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

By Gretchen Peck

To fairly determine the environmental impact of the paper chosen for your catalog, there seemingly are an infinite number of considerations — the amount of recycled content is but one.

Phillipe Riebel, environmental director, North America, UPM-Kymmene, a New Brunswick, Canada-based paper manufacturer, says, “When you buy a ton of paper, you need to know what the environmental load is. What’s the impact on the forest? [What’s the impact] when transporting raw materials to the mill? What about the mill’s performance when it comes to such factors as air emissions? How much [carbon dioxide] is emitted per year? How much water is used to make that ton of paper, and what is the quality of the wastewater?