It’s not quite as good as going completely paperless, but Microsoft has taken a great environmental initiative and announced its headquarters are switching to 100% post-consumer recycled paper. The significant improvement over Microsoft’s existing 30% recycled paper will mean saving the equivalent of 8,000 trees every year.
Microsoft partnering with Grays Harbor Paper
To make the switch to 100% post consumer recycled paper, Microsoft partnered with Grays Bruce Harbor Paper. Grays Bruce Harbor creates a line of 100% post-consumer recycled paper called Harbor 100, which is also Green-e certified. The process used to create the Harbor 100 paper uses recycled fibers from post-consumer waste paper, involves no chlorine, and is powered by energy created using wood waste gathered in a sustainable way from the forest floor.
Environmental benefits of using recycled paper
The obvious answer is that recycled paper saves trees, but switching to 100% post-consumer recycled paper like Microsoft has done has other far-reaching environmental benefits as well. For instance, Microsoft’s switch to recycled paper will save 5 Olympic sized swimming pools of waste water every year, and 8 garbage trucks full of solid waste from ending up in a landfill. Microsoft’s switch to 100% post consumer recycled paper will also cut 750 million pounds of CO2.
If you needed another reason for your business to go green, Microsoft’s great example towards environmental sustainability should be reason enough. Switch to 100% recycled paper today and take a big step towards saving trees, water, and waste.
