EDITOR’S NOTE ❘ MAriSA PALMieri
It’s OK to Print
We’ve all seen the “Please consider the environ- ment before printing”
disclaimer tailing an email message.
The first time I saw it, when I worked
for a different magazine, I wanted to
respond to the sender – who I knew
drove a gas-guzzling SUV – that she
was arbitrarily picking and choosing
her conservation efforts. (I didn’t.)
I don’t advocate waste, but I do
like to print my emails from time
to time. I also recycle them. At that
time I thought that was OK.
Now that I cover the paperboard
packaging and paper recycling industries, I know that it is. That’s
why I thought, “Amen,” when I first
saw the following message tagging
along on an email from Bill Codo,
vice president of Accord Carton
in Alsip, Ill.
Don’t we owe it to
the public to explain
that not printing
something doesn’t
save trees?
“It’s OK to print this email. Paper
is a renewable and sustainable product made from trees. Trees grow!
Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs, and working forests are
good for the environment, providing
clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat,
and carbon storage. In fact, the U.S.
forestry industry plants 1. 7 million
trees per day! When you are finished
with your paper, please recycle it!”
Codo credits one of his corru-
gated box suppliers with the idea.
He modified it slightly and started
using it himself.
Not long after I saw Codo’s mes-
sage I was pointed to a Wall Street
Journal article published earlier this
year via the Paperboard Packaging
Council’s Facebook page. Written
by Chuck Leavell, a tree farmer, and
Carlton Owen, ceo of U.S. Endow-
ment for Forestry and Communities,
in response to the World Wildlife
Fund’s new electronic document
format (called the WWF, it’s like a
PDF file that you can’t print) the two
environmentalists advocate the fol-
lowing message.
“It’s OK to print this email. Paper
is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees. Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs
for millions of Americans. Working
forests are good for the environment
and provide clean air and water,
wildlife habitat, and carbon storage.
Thanks to improved forest management, we have more trees in America
today than we had 100 years ago.”
As members of the paper industry, don’t we owe it to the public
to explain that not printing something doesn’t save trees? That paper
comes from privately-owned and
managed forests and, as Leavell and
Owen point out, not printing may
indirectly eliminate trees because
forest owners can’t keep growing
trees without markets for paper?
Since first seeing Codo’s message
I’ve discovered a few noteworthy
pro-print campaigns. The Printing Industries Association Inc. of
Southern California maintains the
website, chooseprint.org, and the
Printing & Graphics Association
MidAtlantic publishes www.print
growstrees.org. Both sites share
facts that you could use to develop
your own “It’s OK to print” email
signatures.
If you alrady have one I’d
love to see it. Send an email to
mpalmieri@questex.com. PBP
EDITORIALSTAFF
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