Designers and brand owners looking to “green” their brand marketing materials can find it a daunting process to find and coordinate with the long list of the suppliers needed to make their materials more sustainable across an entire brand. Sure, the brochures are on recycled paper, but what about the packaging, the hang-tags and the shopping bags customers take home with them after the purchase?

And it isn’t only recycled content that matters: designers and brand owners also need to know how their materials were made, where the raw materials came from and if they have assurances that the materials were responsibly sourced.

It is that challenge that has led Monadnock Paper Mills to develop an entire suite of paper products that allow designers and brand owners to select greener materials for all of their branding needs from a single source of supply.

Products That Make Brands Greener
Monadnock’s Astrolite PC100 was one of the first 100 percent postconsumer recycled fine printing papers in the marketplace to be certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council. That same paper is used today by many of the nation’s leading retailers for a broad range of applications.

But Monadnock has taken green branding a few steps further, developing a full portfolio of greener paper options, including printing papers, paperboards, shopping bag stocks, scent cards and durable wraps, into its lineup of products. Last year, Monadnock introduced Envi FBB, a folding boxboard that is an FSC-certified 80 percent postconsumer recycled product, for use in folding carton applications.

Shortly after introducing Envi boxboard, the company introduced Envi shopping bag and hang tag material made with up to 100 percent postconsumer recycled content. Monadnock’s holistic portfolio approach gives designers and brand owners the ability to improve the eco profile of everything from literature, to product packaging, to point of sale, to product tags to scent cards from a single source of supply—all of which are made using 100 percent renewable electricity, are process chlorine free, manufactured carbon neutral and are available with FSC Certification.

Resources That Help Design It Greener
Having a one-stop portfolio of greener product choices is great, but true sustainability requires the knowledge of how to design, print and fabricate those products responsibly. That is the impetus behind the creation of the third edition of Monadnock’s how-to design guide A Field Guide for Eco-Friendly, Efficient and Effective Print.

With more than 100,000 copies already in use, the guide is a single resource that objectively details alternative design decisions that can impact sustainability without sacrificing style or effectiveness. Its cradle-to-cradle approach presents information from choosing paper to recycling the finished piece, including paper types, paper contents, chemical labeling, sizing to reduce paper waste, inks and coatings, finishing techniques, binding, printing processes and the use of environmental logos.

New information in the third edition of A Field Guide includes a full chapter dedicated to eco marketing, eco claims and the topic of "greenwashing," as well as new information on inks and finishing.

Click here to download a pdf version of A Field Guide for Eco-Friendly, Efficient and Effective Print.

About Monadnock
Monadnock Paper Mills has long taken a holistic approach to environmental stewardship. As a family owned business and the oldest continuously operating paper mill in the United States, Monadnock has strived to manufacture its products with as little environmental impact as possible.

All of Monadnock’s printing and packaging papers are made using 100 percent renewable electricity, nearly half of which is generated on-site using the company’s own low-impact hydroelectric power plant. The balance of electricity used is composed of purchased wind-generated power. All Monadnock printing and packaging papers are also manufactured carbon neutral.

Monadnock was one of the first paper mills to have a Certified ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System and is an FSC-certified paper mill (SW-COC-1160) ensuring responsible use of forest resources.

For more information about Monadnock and its environmental stewardship, visit www.mpm.com.

7/9/08