Calculating Benefits of Better Paper Choices

Our new Paper Calculator can help ratchet up environmental savings

Posted: 29-Nov-2005; Updated: 03-Jan-2007

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The Paper Calculator is a valuable resource for Staples and our customers who are interested in understanding the environmental impacts of their paper purchasing decisions. The updated Paper Calculator will help Staples measure our continued progress in reducing pollution and natural resource use through our efforts to increase the postconsumer recycled content in the products we sell.

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Mark Buckley

Vice President, Environmental Affairs

Staples, Inc.

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With the help of Environmental Defense we switched our catalogs to paper containing at least 10 percent postconsumer recycled content. During this project, we used the Paper Calculator to measure the environmental benefits of using less paper and purchasing paper with higher levels of postconsumer content. Today, we continue to use the Paper Calculator to regularly measure and report our progress in improving our paper practices.

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Derek Smith

Director of Corporate Responsibility, Environmental Affairs

Norm Thompson Outfitters

More about our work with Norm Thompson

Despite a boom in electronic gadgets from laptops to Blackberries, they have yet to wipe out paper. Five hundred fifty years after Gutenberg, print is still big, and Americans are at the top of the consumption pile. We use about 10,000 sheets or 700 pounds of paper per person -- enough to make any of us search for the paper equivalent to Weight Watchers. Enter the Paper Calculator.

Buying recycled = Eye-opening improvements

Our interactive tool shows the enormous environmental edge of recycled paper. The web-based Paper Calculator helps companies, organizations and schools see that increasing recycled content reduces energy and water use, demand for wood, and pollution. The Calculator does all the math: Plug in 700 pounds of virgin paper (the average American’s annual use) and compare it to the same amount  of 30% post-consumer recycled, and the Calculator kicks out eye-opening numbers. That small switch means nearly 3 trees unfelled in the name of making paper. Multiply that by 100 staffers in an office, and you can see how switching to recycled paper adds up: more than 250 trees are left standing, one car’s worth of heat-trapping pollution is avoided, and one household’s worth of power is saved. Obviously, the bigger the office or company, the larger the resource reductions.

"Using less paper and switching to recycled paper conserves wood, water and energy, and helps reduce pollution and waste," explains Environmental Defense paper guru, Victoria Mills. "And it can be done without increasing costs, so it’s a win-win situation."

Small changes mean big differences

When Environmental Defense teamed up with Citigroup in 2003 to help the financial giant improve its paper choices, the partnership made great environmental strides. In just one year, Citigroup's switch saved:

• 43.8 billion BTUs of energy (or enough energy to power nearly 420 households for a year)
• 2,800 tons of greenhouse gases (or as much emissions as 495 cars release in a year)
• 26.3 million gallons of wastewater (or enough water to fill 34 olympic swimming pools)
• 8,900 tons of wood (or about 61,500 typical trees)
• 1,450 tons of solid waste (or enough waste to fill over 100 average garbage trucks).

The Paper Calculator has helped scores of companies, communities, schools, NGOs and paper merchants calculate the benefits of better paper choices for over a decade. Now, it’s easier to use and has additional functions. Use it to help your company track its progress in trimming paper waste and impact on the planet. Or see for yourself just how many trees you and your school, office or family can save by buying recycled.

Try out the Paper Calculator.