Printer friendly version Send this to a friend Sign up for email list Become a member

The Aveda Environmental Award The Aveda Environmental Award for environmentally responsible publishing 2006 Winners: Natural Health, explore 2006 Silver and Bronze Recipients: Watershed Sentinel, Shape, Mother Earth News, Mother Jones, Your Big Backyard Criteria for selection » Read press release »

Criteria for the Aveda Awards

We would like to provide you with a few important details that guided the difficult decision making process for the Aveda Environmental Award. The Aveda award recognized those publications that did the most to reduce their environmental footprints this past year. The main criteria each magazine was held up against include:

• Reducing the use of virgin forest fiber—A magazine that uses 100% recycled paper has a tremendous advantage over others because:
• The forests and habitats are protected because no new tree fiber is used
• The environment is protected because recycled paper production uses less energy, creates less pollution, emits fewer greenhouse gases (38-48%), and diverts solid waste from landfills and incinerators
• Bleaching processes are typically cleaner, and usually require significantly less, if any, chlorine compounds that are otherwise harmful to humans and the environment 
• If using virgin fiber, ensuring it is certified sustainable virgin fiber—All virgin-fiber used should be credibly certified through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), ensuring the virgin fiber was not taken from a threatened or endangered forest
• Using a lighter basis weight and reducing trim size—Magazines that use a lighter basis weight, and reduce their trim size by even just ¼ to ½ of an inch can result in 4-8% paper savings; these small, easily made changes have incredible environmental and economic benefits
• Using cleaner production methods/reducing chemical use—The paper production and printing process use hundreds of chemicals, many of which are harmful to humans. Three important considerations the judges kept in mind:
• Has the paper manufacturer completely eliminated the use of chlorine and chlorine related compounds used to whiten the paper? A known human carcinogen, dioxin, is a by-product when chlorine binds with other organic compounds. Totally Chlorine-Free (TCF) and Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) processes are the best alternatives for paper “bleaching”
• Does the printer capture volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) during the process?
• What coating process does the printer use if a magazine has a glossy finish? Ultra-violet (UV) is the most dangerous for the employees at the printing facilities, and other than having no gloss the best process is Aqueous

• Having a procurement policy and communicating that policy to the supply chain—By adopting and implementing an environmentally responsible paper procurement policy, a magazine can more effectively communicate to their staff, advertisers, readers, and the production supply chain their intentions and actions surrounding their use of recycled paper and sustainable production processes. This policy functions to help transform one magazine’s efforts into a call for action throughout the entire production system. A procurement policy illustrates the increased demand for recycled paper, providing an incentive for manufacturers and other paper suppliers to develop and stock more environmentally responsible paper options.

A procurement policy tutorial can be found here.

The PAPER Project is more than happy to help you write one of these policies, or we can draft one for you based on your specifications. The Markets Initiative also has advice on how publishers can develop an Ancient Forest Friendly Stewardship Policy.