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A Common Vision

Highlights of FSC-certified Paper Usage

SmartGuide to Paper & Print Resources

FSC Certified Paper

Buy or Print With FSC-Certified Paper

For contact information for paper merchants and printers in the U.S. with FSC chain-of-custody certification, please use the following:

Certified Paper
Certified Paper Merchants
Certified Paper Manufacturers
Certified Printers
Certified Pulp Suppliers

Corporate social responsibility issues are becoming a core component of corporate brands. Dealing responsibly with your company’s footprint cannot only reduce risk, but can enhance your brand if you walk the walk and know how to talk about it. Carrying the FSC-certification logo on your print products tells the world that you support the highest social and environmental standards in the market where you use paper. Your purchase of FSC-certified paper and print products contribute to conservation, responsible management, and community level benefits for people near the forests that provide your paper.

The U.S. is the largest market for paper products in the world, producing 90 million tons of paper annually and, in-turn, consuming about 100 million tons. Despite improved technologies for refining post consumer pulp, virgin fiber is still a significant requirement, as only 35% of current consumption is met by using recycled fiber; in addition, approximately 25% of recovered fiber is exported out of US markets. Roughly 25% by volume of timber cut annually in the US is used for paper production.

While recycled fiber is a key element of the traditional model for responsible consumption, it is becoming increasingly clear that forest management in the production of the wood used in paper manufacturing, has more fundamental importance than even recycled fiber. The use of alternative fibers, chemical treatment and resulting effluence are other factors important to the responsible purchasing of paper and board.

Certification

Any product made of pulp or paper has the potential to be certified as long as the wood used in the product originates from FSC-certified sources. Wood is an important material for all paper manufacturers. The FSC certification system allows these professionals to know they are doing the right thing, and taking business away from other companies that may still be supporting illegal, unsustainable, unverified logging activities. The intent of the FSC system is to shift the market to eliminate habitat destruction, water pollution, displacement of indigenous peoples and violence against people and wildlife that often accompanies logging.

Just like other forest products, in order to use the FSC logo as an "environmental claim" on paper, the product must have flowed through the FSC "chain-of-custody" from the FSC-certified forest, to a paper manufacturer, merchant, and finally printer who have FSC chain-of-custody certification. To learn more about certification, click here: http://www.fscus.org/faqs/what_is_certification.php

Please note: in order to use any FSC trademarks, including the FSC logo, initials "FSC", or phrase "Forest Stewardship Council" on a printed piece, the printer must have chain-of-custody certification. Without this certification, no claims can be printed regarding the FSC-certified content of the paper.