It seems that the economy, though it's not vastly improved, is no longer at the very forefront of everyone's mind. In just the last few days, a number of press announcements and blog posts have been focusing on "green" issues. Here are just a few for you to consider; the articles range from activities vendors and suppliers are involved in to things you can do both as a service provider and as a consumer. Staples, Conservation Groups, Wood Products Companies and Landowners join to protect forests and combat climate change Staples, one-time foe Dogwood Alliance, and conservation groups, wood products companies and landowners have put together a project - The Carbon Canopy - to protect forests, combat climate change and help develop sources of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper and wood products. The Carbon Canopy is focused on forests in the Southern US, the largest paper and wood-producing region in the world where 90% of the forests are privately owned.  Combined with the loss of forests to development, logging practices such as large scale clearcutting and the conversion of natural forests to plantations has created concerns about the long-term health of the region's forests. UPS offers shippers "green" option to offset carbon dioxide With the launch of a new carbon neutral program, UPS will offer U.S. shippers the option of paying a small fee to calculate and offset the climate impact of the shipment of each of their packages. The per-package price for the optional service is $0.05 for UPS Ground services and $0.20 for UPS Next Day Air, UPS 2nd Day Air and UPS 3 Day Select services. The price includes the cost of calculation, administrative costs associated with the service and the cost of the offsets. Offsets will be purchased based on the carbon associated with participating customer shipments. To encourage customers to participate in this flat fee program, UPS will match the offset purchases, effectively doubling the offsets purchased in 2009-2010, up to $1 million. New Finch Add NewPaper Green Guide now available The new Green Guide from Finch Paper - one of the only paper manufacturers that still works in the forest - details the company's commitment to sustainability and offers a look at paper production processes, from the forest to finished paper. The Guide also provides the latest information on Finch's green paper products. PEFC marks 10 year anniversary with sustainable advertising The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) is celebrating its 10-year anniversary in France with the erection of the first sustainable French billboard, high above the city of Paris, on a rooftop situated near the "Porte de Clichy" in the 17th arrondissement (neighborhood). Based on an idea by Cedric Peiffer, a 20 metres high billboard and 3 tonnes structure will be on top of the building until September 2011. The billboard uses plants to spell out the letters and message, "For our Forests" (in French: Pour Nos Forêts), and the address of the blog dedicated to the event, "nos-forest.org." The logo and texts are made using PEFC-certified French wood and at night the sign will be illuminated using low energy consumption lighting. The unveiling of the billboard was accompanied by a video depicting the greening of Paris with forests and trees (the video is at the bottom of the page). Unisource And Green Toys earn 2009 Greener Packaging Award Unisource Worldwide won a 2009 Greener Packaging Award for environmentally-friendly sustainable packaging created with its customer Green Toys, Inc., of San Francisco. The 100% recyclable corrugated box packaging for a range of toys will be used for Green Toys' line of classic toys made from recycled plastic and other environmentally-friendly materials.  The company is dedicated to manufacturing toys that reduce fossil fuel use and lessen greenhouse gas emissions. Going Green: Paper vs. "The Coal-Fired Internet" “A Printing Office” (a WhatTheyThink blog managed by Patrick Henry) recently published comments by Kevin Keane. In The Coal-Fired Internet, Kevin noted:

At a Xerox luncheon during Print 09, Dr. Joe (Webb) said: “We have a coal-fired Internet.” Meaning, we should not forget that all those who tout paperless billing via a the Internet or downloading e-books to their Amazon Kindle reader via the Internet are still using one of millions of computer nodes on a worldwide network which is run off of electricity and which by definition leaves a carbon imprint of a considerably sulfurous sort.

Take a closer look at energy sources and a detailed breakdown of computer usage and power requirements as we continue to balance “Pixels vs Paper.” Are you prepared to fight for print’s future? Don Carli, executive vice president, Conferences, at SustainCommWorld and a senior research fellow with the Institute for Sustainable Communication, asks "Are you prepared to fight for print's future?"

This isn’t a time to fight back with underfunded and ill-conceived campaigns based on zero-sum arguments. Trying to pick a “pixels vs. paper” fight is a no-win proposition. Business, government and society cannot afford to become dependent upon a digital media mono-culture any more than it can afford to be solely dependent on fossil fuel energy. However, this is not a time for the print media pot to call the digital media kettle black. This is a time to call for transparency and truth in advertising. We need media that IS greener, not media that just says it’s greener. The fact is that neither print NOR digital media supply chains are sustainable as currently configured.