Learn more about the sustainability goals AF&PA is setting for the industry with their “Better Practices, Better Planet 2020” initiative. These goals include: energy efficiency, paper recovery for recycling, greenhouse gas emissions, worker safety, sustainable forestry, and water use.
Print Grows Trees is an educational campaign that uses facts to replace the misconceptions that paper kills trees and causes deforestation. The truth is that more than half of all U.S. forestland is privately owned, so by using paper and forest products you are actually providing income to these landowners, which allows them to continue to grow trees.
Hammermill recently released a wonderful curriculum for Elementary through High School students called “Paper is Power”. It was created to help students understand the importance of forest products in their every day lives, to help explain the difference between “working forests” and the forests you see in national parks, and to emphasize that you can have both healthy forests and products made from trees if you take care of the lands where they are grown.
Did you know that Benjamin Franklin was the first paper merchant in America? Or that paper bags were first measured by how many pounds of sugar they held? Here are some fun facts about the paper industry from the American Forest & Paper Association’s (AF&PA) website.
For every paper product you use, there are real people behind it who are dedicated taking care of our Nation’s forests. They watch over the forests because they know the ecological, recreational, economic and cultural benefits they provide to nature and society. These forests provide habitats to wildlife, drinking water to more than 180 million people, cleaner air – and they are the backbone of the forest products industry.
Is paper bad for the environment? Two Sides North America is a global initiative that is busting the myths that lead consumers to believe it is. Their goal is to promote “the sustainability of the Graphic Communications Industry by publicizing the positive steps that the industry is taking to reduce its environmental impact.”
National Forest Products Week is this week (October 20th to 26th)! To celebrate, we will be sharing posts over the next few days from difference sources that not only show the value of forest products in our daily lives, but also debunk the myths that surround the impact these products have on the environment.
The Two Sides campaign is now 10 years old. During those ten years, Two Sides has led the way in promoting the environmental value of print and paper, producing a wide range of print and digital resources for its members, giving the information and materials to dispel the many myths surrounding the use of paper in communications and packaging, helping their businesses to thrive.