Recycled Paper

Hans Wegner, the National Geographic Society’s green guru and chief sustainability officer, answers questions about the Society’s recycling program.

Q: Does the National Geographic Society use recycled paper in its magazines, books, and other printed material?

A: While we do use recycled fiber in some of our products, most of our printed material is made from non-recycled fibers.

Q: Why is that, given National Geographic’s reputation for environmental stewardship?

A: Having done exhaustive research on this subject, and field-tested the alternatives, we’ve concluded that using recycled fiber in our printed products would do more harm than good.

Q: How so?

When paper is recycled, it is basically “slurried” in water by dissolving the starch and other binders that hold the cellulose fibers together. The fibers then float to the top and are skimmed off so they can be used to make new paper products. The problem is that these fibers are still dirty, contaminated by ink, adhesives, pigments, toners, and other materials. So, before they can be used to make high-quality paper of the type we put in our books and magazines, these fibers must be cleaned and re-bleached—an expensive process that requires the use of toxic substances that may be both non-biodegradable and extremely harmful to the environment.

While it’s technically possible to clean and re-bleach any fiber for use in high-quality paper, National Geographic believes that this is not wise. We believe that we should all recycle as much as we can, clean the recovered fiber minimally, and use it to make those new products that do not require clean fiber, such as containers, packaging, tissue and newsprint. That is in fact how 90 percent of recovered fibers are used today, because it makes both environmental and economic sense. We believe this to be the wisest use of recycled fibers.

Q: But wouldn’t National Geographic, by using only recycled paper, create a market for recycled fibers and save trees?

A: In fact, that market already exists, and is growing. Today all recovered waste paper in the U.S. is recycled (much of it going to Asian markets), so what we really need is to recover more of our paper, cardboard, and other paper scraps for recycling so that it’s available to supply the growing market demand and thereby reduce the number of live trees being cut. As is, there’s not enough recycled fiber to meet the world’s demand, so renewable forests are being cut to make various paper products, including cartons, tissue, packaging, and newsprint—less-refined products for which recycled fiber would work just fine.

Q: What is National Geographic doing to help?

A: Firstly, the Society educates the public on these issues through our magazines, books, television programs, films, and online publications, all of which promote sustainability and the responsible use and preservation of the Earth’s natural resources and environment. But we also “walk the talk.” We have one of the country’s most vigorous in-house recycling programs, to go along with our extraordinary efforts to make our building and processes more energy-efficient (details below). We’ve practically eliminated the Society's use of non-recyclable materials such as plastic products, and we’ve greatly reduced our consumption of non-essential paper products (paper towels, napkins, tissues, plates, cups, etc.) for which reusable alternatives exist. If everyone abstained from purchasing these products, for which there are ready alternatives, or bought only those made from unbleached recycled fiber, we could save more trees than if all magazines used only recycled paper.

Below is a summary of National Geographic’s accomplishments in the sustainability arena since 2007. A more comprehensive overview can be found in our press section.

2007:

- Developed the carbon footprint for our four-building headquarters
- Certified two of our buildings as Energy Star compliant
- Installed video conferencing so as to reduce our staff travel by 20 percent
- Joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Climate Leader program

2008:

- Implemented a computer hibernation program
- Bought wind power renewable energy credits for all our electrical needs
- Eliminated all non-sustainably harvested seafood (tuna, salmon, shrimp) from our cafeteria
- Began composting all of our waste food and non recyclable paper, including all paper towels
- De-bulbed our buildings and replaced all incandescent with CFLs

2009:

- Achieved carbon neutrality for our campus and all buildings in which we rent space in North America
- Joined WWF’s Climate Savers
- Certified our entire campus as Energy Star, and achieved LEED-EB Gold status for our campus
- Completed doing a very comprehensive life cycle assessment on National Geographic magazine
- Computed the carbon footprint for all our products and services

Changes since 1997:

- Reduced our electricity use by 2.75 million kilowatt hours a year, or 16 percent
- Reduced our water use by more than 20 percent.
- Reduced our natural gas usage by nearly 10 percent
- Expanded our recycling of all materials to 66 percent of all products used

2010 goals:

- Shut down our boilers at night

- Reduce our electricity use by a further 5 percent

- Explore installing solar collectors on our buildings

- Develop a commuter carbon reduction strategy. In the meantime, our goal at National Geographic is to minimize waste, to maximize what we recycle, and to make our products as recyclable as possible

These are just some of our carbon reduction initiatives. In addition, we are actively working with our suppliers to find ways to reduce their emissions on our behalf, for example, in paper manufacturing, printing, transportation, postage, data storage, digital media, etc. We are committed to lead by example and to thereby inspire others to care about the planet.