One of the world's biggest forest groups is increasing the amount of certified paper it's making available to customers around the world.
UPM, whose forestry businesses include energy, plywood, chemical pulp, printing papers and specialty papers, announced that many of its customers around the world can have all of the paper they purchase come from certified sources. Last year most of its sales of certified paper went to the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Japan.
The company's chain of custody model meets the requirements for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certification, confirming the origin and sustainability of all of the wood fiber it uses. Its papers also carry the EU Eco-label. UPM reports on the total percentage of certified fiber in its paper products as well as the percentage according to different certification programs.
"We now have major publishers and cataloguers purchasing large volumes of certified paper compared with previous years," said Philippe Riebel, vice president of environmental affairs for UPM.
One of those publishers is Time, Inc., which puts out about 130 magazines and is purchasing 100 percent certified paper from UPM in its quest to have 80 percent of the fiber used in all of its magazine paper come from certified sources by the end of this year. In 2002 only 25 percent of the paper Time used in magazine production was certified, but the company was able to up that to 70 percent by 2006.GreenerDesign
