Green Light for Opportunity

And the industry wasn't alone in its battle against the environment. There was a time back in the early to mid-'90s when this magazine took the side of the forest and paper products companies, expounding that many of the environmental regulations being inflicted on the manufacturers were excessive and would create too much of financial burden for the industry to bear.

Well, we were both shortsighted and wrong.

The industry went on to spend billions of dollars cleaning up its act, so to speak, gradually bringing mills into compliance with state and federal environmental mandates. But it did so begrudgingly—because it had to, not because it should or because it was the right thing to do.

I'm not taking a holier-than-thou posture here. Trust me; I'm in no position to do that.

My point is that in the developed areas of the world there has been a fundamental change in people's perception of the condition of our environment and the direction it's headed. In rapidly expanding numbers, people are genuinely ready to participate; be involved; do the right thing. People want, and in fact insist on, products that are produced through a process not harmful to the environment—a process that will allow the planet to sustain itself.

In an article on page 26, “Sustainability: A Strategic Issue,” authors Bruce McIntyre and Todd Stroup of PricewaterhouseCoopers point out that according to PwC's 2008 edition of CEO Perspectives, most of the executives surveyed regard climate change as both a threat and an opportunity, and that climate change will simultaneously enable the industry to leverage its existing assets and sustainable forest management skills more effectively.

There exists a real opportunity here and I believe that some of our industry leaders “get it.” They produce products that come from a renewable resource—a resource that can be/is harvested in a sustainable manner in forests that meet sustainable forest management standards. In addition, the products themselves are recyclable and the process used to produce those products meet or exceed state and federal environmental compliance standards.

Yet, when was the last time you saw a television spot or an ad in a newspaper or big name globally distributed magazine (other than PaperAge , of course) saying paper is a good choice?

The industry's lack of marketing itself is a crime. I'm not talking about a paper company pushing a new line of “green” papers to a supply house. I'm talking about marketing the “greenness” of our industry to the world and its consumers. And the message shouldn't be telling people to use more paper. It should be saying, “if you have a choice, make it paper.”

Lucky for me that I'm running out of space here because I don't have an answer to who should be in charge of this industry-wide global marketing scheme. But if the dairy industry can do it with their milk mustaches on celebrities and “Do a Body Good” campaign, why not the paper industry?

John O'Brien can be reached at: jobrien@paperage.com