Citigroup - Paper

Improving paper management

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 worked 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 had 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 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:

• Began reducing the number of printed publications it publishes and
• Created double-sided customer statements and forms.

The company also posted signs at its copying and printing locations to encourage double-sided copying and printing by its employees. In addition, tests were conducted to measure the effectiveness of changing the default settings on copiers and printers in certain locations.

By switching to 30 percent postconsumer recycled copy paper, Citigroup helped reduce the environmental impacts of paper production, use and disposal. 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.

Evaluating paper suppliers to ensure environmental results

Forestry management and pulp and paper manufacturing do heavy damage to the environment. Citigroup and Environmental Defense implemented an annual paper supplier evaluation process to review suppliers' environmental management, forestry policies, manufacturing techniques, pollution and regulatory compliance. Citigroup expected 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.

Project roundup: Big savings

Citigroup's Citibank, Global Corporate and Investment Bank, CitiFinancial, and Global Investment Management locations in the United States switched from virgin to 30 percent postconsumer recycled copy paper at no additional cost. This move resulted in estimated annual savings of:

• 43.8 billion BTU’s of energy, enough to supply 430 homes for a year;
• 2,800 tons of greenhouse gases, equivalent to taking 500 cars off the road for a year;
• 26.3 million gallons of wastewater, enough to fill 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools;
• 8,900 tons of wood, equivalent to 214,000 trees; and
• 1,450 tons of solid waste, equivalent to 107 fully-loaded garbage trucks.

This project can be used a model for other companies large and small to improve their own paper practices. As more companies follow suit, significant industrywide reductions in paper usage can be made.

Posted: 14-Sep-2009; Updated: 14-Sep-2009