Leading publisher renews commitment to offset entire annual paper consumption
Timed perfectly to coincide with the International Day Of Forests, greeting card publisher UK Greetings has announced the renewal of its commitment to offset its entire annual paper consumption through World Land Trust’s Carbon Balanced Paper Programme.
As one of the country’s leading publishers and manufacturers of greeting cards UKG has placed sustainability very high on the company’s agenda so each year offsets the emissions of over 16,500 tonnes of paper, ensuring the restoration of more than 1,000 acres – equivalent to 650 football pitches – of threatened forest habitat in Vietnam, Mexico, Ecuador and Guatemala.
Chris Shaw, UKG’s head of sustainability, told PG Buzz: “This partnership ensures that the carbon emissions used to produce the paper for every single one of our greeting cards is balanced through the protection of the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats acre by acre.”
As Chris stressed: “Biodiversity is a precious gift, and allowing species to become extinct through the removal of their habitats is not an act of natural selection, but a deplorable act by humans. This is why UK Greetings proudly continues to support World Land Trust.”
Putting it into perspective, forests produce 30% of the Earth’s oxygen and provide habitat for 80% of amphibian species, 75% of bird species and 68% of mammal species yet, since 1990, it is estimated that 420million hectares of forest have been lost – an area 17 times greater than the United Kingdom – largely through agricultural expansion.
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day Of Forests in 2012 to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests. The 2022 theme was Forests And Sustainable Production And Consumption.
Sharing her views Emma Douglas, World Land Trust director of development, thanked UKG for its “renewed commitment” to WLT.
The environmental organisation works with a network of local partners around the world, currently in 20 countries, to save, protect and restore critically threatened habitat for wildlife and, in doing so, locks up carbon and address climate change.
She added: “WLT has been saving land to save species for more than 30 years, and today our work to protect existing tropical forest habitat is more urgent than ever to save what remains of these vital ecosystems for wildlife. We couldn’t do any of it without the help of our amazing supporters.”
All WLT’s Carbon Balanced projects have measurable, long-term local community benefits, a positive climate impact and significant biodiversity conservation value. Carbon Balanced Paper offers a simple way for organisations to offset the impacts of their paper and printed communications by protecting some of the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats.
Since its launch, over 5,000 brands and businesses have taken positive action by choosing Carbon Balanced Paper, which is delivered by Carbon Co on behalf of WLT, helping to balance over 250,000 tonnes of CO2e.
Top: Conservation partners – UK Greetings is working with World Land Trust to save forests
