FSC_Principles_and_Criteria.pdf
An FSC equivalent certification scheme of world-leading sustainable forest management practices would include the following principles:
1. Compliance with all applicable laws and international treaties
2. Demonstrated and uncontested, clearly defined, long–term land tenure and use rights
3. Recognition and respect of indigenous peoples’ rights
4. Maintenance or enhancement of long-term social and economic well-being of forest workers and local communities and respect of worker’s rights in compliance with International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions
5. Equitable use and sharing of benefits derived from the forest
6. Reduction of environmental impact of logging activities and maintenance of the ecological functions and integrity of the forest
7. Appropriate and continuously updated management plan
8. Appropriate monitoring and assessment activities to assess the condition of the forest, management activities and their social and environmental impacts
9. Maintenance of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs) defined as environmental and social values that are considered to be of outstanding significance or critical importance
10. In addition to compliance, with all of the above, plantations must contribute to reduce the pressures on and promote the restoration and conservation of natural forests.
Great Bear Rainforest Agreement:
The 2006 Great Bear Rainforest Agreements signed between environmentalists, logging companies, First Nations and the British Colombia Government includes the creation of a new land management regime called Ecosystem-Based Management that includes more than 2 million hectares protected from logging and new lighter touch logging regulations applied outside of protected areas. The deadline for implementing the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement was March 31st, 2009; however, there have been various delays. This policy provides market support for implementation of the agreement.
Recycled fiber:
Fiber derived from recovered material – such as paper materials that have been separated, diverted, or removed from the solid waste stream for the purpose of use, reuse or recycling – and which is included in the fiber finish of an end product (Environmental Paper Network). The use of recycled content varies widely among grades of paper, with an average of 35 percent in newsprint (NAA).
Industry supported life cycle analysis (LCA) shows sourcing recycled fiber can reduce overall pressure on forests and other important natural resources like water, as well as reduce the carbon footprint of the paper, especially when fibers from post-consumer waste are used in paper production. A report by the Paper Task Force and Environmental Defense Paper Calculator stated, “The scientific basis for these conclusions is the analysis of the Paper Task Force, a three-year research project convened by Environmental Defense and involving Duke University, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Prudential Insurance, and Time Inc. The Paper Task Force examined environmental impacts through the full lifecycle of paper, along with economic and functional issues across major paper grades. Its findings were extensively peer-reviewed by scientists, academics, environmental experts, and government and industry representatives.”
Plantations:
Areas planted predominately with non-native trees or other commercial plants. Forests comprised of native species can also be managed as plantations, including via single species plantings on sites that would normally support multiple species, exclusion of other species via herbicide applications, short logging rotations that preclude the development of forest composition and structure, and/or other practices.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
