CEO Corner — August 2011
Environmental issues
Many members and their staff have been shocked to enter the offices of certain banks and other institutions, to find the public being asked not to print e-mails, with the implication (or perhaps, more accurately, the direct accusation) that to do so will result in the wholesale destruction of rain forests.
The further implication is that any use of paper (and therefore any printed matter) will also have rain forests being destroyed left, right and centre. This extends further, to schoolchildren – highly impressionable citizens, who will shape the macroeconomic decisions of the future – imagining that bloodthirsty printers, only intent on profits, will be destroying the habitat of all kinds of innocent and defenceless animal species as well.
This must stop.
The facts are
“The vast majority of paper produced today stems from well-managed, renewable plantation forests that conform to strict international standards laid down by independent organisations such as the FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council).
“These FSC managed forests are actually the ‘lungs’ of the Earth and are up to more than 60% more efficient at sequesting carbon than unmanaged or natural forests”, says Deon Joubert, PIFSA National President.
Henry Coppens, Technical Specialist (Energy & Emissions) at Sappi points out that “SAPPI, which manufactures and leases 550 000 ha of plantation land in South Africa, releases 8 million tonnes of oxygen annually, while absorbing up to 13 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year”.
Paper can also be recycled up to seven times and today 57.4% of all paper worldwide is recycled compared to just 18% of electronic devices. In South Africa 3.5 million tonnes of waste paper is recycled every year. Paper, used responsibly, is a natural, renewable, recyclable and completely sustainable communication system.
PIFSA representatives recently held a meeting with supplier representatives, to discuss how to combat the spread of wholesale nonsense about the extent to which the Printing, Newspaper, Packaging and Paper manufacturing industries are polluting the earth. We have agreement that joint action is necessary, involving the entire value chain, from paper manufacturers, through suppliers (merchants and ink, chemical, etc) to converters (printers).
We shall be initiating further discussions, involving a widening group of like-minded individuals and the companies they represent. We hope to tell a very different story to that which is being spread by well-meaning individuals and companies who simply have not investigated the truth properly, for the benefit of our broader industry and all those and their families who rely on it for their livelihood.
