A growing number of companies are adopting procurement policies that help protect the world’s forests by tracking paper production from stump to shelf

By: Anne Stuart

When many businesses discuss their efforts to “go green,” they’re talking about recycling and reuse in other words, initiatives designed for the end of their products’ lives.

But some leading retailers and catalogers are now focusing on the beginning of those life cycles as well. They’re establishing rigorous environmental guidelines for procuring materials such as paper and cardboard and making sure that consumers, investors, competitors and most of all suppliers know that they’re serious about sticking to those rules.

Take Patagonia Inc., the outdoor clothing and gear retailer headquartered in California. Angela Weidmann, Patagonia’s catalog print-production manager, says the company’s been printing catalogs on recycled paper since 1991 and, in 2002, launched an aggressive internal effort to cut waste and partner with environmentally responsible paper suppliers.

But the company hasn’t always marketed its green practices. Patagonia began talking more about its efforts in 2007, when in response to pressure from environmental groups it posted its comprehensive “Paper Use and Procurement Policy” on its Web site. “Ultimately, we felt that it was important to get the information out there to the public and to our vendors,” Weidmann says. “It makes us more accountable and, hopefully, an example to others.”

The policy details Patagonia’s practices, such as switching from 50-pound to 45-pound catalog paper, which requires fewer trees to produce. Thinner paper involves a slight “quality tradeoff,” Weidmann acknowledges, but adds: “When we did press tests, even some of our more discerning colleagues had a hard time telling the difference” between the two stocks.

The benefits? To date, Patagonia has saved more than 730 tons of paper (which the company says is equivalent to nearly 13,000 40-foot-tall trees). And the company has saved money. “Paper and postage are our two biggest expenses. You buy paper by the pound; to a certain extent, you buy postage by the pound as well,” Weidmann explains. Reducing the catalog’s weight has cut annual costs by about 10 percent in both areas.

Patagonia also looks for paper that’s made with as much post-consumer recycled (PCR) content as possible typically about 40 percent and that’s been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a global forest-management organization, as using virgin fiber only from well-managed forests. And the company strives to buy from suppliers based within 200 miles of its printer to cut travel for the delivery trucks.

Many companies are also getting their suppliers involved, including Staples, the office supply retailer and cataloger. In 2002, the company took a hard look at its paper procurement policies. “We realized that we’re in a global economy with a global supply chain, and we need to think more broadly about issues such as where our suppliers are located and where their suppliers are located,” says Mark Buckley, the company’s vice president of environmental affairs.

Staples’ policy sets escalating goals for both the 2,000-store chain itself and its suppliers. For instance, the average amount of PCR content across all Staples’ paper products sold by weight is 30 percent, and the company is shooting for 50 percent. And it expects to have the majority of its suppliers FSC-certified by 2010.

Most recently, Staples enforced its policy by cutting ties with an Indonesian company that supplied about 5 percent of Staples’ total paper supply. The reason: Environmental groups had accused the company of illegal logging practices. Also, the company wasn’t green enough.

Buckley says Staples didn’t make the decision lightly; he and other executives tried for more than two years to bring the company into compliance with Staples’ standards. But by February 2008, “We felt that they weren’t making significant enough progress for us to stay with them as a supplier,” Buckley says. “We encourage suppliers to move in the right direction or we have to look elsewhere.”

Meanwhile, Staples is extending its current slogan “That Was Easy” to the environment. Its new consumer-oriented “EcoEasy” brand promotes Staples products and services that, in Buckley’s words, “make it easy for you to make a difference.” Offerings range from recycled-content products to low-cost recycling of old computers and monitors even those purchased elsewhere.

Officials at Staples who have promoted eco-friendly initiatives online and through branding efforts such as placing its logo on recycled paperboard clothes hangers consider the efforts part of a company-wide commitment to reduce waste, conserve energy and promote recycling and reuse. “It’s not just about paper,” Buckley says. “It’s about everything we do. Those issues are increasingly important to our customers, and [green practices] add value to our brand.”

And as at Patagonia, most of those efforts cut costs, too. “Everything we’re doing around climate change is saving money and we’re reducing our carbon footprint,” Buckley says. “It’s a win-winwin. What’s not to like?”