Just days after its re-brand, Canopy announces Canada’s most prestigious daily signed an Ancient Forest Friendly procurement policy for newsprint and other papers. The move will require The Globe and Mail’s paper suppliers to be environmentally responsible.
“The Globe’s policy commits to practices that will eliminate the use of papers derived from high conservation value forests, supporting key environmental and climate impacts in the newspaper publishing sector,” said Phillip Crawley, The Globe and Mail’s Publisher and CEO. “We’re proud to be at the forefront in our industry in helping to safeguard and protect the world and Canada’s forests and climate.”
The policy involves The Globe’s commitment to:
- Reduce the use of fibre from ancient and endangered forests, such as the Canadian Boreal Forests; Temperate Rainforests of British Columbia, Alaska and Chile; and the Tropical Rainforests of Indonesia and the Amazon;
- Progressively maximize recycled content in all of its papers by working with suppliers to establish interval benchmarks for post-consumer recycled content;
- Support a preference for virgin wood fibre certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent, non-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests;
- Actively encourage suppliers to eliminate the production of persistent organic pollutants or chlorine bleach;
- Explore the use of non-wood agricultural residues;
- Implement and expand internal business processes that will reduce paper use and encourage maximized paper recycling.
“Now, more than ever, newspapers need to show environmental leadership and innovation,” said Nicole Rycroft of Canopy. “And as the first major North American daily national newspaper to develop an Ancient Forest Friendly policy, The Globe is showing how it's done."
G.F. Young
- Now More Than Ever, Newspapers Need to Show Intell
|2009-06-17 17:49:42
As far as I am concerned, The Globe and Mail is in the forefront of promoting extremist environmental propaganda. While some of the goals of the new procurement policy are certainly noble, others leave me scratching my head.
Canada’s boreal forest is neither ancient nor endangered. How does it wind up being linked to Amazon rainforests?
Why FSC certification only? Canada has three credible independent certification programs backed by Canada’s forest ministers and a lot of international experts. And if The Globe truly believes that FSC can guarantee its fibre is not from “ancient” forests or clearcutting, it might want to do a little more research.
By all means look for ways to reduce paper use, promote recycling and encourage fewer chemicals – which, by the way, Canada’s forest industry has been actively doing for years. But don’t dilute the message by adding in a lot of nonsense.
As Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail should have asked a few more questions before setting itself up as an AFF leader.
