gift wrap: polluting all year round

We don't tend to give much thought to gift wrap - and it's environmental implications - most of the year. Around the holidays, the subject comes up, as crumpled-paper and used bows are tossed to the curb (responsible for a 25 percent spike in curbside trash in the USA alone, according to the EPA).

Trees are felled for the paper, the inks contain harmful chemicals, and everyone might feel just a little guilty about it all. But come summer, all that is out the window! From a hostess gift at a summer soiree to an adorable onesie given at a baby shower, our gift giving is spread out, and so too is the trash.

But it still adds up. The cards, the paper, the bags, the ribbon. Luckily, there are tons of amazing alternatives out there. So after you carefully peel off the tape and save another bit of wrapping paper for reuse (also a wise idea!), consider...

-a scarf, organic cotton baby blanket, beach towel or bath towel (gaiam.com)

-reclaimed NYC subway maps (forestsaver.com)

-cloth gift wrap, or furoshiki - great for wrapping books, wine bottles, and fragile items (wrapnatural.com)

-biodegradable flower seed paper (realgoods.com)

-resused felt squares (squidoo.com)

-birch bark or fresh banana or bamboo leaves (wholeliving.com)

-colourful cloth wrapsacks (greenraising.com)

school! it's coming! get your supplies!

Retailers have been telling us to hurry up and get our back-to-school supplies since school let out, but now we really are getting close.

Happily, 85 per cent of Canadian parents will consider buying environmentally friendly products while back-to-school shopping for their school-age children*.

Here's our list of cool things we'd fill our hemp backpacks with:

• recycled binder
  
• solar calculator
  
• recycled exercise books (manufactured in Canada!)
  
• unbleached cotton pencil case
  
• recycled copy paper
  
• gen pens made from cell phones and headlights
  

*According to a July 2008 STAPLES Business Depot survey. STAPLES offers more than 2,000 eco-friendly items at their locations across Canada, and online.

speaking of greenwashing

paper mills can be green?

A new report shows Canada's printing, newspaper, book and magazine sectors made major environmental headway in 2007 despite difficult economic conditions for Canada's paper mills overall.

More than 520 Canadian book publishers, magazines, newspapers and printers now have Ancient Forest Friendly or eco-paper purchasing policies in place, up from 172 at the beginning of 2007. While many paper producers faced record losses and mill closures in 2007, green paper mills fared well.

Polling unveiled in the report shows these environmental initiatives - including printing publications on recycled paper - are greatly supported by Canadian consumers. 95% of Canadians say an environmental policy and progress toward meeting its targets are important benchmarks of a publishing company's environmental integrity.

However, the report also found 78% of Canadians believe companies are marketing themselves to be greener than they really are in practice, noting recent examples like US magazines that have run 'green' issues on 100% virgin paper, including Vanity Fair.

Building a green brand? Don't underestimate the ramifications of greenwashing.

Download the trend report "Finding Integrity in the Eco-Paper Market"