Company drives for paper certification and carbon neutrality

Spicers Paper has announced that it and its suppliers will move towards the goal of providing 100% certified sustainable papers by 2009 and will strive for carbon neutrality as a business ahead of the New Zealand national target of 2012.

Charles Miller, GM of Spicers Paper, told business and political representatives at a recent paper seminar that in a carbon neutral environment, paper when sourced from renewable plantation forest or crops and then recycled post use is the most sustainable media for communicating.

“Whilst people may say they aspire to a paperless office, paper remains our preferred means of recording evidence and history and as much as we may get our news online, we still like to read a newspaper,” Miller said.

“The challenge for us is to provide comprehensive details about the source of our paper supply and reduce the environmental impacts which arise from its production. Five years ago, when we produced our first paper listings incorporating environmental information, we were rarely asked about where the paper came from, and customers certainly would not pay more for sustainable papers.

“Paper companies have made huge improvements to ensure paper is sourced from legally harvested and sustainable forests; there is increased recycled content and use of alternative papers. Spicers is proud to announce a partnership between Spicers and the WWF to promote one of our most sustainable papers — the 9 Lives brand."

Miller said that 15% of all papers sold by Spicers are certified with Chain of Custody from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) or equivalent and while they strive towards the 100% goal, they will only source paper from suppliers who can prove that they legally harvest trees:

"We would like to move faster but only 9% of the world's forests are certified so demand outstrips supply. Sustainability also demands security of supply and to withdraw from paper suppliers who are currently working towards independent certification would provide them with no incentive to continue their improvement process. We will keep the pressure on all our suppliers to achieve these standards," Miller said.

“We have been in business for nearly a century supplying many thousands of tonnes of paper each year. Our sustainability is dependent on us reducing the environmental impacts which we have through our operations, our products and services.”