The National Association of Paper Merchants (NAPM) fully recognises that the product of paper has had a tremendously positive impact on our society, having improved the quality of our lives in many ways, however paper has been the victim of its own success resulting in legitimate concerns over the environmental impact from its manufacture.

The NAPM is concerned about the environment and fully recognises that good environmental management must be an integral and fundamental part of its members corporate business strategy. The NAPM is aware that organisations of all kinds are increasingly determined to achieve and demonstrate sound environmental performance by controlling the impact on the environment of their activities, products and services. They do so in the context of growing environmental awareness, increasingly stringent legislation and other factors promoting environmental protection and "best practice".

The NAPM attaches maximum importance to all matters concerning the environment and its declared policy is that its members will try to meet, and where possible, exceed, all relevant regulatory requirements and that they minimise any adverse environmental effects caused as a result of their activities and operation

The NAPM supports the United Kingdom's strategy for sustainable development in which a programme is set out of continuous improvement to reduce any harmful impacts of its members activities and operations on the environment and to prevent pollution.

In the course of those activities and operations but within resource constraints, members of The NAPM, through strategic planning, will attempt to improve their environmental performance by :

Supply Chain

1. Encouraging manufacturers and suppliers, through contracts and other means, to improve or develop environmentally preferable products at competitive prices and to ensure they recognise and reduce, where possible, the environmental impact of the manufacture of those products and their transportation.

Resources

2. Conserving energy, water and other natural resources, particularly those which are scarce or non renewable.

3. Reducing waste through re-use and recycling and by using refurbished and recycled products and materials where such alternatives are economical and suitable;

Pollution

5. Monitoring relevant discharges and emissions to air, land and water to assess what action is necessary to reduce pollution or the risk of pollution;

6. Phasing out, where practical, ozone depleting substances and minimising the release of greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds, vehicle emissions and other substances damaging to health and the environment;

Regulations

7. Meeting, and where possible exceeding, all relevant, current and foreseen statutory regulations (including the Environmental Information Regulations), official codes of practice and other requirements that are adopted; specifying suppliers and contractors do the same when working on our premises; developing and maintaining, emergency procedures for effectively dealing with significant hazards where they exist and limiting the risk to health and the environment;

Communication

8. Communicating openly with staff and our other stakeholders; educating, training and motivating our colleagues, suppliers and customers to try and encourage them to support our environmental programmes and jointly develop new ideas and initiatives;

9. Responding appropriately to reasonable external requests for environmental information;

Estates

10. Ensuring, where practicable, that buildings occupied are designed, constructed and operated to optimise their environmental performance;

Management

11. Demonstrating that, where relevant, environmental issues are considered when making decisions, planning and developing policy, programmes and projects;

12. Monitoring progress against the environmental aim and other indicators and producing a regular report for internal and external consumption.