Sunday Tasmanian
Sunday 5/4/2009 Page: 17
TASMANIA'S passion for pulp and paper making has resulted in Australia's first carbon neutral paper. Envi, a range of office and commercial papers, was recently launched by Australian Paper after a two-year project to track the paper making carbon footprint. Australian Paper general manager Jon Ryder said the idea had come from mill technical staff at the Wesley Vale and Burnie mills who wanted to demonstrate paper making was not bad.
"Tasmanians are very passionate about the production of pulp and paper and they wanted to improve our profile and reduce our industry's impact on global warming," Dr Ryder said. Since the $4 million project began, Australian Paper has reduced carbon emissions by more than 17,000 tonnes a year through initiatives such as replacing coal and oil boilers with gas technology, downsizing the vehicle fleet and rationalising computer services.
Dr Ryder said the first, and largest, step in the project had been calculating the carbon footprint of each step in the paper making process - from felling trees to distribution and disposal in landfill. Dr Ryder said the production of a ream of paper used to result in one kilogram of carbon, but Envi paper was completely carbon-neutral.
"We do have to buy some carbon offsets through greenhouse-friendly certified abatement schemes to achieve that, but we have also physically reduced our footprint though production changes." Dr Ryder said Envi, which at the moment is produced only at Australian Paper's two Tasmanian mills had been certified as greenhouse friendly by the Australian Government. Envi paper costs 5-7% more than standard paper.
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