Business News
Yellow Pages Association Introduces Industry Environmental Guidelines
Wednesday 09. April 2008 - Industry-Wide Standards Reflect Yellow Pages Industry's Strong Commitment to Environmentally-Friendly Practices
To further demonstrate the Yellow Pages industry’s commitment to environmental responsibility, the Yellow Pages Association (YPA), in concert with the Association of Directory Publishers, today announced formal Joint Environmental Guidelines for the directory publishing industry. Already adopted by many major publishers, the Guidelines focus on source reduction of telephone directories, enhanced recycling programs and environmentally sensitive manufacturing practices.
“With more than 13.4 billion print Yellow Pages references per year, we know directories are critical to the success of local businesses and are an important resource for the communities they serve,” said Neg Norton, president, YPA. “It’s also imperative for us, together with national environmental organizations and the overall business community, to promote best practice programs that reduce environmental impact and foster conservation.”
During 2007, the directory publishing industry met with national environmental organizations, as well as regional U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offices, to develop the Guidelines. Many publishers currently have eco-friendly practices, and the Guidelines call for all directory publishers and suppliers to adopt or enhance such practices, including:
— Offering flexible opt-out directory distribution policies;
— Implementing strategies to minimize paper utilization and trim waste;
— Using sawmill by-products and recycled paper to manufacture directory
paper, along with environmentally sensitive inks; and
— Supporting and expanding recycling efforts and proactively
communicating the status of their activities to the community.
Yellow Pages publishers and their suppliers have made significant investments to ensure that print directories are manufactured in a manner that is sensitive to the environment. As a result, directories today are fully recyclable and contain significant amounts of post-consumer recycled content. Most significantly, the industry does not use virgin pulp to produce directories.