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I would like to say that the title is true. At least I thought it was
true when I started researching this article. Did you know that between
the years 2000 to 2005, the U.S.
lost a bigger percentage of its forest coverage than Brazil? Sure Brazil lost more acreage but the U.S.
lost
almost 6% of its forest acreage during that time period. Most of the
lost acreage, believe it or not was in the southeast part of the
country, and not the northwest where most people believe that the loss
would occur. For more information on this phenomenon, go to http://bit.ly/bZPEu0. However, in some countries as much as 80% of the timber is harvested
illegally, often involving the violation of human rights and
destruction of protected forests. A key factor behind the threats faced
by natural forests is the perception by many societies that they lack
economic value. The extraordinary social and environmental value of
forests in comparison to other land uses is often not considered. In
other words, forests are often converted to other land uses which lack
many of the social and environmental values of forest but promise
higher economic returns. You can read more about FSC at their website
at FSC.org
So Why Does AlphaGraphics Believe That It Is Saving The Forests? Just recently AlphaGraphics Mesa on Baseline Road in Arizona
received its FSC Chain of Custody Certification.
The Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) is
an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization
established to promote the responsible management of the world's
forests. This organization was formed for the express purpose of
controlling the demise of forests around the world. Not only do they
control the cutting of the old large trees, but they control the use of
chemicals that may harm wildlife in those forests. The goal of the
organization is sustainability. The perfect environment is that as
more and more timber is removed from the forest, it is naturally
replaced and that over a long period of time, there will be just as
much timber and coverage in that forest as when lumber operations
commenced. In addition, the natural wildlife of that forest will not
be disturbed. So how does AlphaGraphics fit into all of this. The FSC certification
assures that there are procedures in place so that wood that is removed
from an FSC controlled forest is identified, tagged and followed all
the way to the end user. So our responsibility is to assure that when
a customer requests that a project is printed on FSC certified paper, that we buy the
paper from an approved source (Xpedx Paperin our case),
that we control the paper when it is in our possession
and that we notate on our invoice that the printed product is printed
on FSC paper with our Chain of Custody number prominently displayed. The
FSC label provides a credible link between responsible production
and consumption of forest products, enabling consumers and businesses
to make purchasing decisions that benefit people and the environment as
well as providing ongoing business value. There are three types
of FSC Chain of Custody logos that our customers
can put on their products. The most common is FSC Mixed Sources. This
assures that the paper used in the printed product is made out of paper
from a managed forest, combined with recycled material. The second is
the 100% recycled logo, which is self explanatory and the third is
Pure, which means that the paper product contains 100% new paper from a
managed forest.At this point, of my three centers, only AlphaGraphics Mesa on Baseline is able to print the
FSC logo on printed products. What this means is that our customers at
AlphaGraphics Tempe on Elliot and AlphaGraphics Phoenix - Northwest Valley will have
their jobs invoiced out of my Mesa operation to assure the proper chain
of custody. |
