Newspaper & Mailroom
IFRA EXPO 2009 TO BE CARBON-NEUTRAL
Thursday 09. July 2009 - In an innovative partnership that will make this years IFRA Expo a completely carbon-neutral event, AbitibiBowater is providing carbon credits that it has accumulated through its own energy-saving initiatives to offset all of the exhibitions greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
“This is a significant agreement, both for our own company and for WAN-IFRA”, said Denis Leclerc, AbitibiBowaters Vice President, Sustainability and Environment. The carbon credits are held at the Chicago Climate Exchange, whose members, AbitibiBowater among them, are leaders in GHG management.
“We have reduced our own GHG emissions per metric ton of paper produced by 31 percent from 2000 levels on an intensity basis. In absolute terms emissions are down by 52 percent, or 2.8 million metric tons of CO2. That equates to removing 560,000 cars from the roads and reflects a company-wide focus on improved energy efficiency and on switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Having already achieved considerable reductions in GHG emissions, we are raising the bar by striving to become a carbon-neutral enterprise ourselves.”
Commenting for the newly merged World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), CEO Reiner Mittelbach said: “Environmental aspects are becoming increasingly important for the news publishing and media industries. Sustainability is what is called for today. Therefore we as WAN-IFRA especially welcome the fact that, due to our partnership with AbitibiBowater, we are able to counterbalance the CO2 emissions caused by the visitors and exhibitors at IFRA Expo 2009. We are working towards our ultimate goal of making all WAN-IFRA events CO2-neutral.”