Great news on the office copy paper front from our friends at the Center for a New American Dream…

US House Switches to 100% PCW Paper with Help of
Responsible Purchasing Network

"The US House of Representatives’
supply store now stocks exclusively 100% PCW copy paper in all member and
committee offices — and the Center for a New American Dream's Responsible Purchasing Network
played a key role in that procurement shift.

Chris O’Brien, Director of the RPN, met with Perry
Plumart, Deputy Director of the Green the Capitol Office, who invited O’Brien to
conduct a workshop with the House’s store buyers. Learning about the long-term
cost-savings, health benefits, and environmental impacts of switching to 100%
Post Consumer Waste paper encouraged the supply store to commit to
environmentally conscious purchasing as much as possible within its supply
chain. Paper is a major supply component for all House of Representative
offices — which together use nearly 70,000,000 sheets of paper per year. With
RPN’s effective messaging and solution practices, the House is now leading by
example, setting new standards for all branches of government."

This is great news because it dramatically ups the ante set by the
Clinton Administration in the 90's when they set the government
purchasing levels at 30%. We here at Dogwood Alliance applaud this
move by the house and hope that the Senate, Executive Branch and
Judicial Branch will follow suit. Typically, government sets the
standard on paper that the rest of the business world and local
governments follow, let's hope the same holds true here!