Paper saving is a high priority of the Environmental Paper Network. Reducing paper consumption is the first goal of our Global Paper Vision, and the best way to reduce the negative environmental and social impacts that paper can cause.
Tools and Resources Shrink - Case Studies Paper efficiency PDF
Many of our member organisations are campaigning against wasteful paper use, from unwanted catalogues to packaging. One common focus is the icon of the throwaway society – paper cups. Watch this space for more information.
Between 2007 and 2013 Shrink Paper focused on four sectors:
- Magazines
- Catalogues
- Supermarkets
- Banks / insurance
Approach:
- Asked for 50% reduction in paper consumption
- Produced scorecard of companies
- Held seminars for institutions (companies, governments, agencies….)
Case Studies
You can find more information about the participating companies in the Case Study section.
Results
In 2012-13 we assessed 60 UK organisations on their paper efficiency and ran a series of events to highlight the link between paper use and climate change. See the results here.
Shrink Paper Context – Why the need to save paper?
Since the 1960s, world consumption of paper has quadrupled and use of printing paper has increased six-fold. Just 10% of the world’s population (western Europe and north America) consumes more than 50% of the world’s paper. Europeans and Americans use 6 times as much paper as the world average.
Yet much of this paper use is wasteful and unnecessary and some of it is linked to human rights abuses, forest destruction, pollution and climate change emissions.
Our paper consumption is the major driver of the forestry industry: half of the trees cut commercially around the world end up in paper products.
Paper use has increased most in the computer age despite technological advances like electronic communication, which should offer good alternatives. A staggering 45% of office-printouts end up in the bin by the end of the day they are printed: this isn’t just a waste of trees, it’s a huge waste of money.
It’s also unfair. The average European uses more paper in a day than people in poor countries get access to each year. If we want the many benefits of paper – books and education, information sharing and democracy, sanitation and safe food – to be available to everyone in the world without increasing production to unsustainable levels, it is up to people in wealthy societies to reduce wasteful paper use.
Reducing consumption of paper in Europe is a key priority of the international Environmental Paper Network. More that 50 non-governmental organisations, who make up the network, agreed this when we signed our common vision in 2006, and we reaffirmed this at our meeting in Portugal in 2012. We do not advocate the use of alternative materials to paper, unless they are proven to have a smaller ecological footprint, and we encourage all paper users to work towards all the goals in our vision.
We want to draw together information, case studies, advice and inspiration to make it easier for people in all walks of society to cut wasteful paper use.
Saving paper has so many benefits: you save money, you feel good and you tread more lightly on the earth.
Tools and Resources Shrink - Case Studies Paper efficiency PDF