NewPage: Creating A Safe Arbor

NewPage, North America's largest manufacturer of coated paper, found going green to be good - not just for the environment, but for their bottom line.

Launched to trial in late 2006, and developed with 30 percent post-consumer recycled content, the Arbor® product line was soon a lustrous must-have of corporations throughout North America high-end publishers, specialty retailers, and one of the largest U.S. suppliers of office products.

The wood fiber used to create the Arbor product line is sourced from local forests certified to the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI), and Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) forest management systems. Arbor was the first coated-paper product on the market to receive triple certification confirming the product's sustainable chain of custody.

Tri-certification significantly bolstered Arbor's value proposition and attracted the attention of manufacturers of well-known high-end catalogue and magazine companies. For only a couple of dollars more per hundredweight, the value add is worth its weight in gold.

"When our sales force began talking about the Arbor line to our customers, price wasn't much of an issue," says Dave Deger, vice president of marketing for NewPage. "We simply asked our customers, 'What's your brand's image worth to you?'"

The National Wildlife magazine debuted the ecological paper in its December/January issue with a foreward by the magazine's editorial director, Mark Wexler. Wexler had nothing but praise for the product, citing such environmental benefits as reduced energy waste, conservation of old-growth forests, protection of wildlife and their habitat, and decreased pollution.

Between its fourth-quarter launch in 2006, and fourth-quarter in 2007, NewPage saw sales for the Arbor line of paper products grow 500 percent.

The most popular version within the line is ArborWeb®, a coated #3 fine paper for use in making high-end retail magazine covers and high exposure catalogues. Next are the Arbor coated mechanical #4 and #5 products for applications such as catalogues and circulars. The remaining portion is the ArborWeb® Plus line, the high brightness, top-of-the-line product, used by many companies in applications such as annual reports, sustainability reports, and high-end corporate collateral.

"Creation of the Arbor product offering has opened up many doors for us and increased business," says Deger.

While NewPage takes great care to ensure sustainability practices in the production of all of its products, the initiative to create a higher post-consumer content product coupled with the tri-certified assurance of fiber source tapped into the growing desire forcompanies to ensure that their paper choice supports their own sustainability initiatives.

"Ensuring sustainability of both the product and the supplier is further testament to their diligence in all aspects of sustainability, Deger adds. Sustainable paper began as a way to serve a niche market. Over time and with market analysis, it was determined that a line of products was needed to meet a growing demand for sustainable manufacturing and the environment,".

Rick Merdan, marketing manager for NewPage, predicts another 65 percent growth in sales for Arbor by the end of 2008.

Merdan acknowledges that various environmental nongovernment organizations, (ENGO) support for forest-management chain-of-custody certified fiber content, as well as recycled content, has been a stimulus to the sales of more FSC and SFI-certified papers across the entire industry. But he notes that buyers are coming to NewPage with a desire to simply underscore an already intrinsic commitment to the environment and a sustainable future. Companies genuinely want to do the right thing, and they want to let the public know they're doing it.

"Companies care about the integrity of their brand and about communicating that ethos to their stakeholders," says Merdan.

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