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Torstar Commits to New Environmnetal Paper Principles

Torstar Corporation has launched a new set of Environmental Purchasing Principles for the paper supply chain of three of its primary operating entities, including Harlequin, Star Media Group and Metroland Media Group.

The company’s new paper purchasing principles are designed to encourage suppliers to eliminate the use of fibre from ancient, endangered forests and to also focus on the use of post-consumer recycled fibre. Torstar’s purchasing principles are also aligned to encourage Forest Stewardship Council certification (FSC) as the target standard.

Canopy, an independent environmental not-for-profit organization based in Vancouver, collaborated with Torstar over the past eight months to help establish its new Environmental Purchasing Principles. Best known as the organization behind the greening of the Harry Potter series internationally, Canopy today works with over 700 forest product customer companies to support and advise on the development of paper supply policies.

“Torstar’s readers can now start their day with a hot cup of coffee and the newspaper and end it with an equally steamy romance novel, knowing that our planet’s forests are better off,” stated Nicole Rycroft, Canopy Founder and Executive Director. “As a global publishing leader, Torstar deserves congratulations for their corporate wide approach to protecting forests such as Canada’s Boreal through strong principles that guide their paper procurement.”

Harlequin, based in Toronto, publishes over 110 titles a month – ranging from romance to bestseller fiction – in 31 languages in 111 international markets on six continents, with principal offices in Toronto, New York, London, Tokyo, Milan, Sydney, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Athens, Budapest, Granges-Paccot, Warsaw, Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai and Istanbul. Half of the company’s books are sold overseas and 95 percent are purchased from outside of Canada. 

Harlequin had 390 bestseller placements in 2010 with a combined total of 1,048 weeks on bestseller lists. Since its inception, Harlequin has sold approximately 6.05 billion books. Torstar’s Star Media Group and Metroland Media Group together publish over 125 daily and weekly newspapers across Canada.

Metroland Media Group, led by President Ian Oliver, is one of Canada’s largest community media companies with operations in newspapers, digital properties, flyer distribution, printing, consumer shows, magazines, directories and a teleshopping channel. It is also one of the country’s largest printing operations, with nine printing plants in Ontario housing 14 press lines.

The combined distribution of the community newspapers published by Metroland, including such dailies as The Hamilton Spectator, the Waterloo Region Record and the Guelph Mercury, is approximately 5-million copies a week.

Star Media Group is centered on Canada’s largest daily newspaper, the Toronto Star, and thestar.com Website. This operation also includes the majority-owned Metro free daily newspapers in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina and London, Ontario, as well as the jointly owned Sing Tao Daily, the largest Chinese-language daily newspaper in Canada, as well as toronto.com, The Grid city magazine, Torstar Syndication Services, the Canadian Immigrant magazine and Star Content Studios.