Paper's Environmental Agenda

Paper companies are creating an image of corporate citizenry by promoting environmental protection. At the same time, industry consolidation has created even larger targets for environmental pressure groups. With higher stakes on both sides, it is important to be informed about the positive developments in the sustainable production of paper products—a truly renewable commercial activity that benefits everyone.

Chances are your mill publishes a record of its environmental protection activities as an annual report.

Stora Enso, Westvaco, Weyerhaeuser, and others distribute excellent documentation about environmental protection to shareholders, the press, and customers. The annual reports provide details of forest and water use; air, water, and solid waste emissions; energy consumption; and recycling initiatives. Like financial reports, some environmental reports are audited by large third-party accounting firms.

Most of the ill feelings about the paper business are rooted in forests. The forest products industry is still suffering from the sins of its forefathers, who basically cut everything everywhere. Corporate activity (hostile takeovers) and government action (massive reduction in timber contracts) both forced a predictable capitalistic response: companies cut more trees faster and more widely during the 1980s.

Watchdogs responded by pressuring government and consumers, notably consumer products companies, to use paper and board more wisely and from responsible sources.

Further, the Environmental Protection Agency and local government bureaus were on a warpath of effluent reduction, husbanded by watchdogs with high-visibility supporters. In short, the 1990s encompassed years of change for paper mills.

Today, the U.S. recycles most of the corrugated boxes in use, as well as a large percentage of office and packaging waste. (Household waste, except newspapers, remains under the 50% recovered rate goal.) Paper companies handle nearly all of the sorted paper waste. U.S. government agencies also have a hand in recycling initiatives, but paper companies do the work.

The government also makes paper companies open the books about their use of public and private forest lands. The Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI), a program designed inside the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), is now a living, breathing activity in which most major domestic companies participate.

European companies have their own version of SFI, but with much more strict guidelines. SFI requires "sustainable harvest levels consistent with enhanced forest productivity and forest health" and "protection of wildlife habitat, water quality, and sites with ecologically unique features." AF&PA requires member companies to comply with SFI to maintain membership.

Companies, too, have their own SFI activities that serve local conditions and sensitivities.

For example, Westvaco's Ecosystems-Based Multiple-Use Forest Management System manages 1.4 million acres with 2,800 private landowners, including sensitive areas from Appalachia to the Amazon. Westvaco partnered with The Nature Conservatory to manage the program, which will designate Special Areas where bio-diversity and sustainability are stressed.

Westvaco won the 1999 AF&PA Forest Management Award, and sells its technology service as part of a wholly owned subsidiary called The Forest Technology Group.

Stora Enso has sustainable forest activities in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and parts of Canada. The former Consolidated Paper was a founder of the SFI program, and continues its own initiatives like the Tree Farm Family Program, which assists in the management of 85,000 hectares with 1,200 members, along with the company's own 134,000 hectares in the Midwest and 607,000 hectares in Nova Scotia.

Stora Enso also requires its operations to be certified by ISO 14000, the worldwide program for environmental responsibility in manufacturing.

Manistique, a subsidiary of Kruger, recently was awarded ISO 14000 certification for its manufacturing facilities in Michigan, where it operates a 100% recycled stock mill for printing, business, envelope, and packaging papers.

Paper companies also have given or sold back sensitive forest lands to conservation groups and preservationists. International Paper (IP) sold land in Maine following its Champion acquisition; Stora Enso recently sold over 2,300 acres to The Nature Conservatory in Wisconsin; and the state of California bought a section of the ancient redwood forest from Maxxim.

Before paper rolls and sheets reach a printing plant, they start out as wood chips that are cooked and cleaned, and diluted with lots of water. Most mills were built on land close to major water sources like rivers, streams, and lakes. Keeping these water sources clean is a priority, especially with the Clean Air and Water Act as law.

Mills are allowed very little discharge of effluent, and many have wastewater treatment processes on site, thus returning water that is cleaner than it was when received. New mills often are given zero-emission standards. Mills have taken their safe water practices further into their forest operations, like Westvaco's Streamside Management Zones, which watch over natural waterways along commercial logging areas.

The big water question of the 1980s and 1990s—BOD discharge—has been answered (BOD measures "biological oxygen demand," i.e. that which competes with other oxygen demands from living organisms like fish).

Mills have installed bleaching equipment that reduces the amount of elemental chlorine used. After great investment, mills produce for sensitive customers pulps that are made with little chlorine compounds (ECF pulp, made by IP, Weyerhaeuser, and others) or none at all (TCF pulp, made by Louisiana-Pacific and Tembec).

Air emissions like sulfur and nitrogen compounds have been drastically reduced for over a decade by investment in devices that clean air before venting it into the atmosphere. Mills also have built new boilers and energy-efficient systems that release nothing but water vapor. Overall, the industry has cut emissions by more than 90%.

Finally, mills have cut back on landfill disposal through better use and reduced generation of waste. New boilers that do not emit dirty air also take in waste fuels.

Mills also have reduced the amount of waste going into landfills by 20 million tons per year through recycled paper programs and processes. Almost every box made contains waste materials, and buyers of printing grades can specify recycled content without sacrificing much in terms of quality.