Headlines News Business Sustainability
Carbon Balanced Paper launches in Canada

The Carbon Balanced Paper (CBP) initiative is being launched in North America. It will be administered by Sustainable Paper Group in partnership with international conservation charity World Land Trust (WLT).

The launch in North America will enable brands and organizations in the United States and Canada to carbon balance paper products, thus helping them to meet commitments to carbon reduction and carbon neutrality.

The CBP program balances (offsets) the carbon impact of paper by investing in WLT projects. Through land purchase of ecologically important standing forests under real and imminent threat of clearance, carbon is locked that would otherwise be released. These protected forests are then able to continue absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. The CBP program follows the principles of REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), now recognized as an effective way to stop the rise in atmospheric CO₂ and global warming effects.

Since 2008, the Carbon Balanced Paper initiative has been responsible for balancing 190,000 tonnes of CO₂ and preserving 19,000 acres of high conservation value land.

The North American CBP initiative is made available through a network of partners and distributors, including U.S.-based paper merchants Midland and WCP Solutions, and Canada-based merchant West World Paper.

Commenting on the North American launch of the CBP initiative, Phil Riebel, president of Sustainable Paper Group, says, “I am very excited to be working with our partner merchants on this new sustainability initiative. We believe we have a great solution for the marketplace given the urgency of addressing climate change and the increasing number of organizations making carbon reduction commitments. Our partnership with the World Land Trust is a key part of the credibility of this program. It has a global reach that protects some of the world’s most biodiverse and endangered habitats.”