Pulp Non-Fiction

Pulp Non-Fiction: Inspiration in Unlikely Places

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:46:41 -0800

You may find it strange that a paper company would feature alcoholic beverages in its newsletter but New Leaf Paper and many craft alcoholic beverage companies have a lot in common.

Traditionally, paper and alcoholic beverages use farmed raw materials, require a significant amount of water and energy to produce, and leave behind “waste” products. Craft brewers often send spent grains, a waste product of the brewing process to local farms to be used as animal feed, and at New Leaf we make our products from post-consumer waste. Our featured Sierra Nevada Brewing Company even won the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Business of the Year award for its zero waste policy that diverted 99.5% of solid waste from landfill.

Sierra Nevada Brewing is also a leading innovation in energy production that will serve as an example across many industries. New Leaf Paper purchases renewable energy credits to offset 100% of its energy use and works with end users to evaluate their paper use impact.

Paper and alcohol are not often regarded as leaders in driving a better future for our planet but our industries have a lot of opportunities to rethink and reinvent how our products are made and consumed.

Make a resolution this year to find inspiration in unlikely places and inspire sustainability in your industry!

In Celebration,

Jeff Mendelsohn

What Energizes Us?

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:06:00 -0800

Most of us, most of the time, do not think about where energy comes from. We flip switches, light stoves, take hot showers, turn ignition keys, pour a glass of orange juice. In the course of one day, we almost certainly use electricity generated in a coal fired power plant. We heat our homes with oil drilled from deserts halfway around the world or natural gas from beneath the Boreal forest, over a thousand miles away. We spend tremendous amounts of energy to unearth energy. We pry open the doors of the planetary safety deposit box and ransack stored sunlight.

Why was it buried so deep? Because life thrives on sunlight and soil, air and water, nothing more. Over millennia, living systems fine tuned themselves - plants, animals, and microorganisms all interconnected. Our earth maximized the conditions for life, burying toxic heavy metals, balancing the atmosphere, and stashing away excessive carbon deep underground - ultimately creating unimaginable, beauty, diversity and abundance.

Unimaginable that is… until life miraculously became aware of itself, giving birth to imagination. Youngest of nature’s species, we are her prodigal children. Teenagers, with keys to the car, flexing our muscles, testing our creative and destructive limits. And those born into wealthy societies throw huge parties - hey we got the energy - creating works of genius and hubris, sometimes beautiful sometimes horrible, ever expanding.

We are starting to suffer some mighty hangovers. Our bodies are trying to tell us something. And while the gratification is fleeting, we go back for more. In a few consequential ways, we ignore our mother. She restrains herself, knowing we must learn for ourselves, if we are ever to learn at all.

We are nature, for the first time aware of herself. Awakening, and, slowly, growing up.

I live on a solar-powered boat and yet I am not carbon neutral.

I, too, struggle for carbon balance.

Creating Opportunity

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:10:08 -0700

Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) was founded in 1999 as a nonprofit community economic development organization. Over the past twelve years PCV has proven that supporting small businesses furthers community development. PCV has worked with over 1,300 entrepreneurs to create and maintain more than 23,000 sustainable jobs with benefits – at an average cost of under $20,000 per new job created– through programs that integrate nationally recognized research and policy work to drive capital and resources to lower-income communities with multi-faceted Business Advising services. Even amidst the challenges of 2010, PCV’s businesses experienced 9% job growth. Approximately 60% of PCV-nurtured businesses are located in low- or moderate-income communities, and two-thirds of the employees at PCV-advised companies are low- to moderate-income. In short, PCV efficiently creates jobs for those who need them most.

PCV’s continuum of service includes Business Advising, its on-the-ground program through which PCV works directly with small business enterprises in lower-income areas to maximize their success and, thus, their impact on the regional job market; InSight, its research and analysis practice to provide knowledge to investors and policymakers to drive capital to lower income communities; its for-profit growth equity fund, invested through Pacific Community Management; and Borrower Focused Advising, its program to help small business avoid loan foreclosure. As detailed in the proposal, PCV’s program areas have proven their methodology with measurable impact, and they together make PCV one of the country’s premiere programs for business- and job-based economic revitalization of lower-income areas.

B Corp - A Better Way

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 09:30:52 -0700

It’s time for a better way to do business, but how do you tell the difference between a good company and just good marketing?

Certified B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Corps, unlike traditional businesses, meets rigorous and independent standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. They are certified by B Lab, a nonprofit organization, the same way TransFair certifies Fair Trade coffee or USGBC certifies green buildings. Through a company’s B Impact Assessment, anyone can access performance data about the social and environmental practices that stand behind their products.

So why does any of this matter? When you support a B Corporation, you’re supporting a better way to do business. Governments and nonprofits are necessary but insufficient to solve today’s most pressing problems. Business is the most powerful force on the planet and can be a positive instrument for change.

B Lab’s vision is simple yet ambitious: to create a new sector of the economy which uses the power of business to improve our world. This sector will be comprised of a new type of corporation - the B Corporation. As a result, individuals will have greater economic opportunity, society will move closer to achieving a positive environmental footprint, more people will be employed in great places to work, and we will have built stronger communities at home and across the world.

B Corporations address two critical problems:

1. Current corporate law makes it difficult for businesses to take employee, community, and environmental interests into consideration when making decisions

2. The lack of transparent standards makes it difficult to tell the difference between a ‘good company’ and just good marketing

To address these issues, B Corporations’ legal structure expands corporate accountability so they are required to make decisions that are good for society, not just their shareholders. B Corporations’ performance standards enable consumers to support businesses that align with their values, investors to drive capital to higher impact investments, and governments and multinational corporations to implement sustainable procurement policies.

Today there are over 420 Certified B Corporations across 60 different industries. New Leaf Paper is a Founding B Corporation and a leader in the space. From hundred million dollar companies to start-ups, B Corporations form a diverse community with one unifying goal: to create social and environmental change. Join the movement for a better way to do business and support B Corps.

To find a B Corporation and learn more, visit www.bcorporation.net.

Written by Katie Kerr, responsible for Core Team communications at B Lab.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the greenest paper company of all?

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:04:12 -0700

Virgin paper manufacturers confuse paper buyers with misleading comparisons of the environmental impacts of virgin paper vs. recycled paper.

By Jeff Mendelsohn

Over the last six months, some of the largest virgin fine paper manufacturers in North America have launched major marketing initiatives holding themselves up as environmental leaders. They support these claims by postulating that virgin paper manufacturing generates the same or less greenhouse gas emissions than recycled fine paper. They continue with broad statements suggesting high recycled content is not appropriate for fine printing and writing papers.

How do they arrive at this conclusion? By looking in the mirror. Two large virgin coated paper manufacturers, Sappi and Verso, performed lifecycle analysis of making virgin paper and recycled paper on their own existing infrastructure which is designed specifically to make virgin paper. Verso operates integrated virgin paper mills[1] in rural parts of Maine, Michigan, and Minnesota. Not surprisingly, Verso found that making recycled paper at mills design to make virgin paper “doesn’t improve the carbon footprint.” They go further to claim “we’ve even seen an increase in carbon emissions as a result of the use of recycled content.”[2] Sappi also operates integrated virgin paper mills in rural parts of Maine and Minnesota. Their website’s carbon footprint analysis displays dramatic increase in greenhouse gas emissions with increased recycled content - again based on making recycled paper at mills designed to make virgin paper.[3] Sappi puts forth a strong message against using recycled fiber in coated paper.

Environmental Superiority of Recycled Paper

These statements mislead the paper buyers by implying that recycled paper is not better for the environment - simply because these mills are not set up to efficiently produce it. To be clear - making fine paper from waste paper is a more efficient process than making paper from trees, using less energy, less water, creating less effluent, and generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions. These facts are supported by the most comprehensive, independent, scientific lifecycle analysis of the impacts of paper manufacturing, the Paper Task Force Final Report.[4]

In summary, not only do the virgin manufacturers provide an inaccurate perspective on greenhouse gas emissions associated with making recycled paper, they ignore all the other benefits (less water usage, fewer effluents, deforestation and ecosystem destruction, etc) of using recycled paper to support their conclusions.

Sustainability and the North American Paper Industry

While we find it necessary to correct the misinformation being spread in the marketplace, we focus our attention on the ultimate goal: collaborating with all stakeholders to continuously shift the North American paper industry toward sustainability. This requires a deep understanding of the most sustainable practices available today, the possibilities for the future, conceiving a path forward, and commitment from a critical mass of paper buyers and manufacturers.

As is clear in the Paper Task Force report, the most sustainable paper mills are located near the “urban forest” (sources of recycled fiber) and are designed to pulp wastepaper using chlorine free chemistry to make high recycled content paper. Only a handful of mills with this design are located in North America. One such mill, FutureMark, located on the outskirts of Chicago, sources 90% of its fiber from wastepaper within a 40 mile radius.[5] Its chlorine free pulping process is designed specifically to pulp waste paper and only a small amount of virgin fiber is introduced into production as necessary for strength purposes.

Why aren’t there more mills in North America designed to use recycled fiber? Why does United States and it citizens invest so much in recycling only to ship over 60% of all wastepaper off to China and other overseas destinations?[6] Why do we “export” the resource conservation benefits of our recycling rather than enjoy them at home? These are perhaps the most pressing questions we face in evolving a more sustainable industry.

Imagine a fundamental shift in our infrastructure toward recycled paper mills, taking advantage of the vast quantity of wastepaper we collect every day. With greater use of recycle fiber, we reduce demand for virgin fiber, and make possible a future where all virgin fiber is sourced from either FSC certified forests or agricultural residues such as wheat straw left over after the harvest for food crops. Even with maximum use of recycle fiber, there will always be need for virgin fiber to replenish the inevitable fiber attrition from repeat recycling. Sustainability investments made by major virgin paper manufacturers are part of the solution. Sappi and Verso have made significant strides toward reducing their impact, including increased use of FSC certified virgin fiber sources. We look forward to continuing our efforts and building new partnerships that will move the industry towards greater environmental sustainability.

[1] An integrated virgin paper mill is a manufacturing facility that integrates virgin wood pulping and papermaking in one location.

[2] TAPPI Ahead of the Curve Newsletter. Feb 9, 2011. http://www.tappi.org/content/enewsletters/ahead/2011/issues/2011-02-09.html

[3] URL for SAPPI website: http://www.na.sappi.com/getArticle.jsp?title=eQTool#/6/.

[4] Paper Task Force Report. EDF website: http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?ContentID=1689

[5] “Changing the Metrics of Green,” RISI website, June 13, 2011.

[6] Ibid. http://www.risiinfo.com/techchannels/environment/Changing-the-metrics-of-green.html

Made in America

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:29:56 -0700

On July 4^th, let’s reflect on the great beauty, spacious skies and shining seas of our country. We have a duty to keep America vital, both economically and environmentally, for ourselves and future generations. At New Leaf Paper, we have never compromised on our values of environmental responsibility while creating the finest printing papers.

Our Reincarnation Matte line is the greenest coated paper made in the US. It is processed chlorine-free, 100% recycled, and has a 60% post consumer waste content - the highest of any coated paper made in the country. Choosing Reincarnation Matte is not only the right choice for sustainability, it is the right choice for keeping jobs in America.

Reincarnation Matte has an elegant finish, and sharp color reproduction. With a 92 brightness rating, it is an excellent choice for high-end lithography, large-run applications, and digital printing. Our customers use it for annual reports, catalogs, magazines, marketing collateral, postcards and publications. Consistent with our entire product line, it has impressive environmental credentials:

· 100% Recycled

· 60% Post Consumer Waste

· Processed Chlorine Free

· Ancient Forest Friendly

· FSC

· Green-e

Please contact your local sales representative or call (888) 989-5323 for more information.

Join a True Pioneer!

Fri, 27 May 2011 14:55:44 -0700

New Leaf Paper is pleased to announce the immediate nationwide availability of our Pioneer paper line – 100% Post-Consumer Recycled uncoated white text and trade book.

Naming this paper Pioneer is no exaggeration. Launched in 2001, New Leaf Pioneer was the first 100% PCW Trade Book paper made in North America. Pioneer combines a beautiful warm shade, tactile surface with good opacity and excellent printability.

Experience a new value in your print collateral with Pioneer, a beautiful uncoated offset sheet that performs as well as virgin and is competitively priced.

Consistent with our mission and our entire product line, Pioneer comes to you with impressive environmental credentials:

· 100% Recycled

· 100% Post Consumer Waste

· Processed Chlorine Free

· Ancient Forest Friendly

· FSC

· Green-e

With a 92 brightness rating, Pioneer can be used for all-purpose offset printing, marketing collateral, newsletters, paperback books and much more! Please contact your local sales representative or call (888) 989-5323 for more information.

Jeff Mendelsohn at Sustainable Brands '11 - Monterey, CA - June 7-11

Wed, 25 May 2011 14:45:00 -0700

Join our Chairman and Founder Jeff Mendelsohn at Sustainable Brands ’11 as the sustainability, brand & design communities come together for the 5th year to discuss how better brands can succeed by helping shape a brighter future. Reawaken your sense of the possible as you learn how sustainable brand leaders are making smarter strategic moves, developing new problem-solving skills, and inspiring others to help them bring healthier, smarter brands to market. For more information, use this link: http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/events/sb11

HOW Design Live Chicago, June 24 -27 2011

Wed, 25 May 2011 13:44:00 -0700

If you are attending the HOW conference in Chicago, please come visit us at Booth# 909. Visit http://www.howconference.com for event details.

Reincarnation Sets the Bar

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:46:00 -0700

Last month we announced that New Leaf Paper’s best seller and North America’s most environmentally sound coated paper stepped a few more rungs up the karma ladder by increasing from 50% to 60% post-consumer waste content. And customers have taken notice! Says Grant of Greenerprinter in Berkeley, CA, “Reincarnation runs far better than any recycled paper out there…and keeps us on the leading edge. It was already the best, and this just made it even better.”

Known for its elegant finish and sharp color reproduction, Reincarnation Matte is still the only matte coated paper made in North America with 100% recycled fiber and bleached without chlorine compounds. So specify Reincarnation Matte on your next print job and join the thousands of customers making a difference one step at a time.

Ciao, ColorGraphics! Primavera Silk Contest Winner

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:45:25 -0700

The orders and entries poured in, and we’re thrilled to announce our Primavera Silk Contest winner: ColorGraphics, located right here in San Francisco! Earlier this spring, hundreds of New Leaf Paper customers and fans entered for their chance to win a trip to the Italian countryside for a personal tour of the mill that makes Primavera Silk. Along with our Founder and CEO Jeff Mendelsohn, representatives from ColorGraphics will be heading to Northern Italy to visit the Burgo Group’s Cartiera di Toscolana paper mill on the banks of beautiful Lake Garda.

With its exceptional finish, this bright and elegant paper is a true market leader, offering high print fidelity, competitive pricing and the highest postconsumer waste content of any coated sheet. Primavera Silk offers a triple-coated, smooth finish ideal for magazines and photographs, not to mention for our winners to document memories of Italy!

New Pricing on Lightweight Coated Papers

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:44:00 -0700

New Leaf Paper and The Green America Better Paper Project are collaborating to provide magazine publishers competitively priced paper through volume discounts on New Leaf Legend and New Leaf Keystone. Both of these papers have the highest environmental standards in North America with 50% post-consumer recycled content, and both are FSC certified, processed chlorine free, and manufactured with renewable energy credits from Green-e.

The sheets were designed with greater bulk than most competitors, enabling customers to reduce basis weight to save both money and natural resources. All magazines that are participants in the Better Paper Project website (www.BetterPaper.org) are eligible. For more information, contact John Black at john@newleafpaper.com or 202-684-8837 or visit http://bit.ly/b1lmQQ.www.BetterPaper.org) are eligible. For more information, contact John Black at john@newleafpaper.com or 202-684-8837 or visit http://bit.ly/b1lmQQ.

Understanding Eco-Certifications: Webinar Now Online

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:43:51 -0700

For those who missed our last webinar on eco-certifications, it is now available for viewing online at http://www.newleafpaper.com/webinars. Yalmaz Siddiqui, Office Depot’s Director of Environmental Strategy, led us through the maze of certifications in the paper industry. Yalmaz’s talk demystified all the industry jargon and offered some straight talk to help inform paper purchasing decisions. Thanks, Yalmaz!

New Leaf Paper Goes to Oxford

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:43:15 -0700

New Leaf Paper Founder and CEO Jeff Mendelsohn travelled across the pond to this year’s Skoll World Forum (http://www.skollworldforum.com), the annual gathering that brings together more than 800 leading minds from the world of social entrepreneurship to the University of Oxford. As part of the “Beyond the Single Bottom Line: Pioneers in Blended Value,” Jeff wowed the crowd with New Leaf Paper’s unique story of weaving principles of sustainability directly into its business model.

Jeff was invited to the Forum alongside such global luminaries as Paul Hawken, Mabel Van Oranje and Paul Farmer. As part of the “Beyond the Single Bottom Line: Pioneers in Blended Value,” Jeff wowed the crowd with New Leaf Paper’s unique story of weaving principles of sustainability directly into its business model. You can read a recap and summary of issues from the panel on the Social Edge blog at http://bit.ly/cDIxvT

Success Story: Barlean’s Organic Oils

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:41:54 -0700

The success of New Leaf Paper is the result of decisions small and large made every day by our customers. This month, the spotlight is on Barlean’s, a fourth generation, family-owned company with roots in the fishing industry, and the country’s premier manufacturer of organic flaxseed oils. Recently named a Green 100 Company by Healthy Living Magazine, Barlean’s made the switch to New Leaf Paper’s Harmony and Primavera Silk for all their marketing materials.

Andreas Koch, Barlean’s Marketing Director, explained their shift this way: “Barlean’s is stepping up its eco-commitment where ever possible, though the biggest hurdles are usually costs. Not with New Leaf Paper — they actually matched our annual conventional paper prices. Barlean’s will now save 11,737 pounds of solid waste and 238 full grown trees this year without adding a penny. Sustainably smart AND cost-effective, partnering with New Leaf brings new meaning to ‘saving green’!”

Caution: Anti-Dumping on Chinese Paper Imports

Tue, 04 May 2010 22:33:21 -0700

The U.S. Department of Commerce recently issued its preliminary antidumping (AD) determinations that imports of certain coated paper from China and Indonesia are being sold at less than normal value in the U.S. As a result, Commerce imposed preliminary AD duties ranging from 30.82 to 135.8 percent on imports from China and 10.62 percent on imports from Indonesia. The paper covered by the investigations is coated paper suitable for high-quality print graphics using sheet-fed presses with a GE brightness rating of 80 or higher and weighing up to 340 g/m2. Learn more at http://bit.ly/aJ7sPY

Join New Leaf Paper at PINCShow!

Tue, 04 May 2010 22:32:55 -0700

The PINCShow is the event of the year for Print Buyers, Designers, Marketing Professionals, and Creatives. It is a daylong event featuring seminars and a trade exhibition to help participants keep up with the latest professional software, technologies, and trends. Over 1,000 printer buyers, designers, marketing and creatives will attend from all over Northern California. We look forward to seeing you there.

Join us at Sustainable Brands 2010

Tue, 04 May 2010 22:32:34 -0700

Where the Sustainability & Brand & Design Communities Come Together to Shape the Future. Join 700+ business and brand strategists, designers, sustainability executives and communications experts building brand value through sustainability. Market-making companies such as New Leaf Paper, HP, Bumble Bee, IDEO, Johnson & Johnson, Nokia, Coca-Cola, Clorox, Nestle, 3M, Williams Sonoma, SAP and many others will be there. Don’t wait! Monterey Conference Center, June 7-10. Information: www.sustainablebrands10.com Use code NLPSB10 for a 20% discount.

Supporting SoCal with a Dedicated Sales Rep

Tue, 04 May 2010 22:31:48 -0700

Please join us in welcoming Henry Perez to the New Leaf team, in his role as Senior Account Executive. Henry brings a wealth of experience to our team and will play an important role in the growth of our sales efforts in the Southern California market. Henry has worked in various roles in the print industry, including time at Central Typesetting, ColorGraphics LA, Insync Media, and Bullseye Imaging. Henry can be reached at henry@newleafpaper.com or 213-909-2432.

One-click Quoting on newleafpaper.com

Tue, 04 May 2010 22:31:10 -0700

We love to speak to our customers, but for those that prefer to engage online, we have added a new quote & sample order feature to our website. Click ‘request quote’ or ‘order samples’ from our homepage, or any product page, and you are well on your way to having a quote emailed to you within 24hrs or sample order fulfilled. Should you be in rush, you can continue to reach us at 1.888.989.5323.