Reincarnation, Primavera, Sakura. They could be good names for cocktails, nice names for incense … but they are, in fact, perfectly descriptive names for three grades of ultra-eco coated paper. New Leaf Paper developed these sheets with designers in mind, to make the path toward sustainable design smoother, crisper, easier.

Coated papers are enjoying a new day in the sun – but can you as a designer have your recycled stock and coat it too? Can a coated sheet contain enough postconsumer waste to make an environmental impact?

New Leaf Paper provides you with solutions to these burning questions: coated recycled papers on which to print your most demanding and detailed jobs. And no one can hold a beeswax candle or rechargeable flashlight to New Leaf Paper’s coated grades.

Shared values, distinctive personalities
New Leaf Paper presents these three coated grades (ready to ship in standard sheet sizes) in their new Inventory Items swatchbook: New Leaf Reincarnation Matte, New Leaf Primavera Gloss and New Leaf Sakura Silk.

Each grade is the environmental leader in its market classification. Whether you’re printing a brochure series, a cutting-edge catalog, an annual report, a splashy invitation, a CSR update, or even a humble hangtag, New Leaf Paper offers coated papers that will delight you (even if they weren’t recycled). These sheets are luminous, pristine and champions on press.

Each grade meets the same three criteria New Leaf Paper has always applied to their products: leading environmental specifications, high-quality print performance and competitive pricing. The company continues to raise their own bar with ever-higher percentages of PCW (postconsumer waste content) – all three coated grades have received the Ancient Forest Friendly designation, and New Leaf Primavera is FSC certified. They’re also acid-free and archival; the recycled nitty-gritty without the grit.

New Leaf Reincarnation Matte Coated
Reincarnation, as its name suggests, gives new life to old paper. It also boasts the highest environmental specs and spirit in the ecosphere as the only coated free-sheet paper made in North America that is 100 percent recycled, 50 percent postconsumer waste (PCW) and processed chlorine-free (PCF). Reincarnation is still, a full decade after its launch in 1998, the environmental leader with the highest PCW recycled content of any coated sheet made in North America.

Reincarnation looks more like a high-end uncoated paper, because it has low reflectivity. Its surface offers exceptional ink holdout, giving images and photography that eye-catching pop. And it has more bulk than most coated sheets of the same basis weight so the environmental (and economic) advantage here is that your client can save money by using a lower basis weight while meeting U.S. Postal Service requirements for direct mail materials.

New Leaf Reincarnation Cast Coated C1S
Reincarnation Cast Coated C1S is an elegant sheet that combines a uniform, mirror-smooth print surface with 50 percent recycled and 30 percent PCW. This C1S cast-coated sheet offers an ultra-flat print surface for true color and crisp detail. Images printed on this sheet have a fine-art quality, echoing what the photographer saw and the camera captured. Designers enthusiastically recommend this sheet for both high-end lithography and digital printing.

New Leaf Primavera Gloss
Primavera is Italian for spring, the season of the first greening. It is the perfect name for New Leaf Paper’s gloss coated paper offering. Primavera is a fashion-forward double-coated gloss sheet with great eco‑bones. It’s 80 percent recycled, 60 percent PCW, 20 percent virgin fiber from responsibly managed forests and 80 percent processed chlorine-free. The sheet is both FSC certified and designated Ancient Forest Friendly.

Thanks to the double coating, the sheet’s surface is almost glass-like. Details are crystal clear; colors are vibrant and pleasingly luminous. Primavera’s environmental specs can actually make you feel good about printing on gloss-coated paper. And the results will make everyone look great: the product, the model, the printer and you. Bellissimo.

New Leaf Sakura Silk Coated
Sakura is Japanese for cherry blossom, a time-honored symbol of spring, renewal and abundance – and an apt name for this innovative paper. Sakura is manufactured at one of the only coated paper mills in the world that relies entirely on waste paper for its manufacturing, making it one of the lowest environmental impact mills anywhere.

This aspect appeals to many New Leaf Paper loyalists, including Gigantic Idea Studio in Oakland, California. The studio specializes in design for public agencies. Their tagline is “Social Marketing for a Sustainable Future.” Partners Shana McCracken and Lisa Duba encourage their clients to use paper with the highest PCW content possible for all their print jobs.

Duba comments, “The more we can support the use of papers with high PCW content, the more we support recycling efforts overall – saving electricity, energy and space in landfills.” The production of high-PCW paper also uses less water and emits fewer greenhouse gases than the production of virgin paper.

“The coated grades from New Leaf Paper quickly became our staple for any 4-color piece. There is no compromise involved,” adds Duba. Her current favorite is New Leaf Sakura. “The little bit of sheen connotes high end.”

Sakura is made with 100 percent de-inked recycled fiber and processed chlorine-free. Its lower brightness makes it great for printing the human face because it warms skin tones while capturing and retaining detail. Sakura prints pristinely and its surface is great for landscapes as well – Aspen Skiing Company even printed snow on it. The result was proverbially pure.

The potential of paper
Phil Hamlett is a designer turned educator. He is the Graduate Director, School of Graphic Design, at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and the Co-Chair, AIGA Center for Sustainable Design (www.sustainability.aiga.org). Hamlett has also co- chaired all three AIGA Compostmodern conferences (www.compostmodern.org).

Hamlett observes, “New Leaf Paper comes at papermaking, and paper-using, from a unique perspective. Jeff Mendelsohn, CEO and founder of New Leaf Paper, actually chose paper as the arena in which a small enterprise could have the biggest impact on sustainability, changing how people do business, treat the planet and plan for the future. When I look for speakers for Compostmodern, Jeff can always tell me who is innovating in every field.”

Take a fresh look
Contact New Leaf Paper today at 888-989-5323 or e-mail info@newleafpaper.com to get their new Inventory Items swatchbook, which showcases these innovative coated papers side-by-side with the company’s leading environmental uncoated writing, text and cover and opaque papers.

And don’t miss the outside back cover, presenting the New Leaf Paper Eco Audit – their environmental benefits statement “report card” from their first decade distributing PCW content paper. Measured as savings in trees, water, energy, solid waste and greenhouse gases, the stats are impressive and inspiring.

New Leaf Paper's longest-term goal is to create a sustainable paper industry based on sustainable mill design. Read more at www.newleafpaper.com where you can also download the New Leaf Paper Eco Audit Guide, which provides information on how to get your own customized Eco Audit for your print project.

New Leaf Paper Meditation
What is best for the client can also be what is best for the planet. Think and smile.

5/7/08