Paper & Printing

doing what we can do

“Whoever we are, wherever we are, there is something in our lives that we can do.”

—Wangari Maathai reflects on the hummingbird story

Printing Frog Song: A Drop in the Bucket

The limited first edition hardcover of Frog Song is printed with soy-based ink on 100% post-consumer recycled Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper by Calverts North Star Press, a worker owned co-operative. Printing this special edition with social and ecological integrity and selling through independent locally owned bookstores is a tiny drop in the vast book publishing bucket. The decision is guided by stubborn love—a conviction that, relative to one’s agency and in accordance with one’s knowledge and morals, it is vital to always do what one can do to be more helpful than harmful.

The content on paper and printing provided below also appears in the book. In addition, please see Environmental Paper Network’s Paper Calculator to calculate and compare various paper impacts and explore Canopy’s efforts to co-create responsible supply chains. Canopy’s collaborative successes include shifting JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series to Ancient Forest Friendly™ paper. That’s a lot of drops in the bucket.

Friendly Products

Forest and producer-friendly products first and foremost support and sustain the communities where they are grown and processed to foster long-term stability for all. These products are commonly, but are not necessarily, mutually inclusive. In addition to certified products traded internationally, these friendly products include those grown, produced, and sold locally. For “a big list” of high recycled content and Next Gen packaging and paper, please see The EcoPaper Database at Canopy. For information about forest-friendly products, please see the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) and Rainforest Alliance Certified (#FollowTheFrog).

Virgin fiber paper

Virgin fiber paper refers to paper sourced from newly harvested trees and other plants as opposed to material sourced from recycled products.

Post-consumer waste (PCW) paper

Post-consumer waste refers to material sourced from products that have been used at least once for their original production purposes. Examples include materials sourced from paper used in reports, newsletters, pamphlets, books, and packaging distributed, sold, used, and then recycled.

Calverts North Star Press

Founded in 1977, Calverts is a communications design and printing worker owned co-operative that specializes in branding and sustainable print and produces high quality literature and web-based media. The twelve-member co-operative is known for developing design and print solutions that are as socially and ecologically sound as they are beautiful and engaging.

Calverts' environmental policy has evolved over forty years as an outcome of their ethos and in support of their clients’ own corporate social responsibility and environmental policies. The co-operative has FSC® Chain-of-Custody certification, which verifies that FSC-certified material is differentiated from non-certified material throughout the chain. Since 2011, the co-operative has implemented an environmental management system certified by NQA, a leading assessment and verification body, to the requirements of ISO 14001.

Calverts is committed to complying with or exceeding the requirements of environmental legislation and their other compliance obligations, including the FSC® Chain-of-Custody, the Worker Co-operative Code, and the Zero Emissions Network.

For more please see Calverts Environmental Policy. For more about Calverts’ services, operations, and history, please see this Workers.Coop Case Study.

PCW recycled and virgin fiber comparison

Courtesy of Greenerprinter

24 good-sized trees are needed to make 1 ton of virgin fiber paper. About 1.1 tons of waste paper are needed to make 1 ton of 100% recycled paper.

100% post-consumer waste paper (PCW) uses about 75% less water in production than virgin fiber paper.

Producing recycled Kraft pulp requires a third less energy than virgin chemical pulp. (Kraft = process for creating strong paper)

Paper sent to the landfill decomposes and ultimately emits methane gas, which traps up to 25 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period.

Recycling brings an employment upside:

Every 1000 tons of collected paper processed and remanufactured creates 7 jobs!

For more, please see Greenerprinter.