Why Paper

As climate change has an impact on our global ecosystem, the debate has become about how much carbon is in the atmosphere, how much carbon we as individuals produce, how much industry produces and how much is naturally produced in events such as volcanic eruptions. Blame has been shifted from one area to the next and through a challenging global economic time momentum on action has understandably stalled as individuals and governments look to their immediate concerns of putting food on the table.

Whilst the debate has changed and stuttered, two things haven’t, one, the challenge of slowing climate change and the challenge of communicating about the train wreck we are rapidly heading for. The challenging thing in this whole debate for anyone who isn’t a scientist is to be able to visualise the tonne of carbon they release into the atmosphere or understand impact that one tonne of carbon released by industry has.

The next part is unfortunately inevitable, Inertia is what happens when people can’t easily understand the implications of their actions or haven’t experienced the impact first hand of climate change through being caught in an ever increasing number of natural disasters or being the actuary in an insurance company who puts up their premiums to cover the increasing risk; seen glaciers retreating around the world, or seen the impact on vegetation or polar bears due to hotter summer temperatures being recorded in places like Siberia.

In modern cities collectively we have lost touch with nature and we have lost touch with the need to co-exist with nature. To shake that inertia, we feel we need to start small, to communicate and educate about something that is far more tangible.

Paper is a clear tactile, visual connection to our environment. Billions of people use paper every day, they use it as currency, read books, conduct their business, record their history, create art, print photographs, wrap food, blow their noses, correspond on it and write a note to put on the kitchen counter for their kids to read about the food they have made for them.

If done right, paper is something that can be consumed sustainably, something that can connect rather than distance us from our ecosystem and something that can open the door in people’s minds to more sustainable consumption of other resources.
Start your journey by understanding the connection you have to paper and trees and check out our paper calculator.