Paper vs. Planet
Former vice president Al Gore presented the facts in the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Actor and environmentalist, Leonardo DiCaprio created his own eco-site to inform others of environmental issues since 2000.
Curbing carbon dioxide emissions to reduce the threat of global warming clearly is a hot topic. And now that President Obama has been elected, his administration appears to be committed to the cause.
For instance, the administration’s $787 billion stimulus package includes $39 billion for the Department of Energy and $20 billion in tax incentives for clean energy. Obama’s budget calls for investing billions in research aimed to reduce climate change and guaranteeing loans for companies that develop clean energy technologies.
With Obama in office, officials close to the issue said it’s no longer an “if,” but a “when” will legislators adopt tough laws that focus on polluters, including those in the paper industry, cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
“With the new Congress and the Obama administration, climate change is a major topic,” said Amanda Sauer, senior associate in the markets and enterprise program at the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit environmental think tank World Resources Institute. “It’s no longer 10 or 20 years away.”
Sauer went on to say industries are most likely to see the government adopt something similar to Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade program on greenhouse gas emissions. A cap-and-trade system is a policy tool that aims to protect the environment and everyone’s health by setting a maximum limit on emissions. The right to emit carbon would be auctioned off to generate revenue for more government spending programs.
With all of this talk, Sauer urged companies to begin preparations. “Become more efficient, improve energy, maximize logistics, reduce dependencies on fossil fuels and think about connecting to biomass boilers,” she explained.
Biomass boilers are a no-brainer for paper mills considering they burn wood. Sauer continued, saying boilers that burn wood are much less harmful because they don’t bring any more carbon into the atmosphere.
Of course, purchasing a new boiler does require a significant capital investment. “Think about the decisions you make today because climate change policy is coming. It’s coming before the 40-year-life of a boiler,” Sauer mentioned.
Craig Liska, vice president, sustainability of the Memphis, Tennessee-based Verso Paper, emphasized that any financial incentives the government can distribute are very important. “Part of the problem is manufacturer[s] can’t switch their boilers like they are turning off a burner on their stoves, and then turn on another one,” he explained. “It takes millions to change boilers.”
He said this is why those in the printing industry must stress to policy makers the good they already do. The paper industry is in the top five in terms of industries that use the largest amounts of energy. However, Liska explained that about more than 50 percent of it already comes from carbon-neutral wood by-products.
Liska stated those manufacturers not thinking about how to get leaner and greener should definitely start now. “I think manufacturers are aware of what may lie ahead, but I’m not sure they are prepared for it,” he said. “A lot are sitting on the sidelines waiting for more details to be worked out, but that may be a mistake.”
With the momentum for policy change building, manufacturers and distributors have no choice but to start thinking about their future.
“If this is not the defining issue in the future,” Sauer stated, “it’s one of them, and you need to be prepared.” PPR
