The Wonderful World of Forest Certification
• The U.S. produces more than 90 million tons of paper annually. My brain always converts tons into pallets of paper as a benchmark. That’s equivalent to more than 50 square miles of pallets.
Throw this all together, and you can see that approximately 85 percent of the paper used for printing in America still comes from virgin fiber. I find it interesting that it’s taken so long for us to get a handle on this. We talk about recycled paper as if we were saving the world by using it, but with figures like this, it makes me wonder.
Vic Nathan Barkin has more than 35 years of experience in the printing, paper and wood products industries and currently owns a consulting practice specializing in business development, workflow, and technology implementation, focusing on “Green Procurement and Production” practices. Vic is a QMS Lead Auditor certified to ISO 9001:2008 standards, is a consultant for the Rainforest Alliance as an FSC Chain of Custody and Controlled Wood senior auditor, is an FSC, SFI and PEFC lead auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers and SGS North America, and has engaged in more than 700 site assessments and audits.
