IP Wants You to Go Paper. Grow Trees.™

Kudos to International  Paper!

Their sponsorship of a new awareness campaign aptly titled ‘Go Paper. Grow Trees.‘ delivers the facts – and nothing but the facts! – about how using paper actually does benefit the health and growth of trees and forests worldwide.

And since we depend on forests for many reasons (social, ecological and economical), it is important we all do our part to spread this message to everyone within earshot (or eyeshot).

The main purpose of this campaign is to educate the public as to the challenges that private landowners face in cultivating forests. And since a vast majority of the 750 million acres of U.S. forests are privately owned¹, it is up to these private (usually family) owners what will happen to our forests.

“It’s important to understand that tree farmers and other private landowners plant about 4 million trees every day… about three to four times more than they harvest. By planting trees and managing forests responsibly, landowners are given the financial incentive they need…”
– Teri Shanahan, VP of Commercial Printing, International Paper “

When we DON’T use paper, the income that tree farmers would normally receive is drastically reduced, which then leads to their inability to keep these forests going. To ensure their business’s survival, many tree farmers have begun to convert their forestlands to more profitable sources of income, such as agricultural crops or selling the land for development.

Either way, it results in a loss of forestlands, reducing our ability (yes, it affects all of us) to receive many of the health benefits we currently take for granted – things many of us don’t even think twice about like clean water, fresh air, etc.

Needless to say, it is important that we, as consumers, spread the word (and repeat the mantra) to Go Paper, Grow Trees. Because printing is good and paper products are a “sustainable, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable resource².”

Read the full press release about Go Paper Grow Trees.™

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¹Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2010

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