Ecology Department and Boise, Inc. in Wallula hold meeting to discuss Boise's "footprint"

Washington State Department of Ecology

Department of Ecology News Release - January 19, 2010

10-008

Ecology Department and Boise, Inc. in Wallula hold meeting to discuss Boise's "footprint"

SPOKANE - Five pulp and paper mills in Washington state, including Boise, Inc., in Wallula, are measuring their social and environmental "footprint" to find out how they can improve their impact on the environment, the economy and their communities.

The facilities are participating in the "Industrial Footprint Project," which is sponsored by the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) and funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Ecology and Boise are inviting the public to a meeting to discuss the project. It starts at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 25, 2010, at Walla Walla University's Kellogg Hall, Alaska Lobby, 32 SE Ash Ave, College Place, WA. They will show draft footprint scores for the facility and take suggestions on the footprint measurement tool.

"One goal of the project is to measure improvements, reductions and unintended tradeoffs of business practices," said Program Manager Laurie Davies with Ecology's Waste 2 Resources Program. "In doing this, we hope to help companies achieve greater levels of sustainability."

In addition to regulated pollutants, each company looks at many unregulated effects of their business practices, such as energy use and the percent of reused or recycled materials in an end product.

The footprint can be used to help show companies where they can save energy, water, materials and money. Over the past year, the participating companies have been developing baseline footprints, which will help to measure how much the new practices are helping.

The footprint also enables decision-makers to benchmark performance, assess progress toward sustainability, and make decisions that improve the footprint of a facility.

"Boise Paper prides itself on being a responsible neighbor," said Eric Steffensen, environmental manager at Boise Inc.'s Wallula mill. "Innovative ideas, like this partnership with the Department of Ecology, can help us build on our strong record of environmental and social sustainability."

By participating in the project, the companies also can ask for advice from sustainability and technical experts and receive input from community stakeholders. A critical component of this project is evaluating what incentives are needed before facilities can commit to goals that are "beyond compliance."

Ecology's Industrial Section leads the project. Other industrial partners (pulp and paper mills) in Washington state include Grays Harbor Paper, Simpson Tacoma Kraft and Nippon Paper Industries USA . Visit the project webpage for more information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/industrial/IndFootprint.html.

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Media Contacts:
Cathy Cochrane, Communications, 509-329-3433; cell, 509-290-0685; e-mail cathy.cochrane@ecy.wa.gov
Jani Gilbert, Communications, 509-329-3495; cell, 509-990-9177; e-mail jani.gilbert@ecy.wa.gov.

For more information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/industrial/IndFootprint.html.