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Carbon footprinting is one of the hot topics of sustainability and in the print sector, paper is the centre of attention. This is because it is the single biggest source of carbon emissions in the print process, outweighing printing and transportation by a significant margin. It also constitutes the biggest cost in a print job, which means print buyers now face the difficult juggling act of keeping both costs and carbon down.

Unfortunately for the paper industry, paper is key to a printed product’s carbon footprint, contributing 50-70%. It is, therefore, our primary focus in reducing carbon footprint, says Colette Mahon, commercial production manager at contract publisher Redwood and chair of the PPA’s carbon footprint group.

Legally, there is no compulsion to reduce the carbon footprint of any goods or services you buy. The government’s forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment, due to come into force in 2010, is an emissions trading scheme that applies to firms consuming more than 6,000MWh of energy per year. For many firms, though, carbon footprint reduction is more of a moral imperative as part of a wider corporate social responsibility policy.

Even the most environmentally sensitive company is going to take cost into account when trying to reduce its print’s carbon footprint. Yet there isn’t much information to date that provides any figures on the effect of carbon footprint on paper price. We’re too early in the story to give definitive answers, says paper merchant PaperCo’s corporate responsibility director Veronica Heaven.

One factor that may determine how a grade’s price is affected by its carbon footprint is the thorny issue of offsetting. You may see that firms looking to offset are willing to pay a premium for lower carbon-content products, as they then have less offset to pay, says John Sanderson, director of regional environmental affairs (UK) at paper manufacturer UPM.

Online calculator
A good source of information on the carbon footprint of some papers can be found via merchant James McNaughton’s online carbon calculator (www.jmcpaper.com/carboncalculator). The tool shows that the cost of offsetting ranges from £5 to £24.25 per tonne of paper. The figures are based on carbon emitted per tonne during manufacturing – offsetting costs £10 per tonne of CO2. Emissions vary widely, from 286kg of CO2 per tonne of paper for 4CC to 2,425kg of CO2 per tonne of paper for Challenger Postcard.

It’s early days for carbon footprinting and there isn’t a great deal of easy-to-come-by advice on obtaining, calculating and interpreting carbon footprints. However, the PPA has been working on a best practice guide on the subject and Mahon will present the figures for the UK magazine publishing sector at the Production Conference on 13 November.

It has not been a simple process, says Mahon. It’s difficult to get the information. It’s definitely down to you to go and get the details. No firm follows the same procedures or presents things consistently, so you can get gaps in the figures if you’re not paying attention – hence the best practice guide.

Even the firms at the heart of the paper trade – merchants – struggle to get reliable information. Getting comparative measurements is not easy, as mills use different metrics, say PaperCo’s Heaven. There is guidance coming through, but we need consensus. You can’t easily prove or disprove claims, or tell if you’re comparing apples with apples.

Easier methods
However, there are developments that will make it easier to get consistent data from suppliers and standardised methods for calculating carbon footprints. The European Paper Federation, CEPI, launched the Carbon Footprint Framework for Paper and Board at the end of last year (see box). We were the first industry to draw up a framework and to harmonise it, says CEPI energy and environment director Marco Mensink.

The framework is compatible with the PAS 2050, the forthcoming UK-wide method for measuring the embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from goods and services. Both the PPA and PaperCo are committed to launching carbon footprinting tools based on the PAS 2050 methodology.

If you want to investigate the issue now, though, there are currently materials to help you go some of the way. The Paper Profile scheme, managed by the Finnish Paper Engineers’ Association, provides a standard document for presenting a paper’s environmental characteristics, including the energy used and the CO2 emitted to produce a tonne of paper, which mills supply on request.

In addition, UPM provides a carbon profile for its grades, based on the CEPI Carbon Footprint Framework. This fills in the gaps in the paper profile by including the greenhouse gas emissions from bought-in electricity and steam and from transporting raw materials to the mill.

Bought-in energy is one of the largest elements of paper’s carbon footprint and highlights the perils of oversimplification and the need for tightly defined and standardised labelling. Sanderson says: You could use an average of a country’s supply, one specific to your supplier or Europe-wide. In that situation, without a strict definition, firms could pick the footprint that makes them look best.

A single figure is meaningless without the elements making up the product, adds Sanderson. A French mill could have a low carbon footprint because 80% of French electricity is generated by nuclear power, but it might be one of the most inefficient energy users. A German mill could be very efficient, but could score badly on carbon because the majority of Germany’s power is generated using coal.

There is also the need to balance multiple sustainability objectives. Typically, recycled grades have higher carbon footprints than other grades due to the manufacturing process used and where they are made, but are still a better option than the alternatives uses for the paper, such as power generation or landfill.

Energy choices
Mensink uses the example of The Mirror. The Carbon Trust’s Daily Mirror research suggested that on a carbon footprint basis, UK newsprint should be sourced from Sweden because of that country’s energy mix, he says.

By focusing on the single issue, it misses the wider repercussions, which would be to eliminate the UK’s biggest market for recycled paper.

Publishers such as Redwood, along with its clients, have broad paper procurement sustainability policies. Mahon hasn’t switched a stock just to reduce a product’s carbon footprint.

I’ve changed grades because there has been a need to switch and carbon footprint was one of a range of factors considered, she says.

Redwood has two examples of how switching stock affects carbon footprint, one for a high-street retailer that reduced the product’s carbon footprint by 47%, and another for a UK automotive client where the reduction was 21%.

Carbon footprinting of print and paper is still in its infancy and, while it’s possible to get some information now, it’s set to get much easier next year with the publication of standards and best practice guides. A smaller carbon footprint is only part of an overall sustainable paper procurement policy and not a one-size-fits-all solution.

CEPI 'TEN TOES'
1 Carbon sequestration in forests: sustainable forest management secures the stocks of carbon in forests
2 Carbon in forest products: a product contains biomass carbon and as long as it is in use, it will keep this from the atmosphere
3 Greenhouse gas emissions from forest product manufacturing facilities: from fossil fuel combustion at manufacturing facilities that produce forest products
4 Greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing fibre: for virgin fibre, this includes forest management and harvesting. For recovered fibre, it includes collection, sorting and processing of recovered paper
5 Greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing chemicals and additives and also direct emissions and emissions associated with purchased electricity to manufacture these
6 Greenhouse gas emissions associated with purchased electricity, steam, heat and hot and cold water
7 Transport-related greenhouse gas emissions: greenhouse gas emissions associated with transporting raw materials and products along the supply chain
8 Emissions associated with product use: emissions that occur when a product is used. These are very unusual for forest products and this is a key asset of forest products compared to electronic media
9 Emissions associated with product end-of-life: emissions that occur after a product is used. They consist primarily of methane from landfill
10 Avoided emissions and offsets: emissions that do not occur because of an attribute of the product or an activity of the company making the product