Environmental considerations and options for your catalog and direct mail pieces.

By Gretchen Peck

With the guidance of Portland, Ore.-based Metafore’s Paper Working Group, 19 big-name companies are helping with the development of what’s known as the Environmental Paper Assessment Tool (EPAT), which the group describes as “a secure, Web-based database designed to help paper buyers compare paper suppliers’ environmental performance.” With approved access to the system, participating buyers will be able to compare measurements, such as the levels of pre- and post-consumer recycled content, energy use, water use and levels of emissions created in the production of a company’s paper.