AF&PA Disappointed in EPA Retaining Federal Human Health Water Quality Standards for the State of Maine

Smurfit Kappa has announced ambitious new sustainability targets in a number of different areas. The new targets focus on a further reduction of its environmental footprint, increased support for the communities in which it operates and further enhancement to the lives of its employees. These targets build upon the company’s well-established sustainability record, on which it has been reporting since 2005, and are contained in the Better Planet 2050 commitments. Better Planet 2050 quantifies Smurfit Kappa’s continued commitment to sustainability, targeting environmental and social sustainability in areas where it believes it can have the greatest impact. These include delivering sustainable packaging to customers, reducing its environmental footprint in water usage, waste and carbon emissions and supporting its communities, promoting inclusion and diversity as well as health and safety. The targets identified are specific, measurable and provide a roadmap to deliver results in the short, medium and longer timeframes.

With just 13 percent of its surface area covered in woodlands, the UK is the least leafy country in the European Union, ZME Science reported. The situation is even more…

On August 16, OPI published on its opinion page a piece titled “The Sustainable Argument for Going Paperless” in which an executive from DocuWare, a document management and workflow software company, asserted with no factual evidence that electronic communication and document management are more environmentally sustainable than using paper. Among other claims, he wrote: “Reducing paper usage offers significant environmental benefits, such as leaving a lighter environmental footprint by conserving forests. Forest loss harms wildlife and increases soil erosion. Meanwhile, paper production, which also relies on chemicals and water – emits greenhouse gas emissions.” Is going digital really more environmentally sustainable than using paper? Your readers were recently warned (“The sustainable argument for going paperless,” August 16, Benedikt Dischinger) that there is a “Code Red for Humanity” caused by human-caused climate change, and that one response to this legitimate threat to the future of humankind is…use less paper. What Mr. Dischinger wants us to believe is that we should toss overboard the only form of communication rooted in a truly circular paper industry that relies on biobased energy, an infinitely renewable resource and some of the highest recycling rates in favor of more electronic communication, which is rooted in an industry that scours the planet for finite rare earths and other diminishing resources, relies almost exclusively on fossil fuels to meet its increasingly greedy demands for energy, and features embarrassing recycling rates.