Denmaur backs balanced approach

It is marketing but it is also a very good thing, says Danny Doogan, explaining why Denmaur can balance the carbon content of its papers through the World Land Trust.

Carbon balancing of paper has been around for a number of years, kicked off by Jonathan Tame while at the now defunct merchant Robert Horne. It has been offered by all remaining UK merchants for some time as an opportunity of interest, but secondary to forest certification schemes like FSC and PEFC. This was changing at the start of last year as interest in sustainability gathered momentum. Now, 18 months later, carbon mitigation has become mainstream thanks to a combination of pandemic, climate awareness and corporate panic.

Danny Doogan, marketing and sustainability director of Denmaur Media, is at the heart of this maelstrom of changing trends and demands. “The big thing in sustainability at the moment is carbon and there is a lot of activity around offsetting. Yes, it’s about a marketing message, but it’s also a very good thing,” he says.

Some of the first carbon sequestration schemes had a dubious reputation, for the planting of entirely unsuitable trees in the tropics for example, and there is still a tang of people paying for their right to continue with greenhouse gas emissions, but less so now. The World Land Trust is a charity that is very much involved in this work, using money from offsetting to fund forestry projects in the tropics. What helps to make this the gold standard of offsetting projects is the endorsement of Sir David Attenborough.

“One of the most immediate and effective ways of removing carbon from the atmosphere is through this locking up effect and protecting the forest so that it continues to absorb carbon,” says Doogan,

And with the growing awareness of the climate crisis, inquiries about carbon balancing from both printers and publishers are soaring. And it’s not just on the customer side. Doogan says: “Quite a few mills that we approached with the idea of supporting carbon balancing directly have eagerly done so. Consequently our stock grades are all carbon balanced at source and it’s free of charge because the mill has picked up the tab.”

The marketing aspect is that printers can use a World Land Trust logo which is instantly recognisable by consumers and brands to show that they are doing their bit. This is becoming increasingly important. Brands are cleaning up their supply chains and are actively choosing printers that can show their credentials in terms of sustainability. Those that cannot do not get the job.

This is driven by the big brands and organisations, the ones most sensitive to criticism by the great British public, and by a generation of start up businesses that are in the hands of younger owners that have grown up under the shadow of the climate crisis. “There are customers that are desperate to have something to put on their print publications.”

Nevertheless, many businesses remain committed to buying at the lowest possible cost. “This will only change when legislation forces them to do so,” says Doogan. “They will need to be forced to decarbonise. While bigger customers are demanding a lot more information about the social and environmental aspects of the paper they buy. As a consequence we are providing a lot more upstream supply chain analysis about the paper.”

That means that Denmaur has to understand more about the paper it handles. Fortunately most of the grades supplied come from European mills so the Modern Slavery Act is unlikely to apply, but there has to be an understanding of the wider range of impacts that paper production has. 

More mills are achieving ISO 5001 for energy management, others are gaining EcoLabel certification, which recognises the raw materials that combine to make the paper, the water that is used as well as the atmospheric emissions, the sources of bought in electricity and onward transport from mill to merchant. These combine to create the carbon footprint of the paper and, on average, come in at 616kg/tonne. 

“This will come down as more and more renewable energy is used,” Doogan says, adding that mils are very transparent about the inputs and impacts. “We regularly survey our mills. It’s not just looking at their websites, there are visits and face to face meetings. These days everything is very open.”

The due diligence process is important for brand and publisher customers who do not want the reputational damage if discovered to be using anything other than a clean product.

“The risk of damage to their reputation is huge,” says Doogan. “And we also protect our reputation vigorously, hence the due diligence that we undertake for ourselves and for the Paper Health Check that we are asked for by larger customers.”

For all the carbon balanced paper offset through the World Land Trust there is a certificate to show much paper was used, the carbon emissions produced and how that carbon was balanced through forestry projects. “Printers are finding that that is a good sell on point,” Doogan says.