The WWF (formerly World Wildlife Fund), has released a buyers' guide to responsible paper purchasing:

From packaging paper to office paper and tissues, the WWF Guide to Buying Paper makes it easy for any organization to understand the most important environmental impacts of paper-making and to source responsibly-produced paper products, thus reducing their environmental footprint.

The new guide — launched today at the European paper industry’s annual Paper Week — includes a scorecard that enables buyers to evaluate the environmental performance of current and future suppliers on recycling, responsible forest management, pollution and climate change.

The guide also provides recommendations on how to work with suppliers towards improvements.

The guide recommends:
  • The Use FSC-certified paper
  • Choosing transparent suppliers with Environmental Management Systems
  • Avoid contributing to climate change by selecting paper manufactures that use renewable energy sources.
  • Use unbleached or totally chlorine free paper
  • Buy your paper from mills with low Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) emissions.
  • Avoid contributing to landfill waste by

The guide is available as a PDF from the WWF Paper Toolbox.