Dispelling the myth behind printers as “tree killers”

After loading my stomach with enough Turkey and stuffing at Thanksgiving to keep me fueled for the foreseeable future, I was desperate to do anything to keep my mind off of how full I felt. Someone in the room casually mentioned Pictionary, and suddenly I perked up!

For those of you unaware of this American classic game, players are split up into teams and have to guess specific words based on their teammate’s drawings. After several rambunctious and hurried rounds full of rough doodles and expansive imaginations, one player began to notice how much paper we were “wasting.” She suggested drawing on both sides to “save the environment.”

As a print evangelist and paper lover, I halted her in her tracks and commenced a series of “did you know” statements:

• Did you know that the forest products industry is the largest producer of renewable biomass energy in the United States, generating 77% of the nation’s industrial biomass energy. Additionally, the renewable energy generated by the forest products industry exceeds all of the nation’s solar, wind and geothermal energy generation combined.
• Did you know that the forest products industry is a leader in the production of renewable energy, with more than 65% of the on-site energy needed to produce paper products derived from carbon-neutral biomass.

And my personal favorite:

• Did you know that in the United States, we grow more trees than we harvest. The amount of U.S. forestland has remained essentially the same for the last 100 years at about 750 million acres, even though the U.S. population tripled during the same period.

Sure, after I spit out these paper facts I learned from our friends over at Two Sides, an innocent game of Pictionary quickly grew tense. But after I spent some more time explaining the truth about sustainable paper, my environment-loving Pictionary partner came to understand a bit more about the ecological footprint of the paper industry.

Want to dispel the myths of paper as being an enemy of the environment. Check out these paper sustainability fact sheets!

Rather use humor to prevent Pictionary tension? Use the “paper is good for you” approach.