Reduce Global Paper Consumption
and Promote Fair Access to Paper
- Encourage high utility, low volume paper use and find ways for people currently below the paper poverty line to share the benefits paper can bring.
- Develop and promote creative and innovative systems, designs and technologies that reduce the consumption of fibre and maximise efficiency.
- Proactively work with consumers to educate them to eliminate unnecessary paper consumption.
- Explore alternatives to paper, but understand and avoid negative impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, from plastic, digital, and other alternatives.
Relevant Reports
News and Resources Related to Reducing Consumption
Can certification save the world’s last remaining forests?
In the lead up to the International Day of Forests on 21st March, a new Greenpeace study goes beyond the discussion of specific failures and weaknesses of individual certification schemes, and raises the question of whether certification is still a useful tool in its...
Featured Member: Canopy
Canopy works with the forest industry’s biggest customers and their suppliers to develop business solutions that protect the world’s Ancient and Endangered Forests. The not-for-profit is a founding member of the Environmental Paper Network. EPN reached out to Lee-Ann...
In the midst of the packaging crisis, EPN launched SolvingPackaging.org to accelerate real solutions
Two years ago now, though it seems much longer than that, I traveled from the USA to Germany for a sustainable packaging conference organized by denkhausbremen and Environmental Paper Network - International. Over 60 people joined me, mostly from across Europe and the...
188 groups say it’s time to ‘make the throw-away go away’
Before the 1950s and 1960s, the majority of the products we produced and consumed were built to last. Milk bottles made of glass were returned and sterilized for re-use, restaurants offered ceramic plates and stainless-steel cutlery and the plastic bag was yet to be...
EPN and Leading Experts Launch SolvingPackaging.org to Accelerate the Shift to Sustainable Packaging
Asheville, NC - The Environmental Paper Network-North America launched SolvingPackaging.org today to accelerate the solutions to the packaging crisis. SolvingPackaging.org brings together the expertise of leading conservation, zero waste and public health...
It’s Time for Companies and Lawmakers to Act on the Packaging Crisis
Shortly after the road turned to dirt, a sign greeted us, painted in the timeless yellow and brown style of so many erected by the U.S. Forest Service throughout the national forest system. “First Tract of National Forest,” it announced. It’s a woods I know well, full...
Featured Member: Forum Ökologie Papier (FÖP)
Forum Ökologie Papier (FÖP) is based in Germany and a proud member of the Environmental Paper Network (EPN). This non-governmental organisation (NGO) is an association of paper experts which are committed to achieve a significant reduction in paper consumption. EPN...
Final Paper Reduction Rules by U.S. Department of Labor Will Save Billions of Dollars, Preserve Right to a Paper Option
The Environmental Paper Network supports the efforts of the United States Department of Labor to modernize the delivery of retirement plan information and the final rule: Default Electronic Disclosure by Employee Pension Benefit Plans Under the Employee Retirement...
It’s Time for the U.S. Paper and Packaging Board to Tell the Whole Story
Applauding the growing call for more transparency in US commodity checkoff programs Tyson Miller, Forests Campaign Director, Stand.earth Anne Pernick, Reducing Consumption Coordinator, Environmental Paper Network Beth Porter, Climate Campaigns Director, Green America...
Two ways to get companies to waste less paper over the holidays
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash Heading into the year-end holidays our list of to-do’s may include some gift-giving, some special cooking, and a lot of trying to save the world with our individual choices to cut consumption and avoid throwaway products and packaging....
The Fascinating and Useful Science of Human Behavior and Paper Reduction
From 2017-2019, Root Solutions trained more than 20 higher education institutions in how to use behavioral insights to save paper. The behavioral sciences - including research from the fields of cognitive science, conservation psychology, behavioral economics, social...
Introducing #UnwrapTheTruth, A Call to Action to End Wasteful Use of Paper and Packaging
I don't know if you're like me...I love holding and reading a good paperback book, and then passing it on to a friend. All of us probably appreciate other high value uses of paper too, for art, education, sanitation and more. But having walked through enough...