Business and Society 2.0

Another prejudice is that paper destroys forests. In fact the main raw material of paper is cellulose fibre which generally comes from trees, but this doesn’t automatically equate to the destruction of forests. Papermaking and other industries that depend on trees need thriving forests. It’s in their interest. "Almost half of the timber harvested from the world’s forests is used to make paper products, so the paper industry has a huge opportunity to make sure that those forests are responsibly managed and will be here for generations to come" (1) . It is estimated that there are 25% more trees in the developed world today than there were in 1901, and in Europe alone, forests are increasing annually. Deforestation is generally occurring in the tropics but for a variety of reasons. The main cause of deforestation is either for agriculture or for domestic fuel requirements, which between them, account for almost half of the trees cut down worldwide. There have been, and continue

According to a survey of professional media buyers, 70% of respondents perceived recycled paper to be better for the environment than virgin paper. It isn’t as straightforward as you might think. While recycled paper does reduce waste paper going to landfill, you must also consider paper’s full life cycle and not just the fibre source. Modern paper mills producing virgin fibre paper, whose energy source is nuclear, hydro or internally bio-fuelled, may well have a lower carbon footprint than a mill making recycled paper, powered by fossil fuels. And it’s important to remember that virgin fibre is always required to make recycled paper possible in the first place. For these reasons, it is very difficult to directly compare the environmental impact of recycled and virgin fibre paper. The paper industry has eight representatives in the UN’s list of the world’s 100 most sustainable companies, more than any other industry. Both virgin and recycled paper products can therefore have an equally

It is a prejudice the idea that paper is bad for the environment. In fact, the pulp and paper industry is one of the few that makes really sustainable products. The exception is coming from countries not yet commited to protect their forest resources, but they are decreasing. This is not the case in Europe were the forest area is increasing each year. The rate of replanted trees in good managed forests are three to four times more than the cutting pace. This means that the forests are growing and also renewed by young trees which absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere then older trees. Beeing paper a wood product it will store carbon with its lifetime. In adition, most of the forests are certified by independent and non profit organizations. Two of the most known entities that certifies that paper used is coming from sustainable forests are: - the Forest Stewardship Council ( FSC ) and - the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification ( PEFC ). According to FSC, "the amount

Chris Smith wrote for Search Engine Land " What Could Save the Yellow Pages? 10 Ideas ". From his article he has the opinion, in spite of the usage decline of printed Yelow Pages (YP) and that well known companies like Idearc and R.H. Donnelley are facing great difficulties, the Yellow Pages companies can survive. I take his ideas numbers 2 and 4, to reduce environmental impact and improve Public Relations, to comment a bit more. To reduce environmental impact by reduction on the number of books distributed is a false question and it is a myth I would like to reformulate. What is important for YP industry is to optimize the distribution of books, ideally distributing to those that really use the books or have potential to use them. If there are areas or households that have potential to use the printed directories, probably boomers and matures will have more propensity to use the print then youngers (1), YP should delivey to these potential users/buyers and on the contrary th

A report from the Kelsey Group, mentions the following case of success: Profiles of Success - Local News Goes Multiplatform in Las Vegas, by Rob Curley, President and Executive Editor, Greenspun Media and Chris Jennewein, Senior VP and Publisher, Greenspun Media. The Opportunity In Las Vegas, Greenspun Media owns a local newspaper, radio station, cable news outlet, local alternative weekly, weekly newspapers and several tourism-related publications. The objective was to determine how to drive synergy across these key properties and position Greenspun for the future. The Solution The solution was to develop an "online first" approach, with all new online staff and new Web sites. "What attracted us to Greenspun was that we could change the rules," said Greenspun Publisher Chris Jennewein. Since Greenspun's Las Vegas Sun was the No. 2 newspaper in town, "we had no core print business to support and defend." Moreover, Greenspun's TV properties can supp

To produce paper we need forests and most of the people think that using paper we are contributing to cut the trees and this is dramatically bad for the environment. However, most of the forests are already well managed in the sense that these forests are growing more then the pace of cutting the trees. Forests in Europe, growing and well managed are a good contribution to countering the threats of climate change. Most of them are certified forests in accordance with PEFC and FSC (1). Young forests binds more carbon then older ones. The driving force is coming from Sweden, which is following a direction towards a sustainable forest industry. According to "The Forest Industry - a Natural part of Sweeden" (3), growth of sweedish forests will increase by 20 million cubic meters by 2020, which represents 20% increase. The positive impact on environment from managed forests in relation with forests left untouched, has to be also compared with the effects of paper and printing prod

First of all millenials (age 14-25) and Generation X (26-42) spend less hours reading newspapers in print format (1.1 to 1.4 hours per week) but old generations, baby boomers (age 43-61) spend 2.7 hour a week and matures (age 62-75) still use 4.3 hours a week. However the millenials and generation X are not reading news from newspapers online. They only spend 0.7 and 1.0 hours per week reading newspapers online. Other generations, boomers and matures spend more time reading newspapers online then youngers, 1.3 hours per week (1). Both newspaper readership, print and online, are declining and Internet surpassed newspapers as the source of information. Content and quality of the news provided are important for our democracy and liberty of thinking. If newspaper industry fails to atract these younger generation to their contents, most of the professionals and specialized journalists and opinion makers will not have access to express themselves and share with the community. Of course they