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ITHACA, N.Y. -- On March 5 when A Living Wage by Lawrence Glickman rolled off the bindery, it made history at Cornell University Press. Never mind the content. What makes the book special is the paper.
The book is the first in the world to be published on paper carrying the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) logo, the newest draw for tree-hugging consumers. The FSC is an international, nonprofit accreditation organization based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Its logo in a book signifies that the owner of the timber used to make the book's pages has met strict criteria for sustainable timber management.
CU Press Production and Design Manager Deborah Bruner said she sought the accredited paper for a number of reasons. "We wanted to be a leader; it fits into our environmental policies and there is a marginal increase in the cost of the paper to us," she said.
While similar eco-friendly labels have flooded the market to meet consumer demand, "there's no way of knowing which ones are really true," said FSC promotions officer Stacy Brown. Explaining the three types of labels, she said the most common are first-party claims. "If I made a product and I made the claim that, say, 'We plant a tree for each one that we cut down,' that's a first-party claim," she explained. Second-party claims are made by a trade organization to which the forester may belong and are slightly more reliable. The FSC label, a tree with a check mark, is a third-party claim, she said, verified and awarded by an independent group after the landowner volunteers his property for assessment and meets the requirements of responsible forestry.
The guidelines for accreditation affect everything from conservation of biological diversity and watersheds to treatment of workers and indigenous people. Foresters might be told by an FSC certification group, for instance, whether clear cuts are allowed, and what size, or that a wildlife biologist should be hired.
Brown said rather than condemn certain practices, the FSC seeks to recognize excellence. "A lot of the early forests that had been certified were really known for, excuse the use
of words, 'cutting-edge' forestry. And we see some dramatic changes. One forest in British Columbia that has been highly criticized by environmental groups in the past has shown some interest in becoming certified. It is a big step because it shows that they recognize the importance of what they're doing."
So far less than 1 percent of the timberland owners in the United States have volunteered their land for inspection and gained certification, she said. That's why it took more than two years for Bruner and CU Press to publish a book on FSC certified paper. (That first book, A Living Wage, is an analysis of the importance of wages in the making of consumer society, written by a University of South Carolina labor historian.)
As the production manager for CU Press, which publishes about 150 books a year and ranks in size among the top 10 university presses in the country, Bruner is constantly seeking environmentally safe alternatives to better her own industry.
While a few FSC certified products -- guitars, flooring, paneling -- had entered the market, none of the paper mills had changed its practices to meet certification, Bruner said. So when she heard her supplier, Lyons Falls Pulp and Paper, was considering buying certified pulp, she urged its managers to make sure they would follow through. "I thought this would make more of a difference than the little postcards to the vice president," Bruner said.
Lyons Falls, buying pulp from the certified Haliburton Forest in southern Ontario, is the first mill to produce the FSC certified paper. "Lyons Falls paper is quite the hot commodity right now," said Brown. "There had been certified paper products out of Sweden, like wallpaper, but not writing and printing paper like this."
The director of research and product development at Lyons Falls, Craig Updike, said the cost of certification to the company is minimal, since few changes had to be made to its operation. "It's the same species and the same wood we used before," he said. "We have to identify it and isolate it from other inventory [to ensure that labeled products are actually made from the certified pulp]."
The new paper has attracted worldwide attention, so Updike said the mill will have to find other forests to supply certified stock to meet the demand.
Environmentalists like Bruner hope that the demand will encourage other suppliers to follow Lyons Falls' example.
"This is really big news because it can set a precedent in the industry," said Bruner. "We want the mills to clean up their act. If you insist on it, the mills will respond.
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