Friday, July 9, 2010

A new website provides with everything you wanted to know about the life cycle of paper

Looking to stay informed about paper is always a challenge, as you have many bits of information here and there, but it's difficult to understand the big picture. Although there are already some good sites that try to meet this challenge, we always felt there's still a need to have one more good website we can always go to when we need information. Now it looks like we got one.

The new website, which was launched this week, is called Paper Life Cycle. It was created by Metafore, a program of GreenBlue, a nonprofit institute that works with the private sector to enable the positive redesign of industrial systems, in collaboration with stakeholders across the paper supply chain.

The new website explains its promise:

The Paper Life Cycle project is a multi-stakeholder initiative that provides key environmental information about the sourcing, production, use and end of life of paper so that buyers of paper and fiber-based products can make better-informed, more sustainable purchasing decisions.

This online resource promotes greater understanding of the key issues throughout the paper supply chain, covering topics such as climate change, forest practice management, recycling, illegal logging, energy use and product performance.

On their press release, Tom Pollock, Senior Program Manager of Metafore says that “we found there was a need in the marketplace for information about the many environmental considerations across the life cycle of paper. This is an online resource for businesses to make informed purchasing decisions that integrate environmental and economic performance.”

The site includes in-depth articles, trend reports and guidance on key questions facing paper manufacturers and buyers. From the couple of visits I made so far in this website, it is very comprehensive and user-friendly (including a search option), and I also liked the fact that it is constantly updated with reports, news and trends to make sure the information in it stays up to date.

I will definitely keep using this new resource and you are also welcome to check it out at http://www.thepaperlifecycle.org/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading