Transcontinental Begins Environmentally Sensitive Paper Purchasing

By: E&P Staff Montreal-based Transcontinental has announced implementation of a paper purchasing policy that promotes use of environmentally preferable papers through a classification process that allows clients to make an informed choice regarding the paper they choose for their printing needs.

The largest printer in Canada and sixth-largest in North America, Transcontinental also ranks as the country's leading publisher of consumer magazines and French-language educational resources, and its second-largest community newspaper publisher. Other newspaper publishers are among its print customers. Its first in the United States is the New York Times Co. In 2009 it will begtin printing Hearst Corp.'s, San Francisco Chronicle.

The goal was to develop a policy that would promote sustainable development in a tangible way by giving our clients clear choices," Transcontinental President and CEO Luc Desjardins said in announcing the purchasing policy.

The policy promotes the use of paper with maximized post-consumer and de-inked recycled fiber and it encourages the use of paper made with pre-consumer recovered fiber or alternative fibers in preference to virgin wood fiber. Where virgin wood fiber is required, the policy states a preference for fiber from forests that are managed with high conservation values and certified by a recognized organization. The policy is supported by a classification document, which evaluates paper based on such criteria as total percentage of recycled fiber and level of protection for ancient forests.

"The Paper Purchasing Policy was developed with both sustainable development and our clients in mind," said Jean Denault, Transcontinental procurement and technology vice president. "In many cases, Transcontinental clients are pleased to learn they are already using paper which promotes sustainable development and their particular environmental objectives; in other cases, they realize it would be simple to make that change."

The Paper Purchasing Policy was developed with input from Vancourver, B.C.-based environmental publishing advocate Markets Initiative. Transcontinental said it will continue to collaborate with Markets Initiative to ensure that its policy remains relevant to its environmental objectives.

Markets Initiative Executive Director Nicole Rycroft called Transcontinental "the first major North American print-media conglomerate to take such a comprehensive step towards safeguarding our forests and our climate.

According to Transcontinental,_high conservation value forests contain globally, regionally or nationally significant concentrations of biodiversity values and/or large landscape level forests, contained within, or containing the management unit, where viable populations of most if not all naturally occurring species exist in natural patterns of distribution and abundance.
They also are in or contain rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems, provide basic services of nature in critical situations (e.g. watershed protection, erosion control), and are fundamental to meeting basic needs of local communities (e.g. subsistence, health) and/or critical to local communities' traditional cultural identity.