Commentary

Cut Printing, Not Trees

by Amy Corr , Staff Writer, February 15, 2010

The furthest thought from a person's mind when printing a document or buying packaged food is the future effect it will have on the environment. Especially since trees have already been cut down to manufacture the paper purchased and placed in your printer.

Lew´Lara/TBWA created an outdoor campaign for SOS Atlantic Rainforest Foundation placed at the origin of paper manufacturing: trees.

The Brazilian nonprofit organization works to protect the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlantica), a rainforest rife with diverse species threatened with extinction.

Cards and paper scissors were affixed to living trees inside Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo, Brazil. White lines went across the trees to symbolize where to cut.

"It´s easier to cut the waste of paper. Printing: give it a second thought. It all depends on you," reads copy. Yes, paper grows on trees but it doesn't mean we should carelessly waste paper.

The campaign will remain up through March and places special attention on wasted paper used in food and product packaging.

By placing the cards directly on trees, the SOS Atlantic Rainforest Foundation is connecting the waste of paper with nature in a simplistic, effective form.

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5 comments about "Cut Printing, Not Trees ".

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Anne Anderson from Anne W. Anderson, February 15, 2010 at 3:54 p.m.
Paper comes from sustainable environmentally friendly tree farms -- not from rainforest trees. http://www.tappi.org/paperu/all_about_paper/earth_answers/earthAnswers.htm
Reply

Magan Le from Spiceworks, February 15, 2010 at 3:56 p.m.

And they advertised on paper to advocate not wasting paper? Hmmm.

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, February 15, 2010 at 5:25 p.m.

I know you are just reporting the facts, not commenting. Maybe we should also be thinking about the double plastic containers so that the food manufacturers claims it makes food fresher when we microwave it.

Tim Mccormick from McCormick Fields, February 15, 2010 at 5:28 p.m.

The elements of an environmentally friendly paper trail are
not always as obvious as many people would like to think.

Many North American timber companies take a community-based activist stand in growing and utilizing their timber resources. Some multi-national companies, that happen to own forest operations, take a less than conservation-oriented approach, and do not hesitate to squeeze their resources for short term revenue. When these practices take place in foreign environs there is plenty of room for economic and environmental mischief.

Just cutting paper consumption without knowing the source of the fiber--- may do more harm than good by eliminating the revenue of the innately responsible/responsive companies.

Paper is a plant based fiber product. Just like food, you should buy local in order to become a fully responsible consumer.

As a hardwood broker I take the wise-use of my resources very seriously. As an electronic publisher I am more concerned about the environmental concerns of electronic component manufacture and product recycling. T=Mak###

Chris Corbett from KMA Direct Communications, February 15, 2010 at 5:57 p.m.

Bizarre. They killed trees to advertize against tree killing.

Count me as skeptical of un-investigated environmentalist claims. Conservation is wonderful so long as it is informed and responsible, and so much of the hysteria today is not.