Environmental Impact

I hope the following information will make people realise how necessary it is for everyone to adopt a more responsible attitude to paper production and consumption - particularly when it comes to companies communicating with their shareholders.

As reported by Clean Up Australia ... The manufacture of 26 sheets of paper produces the same amount of greenhouse gas as driving your car for 1 kilometre. When you consider that the average size of a company annual report is around 82 pages, shareholders will make a significant gesture to saving the environment by going online.

Global warming and environmental damage are now hot topics which cannot be ignored.

A company’s social and environmental involvement has become an essential component of its corporate communications, resonating with shareholders, stakeholders and the broader community.

Research by Chartered Secretaries Australia has revealed some alarming statistics:
> 1 tree is used to produce 100 copies of an average size annual report (83pp)
> the average print run of a Top 200 Australian company is 186,000 copies = 1,853 trees per company

also ...

> More water is consumed to produce one tonne of paper than any other commodity – this equates to
around one litre of water for every seven sheets of A4 paper produced = 1.1 million litres of water per
Top 200 company to produce their annual report. In addition to this, the water used to grow trees in renewable forests is greater than indigenous forests, thereby adding to the environmental impact.

> The chlorine bleaching process of pulp for the production of paper has harmful effects:
Pulp mills that use chlorine compounds to bleach pulp produce chemicals called organochlorines. Among the most deadly organochlorines are dioxins: potent, toxic chemical by-products of chlorine bleaching that get into the air, water, soil, and food chain. Over 1,000 different organochlorines have been found in chlorine bleached pulp mill effluent. Hello Tasmania, are you listening.

Once released, these chemicals persist in the environment, spread through the food chain, accumulate in fatty tissues and disrupt, mimic, and block the hormone systems of living organisms. Hormones actively regulate the reproductive, learning, behavioural and disease fighting capabilities of humans and wildlife.

In its three-year assessment of these pollutants, EPA scientists warned in 1994 that minute exposures to organochlorines can lead to cancer, loss of reproductive capabilities, developmental and behavioural disorders, learning disabilities, birth defects, and damaged immune systems. Thirteen years later who knows what damage has been done.

other links: http://archive.greenpeace.org/toxics/reports/gopher-reports/chlora3.txt

> Pulp and paper production is an energy-intensive activity and energy costs can represent up to 25% of the total manufacturing cost. It takes 13.5 GJ of energy to produce one tonne of paper. This is equivalent to using 552 litres of heavy crude oil.

> The printing process is wasteful – paper is wasted setting up the printing press before the print run commences and also on over-runs.

> Because of the high cost of reprints, companies tend to over-order ‘to be on the safe side’.

> In 2001-2002, 1.51 tonnes of greenhouse gases were emitted per tonne of paper produced. This is equivalent to 5 million cars driving from Sydney to Perth (4110 kms).
(http://www.paperonline.org/enviro/level3/issues/issues_frame.html)

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