Paper merchant PaperlinX has dismissed a damning report about the environmental credentials of its North American operations as “incomplete”.
The Green Grades 2009 report has been published by US-based pressure groups Dogwood Alliance and Forest Ethics, and discusses the environmental credentials of several companies, including Amazon.com and Staples.
The report claims that PaperlinX does not have a sufficient policy in place to identify whether specific paper products might originate from endangered forests.
It said, “Customers are at high risk of inadvertently purchasing paper from such sources and customers can’t be certain of the environmental and social attributes of the majority of paper sold by PaperlinX.”
Green Grades 2009 focused on office and printing papers bought and sold by the above companies, as well as the marketing papers the groups use. It also reported on other papers where information was available.
The report claimed that PaperlinX has no meaningful policy or procedures for avoiding paper containing fibre from endangered forest sources.
According to the pressure groups, their assessment was based on their own “independent research focused primarily on North America”, after PaperlinX failed to respond to a questionnaire asking about its policies and sourcing practices globally.
However, PaperlinX said the findings of the Green Grades 2009 report had been greeted with some surprise by PaperlinX companies in the region.
It said that, along with several other paper suppliers, the PaperlinX companies in the USA and Canada chose not to participate in the survey.
Chris Creighton, president of PaperlinX North America, said, “While we welcome constructive dialogue with civil society, we do not accept the majority of findings and conclusions of this particular report as it is based on incomplete evidence and hides important truths about our business.”
The report acknowledged PaperlinX’s FSC products, which do carry environmental assurance, but criticised PaperlinX subsidiary Spicers, claiming that the bulk of its papers were non-FSC accredited.
Spicers was also criticised for its association with Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which the pressure groups claimed was listed as a supplier on the company’s Australian website.
APP has recently come under fire from conservation groups that have claimed it was planning to illegally log in a national forest in Indonesia – claims that APP has strenuously denied.
According to the report, PaperlinX does not have a clear preference to paper from forests credibly certified as environmentally and socially well-managed, nor does it have strong goals or timelines for increasing the proportion of its papers that are FSC certified.
It also said the company may be missing out on important opportunities to reduce impacts to forest ecosystems and to reduce its paper-related greenhouse gas footprint.
However, PaperlinX denied the allegations, saying that 67% of the paper it sells in North America is FSC certified and 30% of those grades that don’t have FSC have another credible chain of custody.
Creighton said, “We are utterly committed to driving sustainable supply chains and have robust product stewardship procedures.”
The company added that it has extensive programmes in place to reduce its own operational footprint, including an industry-first carbon management policy.
It said, “We have invested heavily in custom sheeting that saves customers fibre and money.”
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