Shades of Green ratings

At Leaf, we’ve looked at all the things that go into improving the environmental “performance” of paper products.

This includes both the base papers used and the manufacture of the finished product, to give each of our products a “Shades of Green” rating.

You will find these on each of our product pages.

The following standards apply to ALL of our base papers:

• They are made by mills with internationally recognised environmental certifications or standards for manufacture
• Elemental chlorine bleaching is NOT used (that’s the nasty stuff!)
• Virgin fibre products carry an internationally recognised forestry certification label (unless otherwise stated). As mentioned in our article, Forest Friendly Paper, we prefer Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products.
• Where possible, we prefer to use recyclable paper-based products for packaging rather than plastics. Ideally these papers meet the same environmental standards as the products they contain.

In addition to this, we’ve allocated 1 point to each box ticked of the following criteria.

Base Paper

• Contains a minimum of 50% recycled fibre
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified product
• Australian Made
• Manufactured with renewable energy
• Carbon Neutral label (Manufactured or Certified)

Printing & Manufacturing Processes

• Printed by an FSC Certified printer (therefore, product carries the FSC label)
• Soy or vegetable inks used
• Digital printing used for short runs

Recyclability

• Light ink coverage
• Free of plastic lamination and heavy metals

= Maximum of 10 points

Product Ratings

• Light Green = 1/10 – 4/10
• Mid Green = 5/10 – 6/10
• Dark Green = 7/10  - 9/10

Please note: it is impossible to get 10/10 because:

1. There are currently no Australian made products that meet all five environmental manufacturing criteria. However, we have recently found out that two of our favourite Australian made papers have been certified Carbon Neutral, so we can now achieve 4 out of 5.
2. Digital printing inks are not soy or vegetable based – either soy or vegetable inks printed conventionally using an offset press OR digital printing will be used.