March 27, 2009—Mohawk Fine Papers has upgraded its interactive Environmental Calculator to allow customers to see the savings realized by offsetting direct thermal manufacturing emissions with Verified Emission Reduction credits (VERs). Combining the VER benefits with wind power savings, Mohawk claims to be the first U.S. paper mill to offer carbon neutral calculations through its Environmental Calculator.
The calculator, released in 2004, already showed how many trees would be preserved and how many pounds of greenhouse gases would be prevented by using papers with environmental attributes, to help companies calculate a project’s environmental savings and to promote their own awareness of, and efforts toward, sustainable practice.
For example, if a company prints an annual report and uses 10,000 pounds of paper, by using Beckett Cambric 100% PC White instead of a virgin sheet, that company would create an environmental savings equal to: 96 trees preserved for the future; 277 lbs. water-borne waste not created; 40,780 gallons wastewater flow saved; 4,512 lbs. solid waste not generated; 8,884 lbs. of greenhouse gases prevented; and 68,000,000 BTUs energy not consumed, says Mohawk.
Because this paper selection is manufactured with wind-generated energy and carbon offsets, there is an additional savings of: 11,000 lbs. greenhouse gas emissions not generated, which is equivalent to 12 barrels of fuel oil unused, or not driving 10,886 miles in an average car, or planting 748 trees.
The tool can be downloaded directly to a desktop for instant access. To calculate savings, users can visit the Mohawk Web site and click on “Environmental Calculator,” input some basic paper information, and click “Calculate Savings.”
