Citigroup Paper Project

Cutting down paper not trees

Posted: 12-Mar-2004; Updated: 17-Jul-2007

	Citigroup's promise to up its use of postconsumer recycled paper is great news for the environment. Click on the picture to get an idea of the environmental savings switching to recycled would have.

Despite being well into the digital age, paper use in offices across the country is soaring. The numbers are staggering -- copy paper shipments in 2000 were up one million tons from 1995 levels and today's average office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of paper each year. This increasing paper use comes with great environmental and financial costs. Environmental Defense is working with Citigroup to lower these costs and reduce the environmental impacts of copy paper used in its Citibank, CitiFinancial, Global Corporate and Investment Bank and Global Investment Management locations across the nation.

The effort has three goals:

1. to reduce copy paper use,
2. to purchase environmentally preferable copy paper, and
3. to evaluate the manufacturing and forestry practices of paper suppliers.

The business objective is to meet these environmentally beneficial goals without increasing costs.

Reducing Paper Use
Citigroup and Environmental Defense are focused on reducing paper use at corporate copy centers and in office copiers and printers across the country. To reduce paper use and cut costs, the financial giant has reduced the number of printed publications it publishes and created double-sided customer statements and forms. The company has also posted signs at its copying and printing locations to encourage double-sided copying and printing by its employees. In addition, tests are underway to measure the effectiveness of changing the default settings on copiers and printers in certain locations.

By using 30% postconsumer recycled copy paper, Citigroup should annually conserve an estimated: 33 billion BTUs of energy 2,000 tons of greenhouse gases 19 million gallons of wastewater 6,700 tons of wood 1,000 tons of solid waste Citigroup successfully negotiated with multiple suppliers to purchase the recycled copy paper at price parity to virgin.

Lean and Green
By switching to 30% postconsumer recycled copy paper, Citigroup is helping reduce the environmental impacts of paper production, use and disposal. (Click here to view these savings -- in energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water, solid waste and wood consumption.)  Tests confirmed that the new paper met Citigroup's high standards for quality and performance. Using market information provided by Environmental Defense, Citigroup negotiated to purchase the paper at price parity to virgin.

 

Checking the Source
Forestry management and pulp and paper manufacturing have profound impacts on the environment. Citigroup and Environmental Defense have implemented an annual paper supplier evaluation process to review suppliers' environmental management, forestry policies, manufacturing techniques, pollution and regulatory compliance. Citigroup expects to use the completed evaluations to track and improve its paper suppliers' environmental performance over time.

Each ton of copy paper containing postconsumer recycled fiber that displaces a ton of virgin paper measurably reduces energy consumption, net greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous air pollutants, wastewater, solid waste and wood consumption. The figure below shows the environmental savings for copy paper with 30% postconsumer recycled fiber -- the level required for all federal government purchases and one that is widely available in today's market.

This ongoing project is a model which other companies large and small can copy to improve their own paper practices -- and as more companies follow suit, significant industry-wide reductions in paper usage can be made.